Penny K waxes nostalgic about hair as it was done back then.
By Penny K
Passing by Syed Alwi Road (near the Little India district) one day, I spotted a traditional Indian barber shop located in a nook and demanded my friend to pull over so I could take a picture. She kindly obliged.
The barber, an Indian man getting on in age was in the midst of giving a young man’s follicles a trim so I approached with caution for fear of getting in the way of his business.
“Hi uncle, may I take a picture of your shop?”
Immediate thumbs-up sign, big smile, “Sure.”
Traditional barber shops in Singapore exist in reincarnations of Indian, Chinese and Malay varieties. The most common ones are Malay barber shops, but mainly because they’re the most modernised of the three – they are readily found in heartland malls where primary school boys and fathers can be seen queueing up to get their hair cut for a price of $8 to $10.
Chinese hair salons are unisex but a good majority of patrons of such outfits are Chinese women in their 50s onwards. These hair salons are popular amongst this crowd as they provide cheap haircuts and $20 perms. Unfortunately, they only offer the super curly type of perm so no such thing as exorbitant digital perms, Japanese perms, and such. These hair salons are run by old women who have been running such businesses for years. Often seen wearing their hair in tight curls, they are walking advertisements for the power of their perm.
Traditional Indian barbers, on the other hand, are few and far between. Most of them can be found in Little India or the areas nearby. Services provided by these barbers include hair cuts and facial hair grooming. Look out also for how Indian barbers sharpen the blades they shave sideburns with – blades are sharpened on thick leather belts! Such barber shops are, however, a lot more common in Malaysia.
It’s always a pleasant experience witnessing bits of tradition existing amid urban landscape but it’s even better when you least expect it.
Know a thing or two about traditional hairdressers? Drop us a line!
Recent Comments