Au Naturale

Today I had a hair cut at home. This is the first for me. The hair stylist is an old friend who now works on his own. He is not attached to a salon. He is brilliant. I never called him home as for me all the stuff of the parlour, had to be done there. Here people call the 'parlour wali' home for waxing, hair colour, facial etc. I have tried it a few times when my child was an infant. I hated it. The women are nice ladies who come through word of mouth reference. They charge less than the beauty salon rates. But your house is a mess after they leave. There is wax on the floor inspite of them picking up all the wax strips. The bed sheet stinks of a funny parlour smell. In fact, even your own gown appears dirty.  For me, pedicure is about putting my feet up and relaxing. Its not about dipping your feet in your bucket in hot water with a little shampoo from your own bathroom. You provide clean napkins and the towels for the feet and yet it is not the same clean feel which one gets in a good salon. Not to forget the door bell ringing just when you have started waxing or the watchman coming to inform you of the water being shut for two hours in the afternoon, when you have dipped your feet in the bucket and have colour in your hair which needs to be washed off in 45 minutes.

Today's experience was good, though I swept inches of hair from the floor, for the first time in my life. I sat on my study table chair and he cut my hair without a mirror in front of us. His conversation did not veer towards personal at all. We talked about salons and how shoddy their work was. He said even the foreign brands of salons are operating with a short term gain in their mind. All stylists and colourists are barely trained for six to twelve months and put on the floor. He saw my hair and said the colourist had added more peroxide to the colour. He does not colour, so he was not selling his technique, but that sharp his observation was. Every person working in a salon has an incentive if he / she upsells the services. There is no focus on the need of the customer. All these hep looking young boys and girls at salons know they can bully the monied 'Aunties' to spend more in the salons. They are not taught their work technique  but how to market the goods/ services. The big brands like Loreals etc. are the biggest culprits in this game. The deal for a salon to be an exclusive Brand salon is to buy lakhs worth of discounted products in lieu of the training they provide. Some salon people sell these products in the grey market as they cannot sell so much from the salon directly. Some salons do not colour the crown of your head, they insist on colouring the full hair. All this is told to you after you are seated on the chair with a cape around your neck. I was talking to a friend and was shocked to hear the high rates of hair colour, even in small towns. The advertising is such that all are impressed by the big brand.

The same foreign brands which said to Indians that oiling is bad for your hair, are now singing a different tune. This lie, to a country of women with thick lustrous long hair! Now the same brands are selling oils, 'leave in' oils, essential oils etc. for our hair. The research of these multinational hair care companies, changes gears every five years. Customers fall for all these marketing gimmicks. Women just need to remember that it is not a great idea to play with nature. Use products but you do not have to buy all new stuff that comes in the market. Try to be selective, minimalistic and try to go natural. Au naturale!!!