a hair raising tale

for some people it is the electric chair, for some it is the dentist's; for me it is the barber's chair... my nemesis for life forever gives me a tough time in society's acceptability list... one that causes my near and dear to join in the fray of shunning me...

i like having short hair... i had always wanted to join the army/navy or the airforce... i was fascinated by their haircut... but since IT needed me, i decided to make that supreme sacrifice, and settled for the local barber to gimme a feel of the army every month or so that my modest compensation package would allow...

but then to my parents it is a sin to cut my hair before it is at least 6 inches long or the time since the last cut was 6 months - whichever is later and that is when it will appear to them as if i might need a haircut... and even if it is longer than that it is a sin anyways... i have tried to argue with them that it is not actually as short as it looks to them and also vaguely hinted at getting their spectacles changed, but no use. a sin is a sin is a sin...

and it is not just my parents... somehow people have this fascination to comment on freshly cut hair... the society is against losing hair... probably it is the inherent fear of baldness that makes people happy that there is voluntary bald cut that they can make fun of...

i am also rarely satisfied with my haircut... very rarely do i get out feeling ok after that last snip after which everything went wrong... right from the point i decide to go for a haircut, my unruly hair seems to behave as if it is a naughty kid frightened to submission by the doctor's needle or the bogey man... i really begin to have second thoughts as to whether i really need a haircut now... but then i tell myself, that once i decide not to go, my hair will grow doubly unruly... so i go on... and the barber goes snip snip snip and i am happy that things are going on fine... and actually my hairstyle is looking much better, though he has not yet done upto my specifications... i even consider asking him to stop right there and jumping out of the chair... then there comes that deadly SNIP... after that there is no turning back... it is a classic case of the 2 cats and the monkey story... then depending on whehter the place has an airconditioner, the damage control happens making u look like you have just visited tirupati or like a football star with that small tuft above the forehead in an otherwise bald pate or just accepting to preserve whatever is left over and maybe next time will come faster...

there was a long standing joke about boys and girls take a fresh haircut... while it is just a polite "haircut?" type confirmation that gets a nod as a response from a guy to the girls gossiping about their neighbor's infidelity for an hour starting with a similar innocent question... but that is not actually true... though the timelines might be, guys can be as nasty as girls in telling you off that the haircut is not good... but then the guys dont realise that they are throwing stones from a glass house and to girls you cant say anything...

i dont claim that my haircut is a perfect one making me look handsome and ready to be cast instead of brad pitt in troy or that ash would fall for me instead of AB... just that it is hair today which will start growing from tomorrow... if it doesn't, there is always the tirupati cut to drastically reduce your sins...