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Looking at Hairdressing as an art!!!!


                                         Image result for hairdressing equipment

It was around two years back, I went out on one particular day to a new salon in the U.A.E , as usual for a haircut but this time it had to be special as it was for the Farewell which was going to be the next day in the morning, so I had to have my hair set the previous day in order to look good for the following day.

So as usual, I went to the salon which is a bit further away from my house, I entered the salon, waited for my turn and then when the hair-dresser was free, I went to him.

The hair-dresser was a Filipino, indeed a different nationality, and as I heard that Filipinos are very good in cutting hair, so too did I expect that he would cut my hair well and give it the style that I desired to have. Of course not forgetting, I did have along with me a few photographs resembling the style I wanted which I showed to him with a smile and so he started cutting my hair.

Well the way in which he cut my hair was really quite interesting. First he clipped the right and left part of my head filled with hair leaving both the sides with little hair and the top part with a lot of hair, looking more or else like a mountain on my head. Then he took the scissors and with his artistic touch started cutting the sides while at the same time spraying my hair with water so that it would be easy to cut. As I was not used to water on my head normally when my hair was being cut, I was naturally a bit scared but I left it all to my hairdresser as I knew that he was doing the job that he was paid for.

So he continued cutting my hair and after a while, he removed the clips, gave some slight cuts on the top part so that there would be more length on the top.

Now comes the interesting part. He took a blade and started removing the fine hair that is at the bottom of the hair, so as to make it look clean. I must take note of the way he did it. So with his blade, he began scraping the fine boundary of hair around the hair that was being cut proceeding to the opening of the fine parting that he gave to my hair, up to the ears, down the neck where again he scraped the fine hair that was to be found. The top part of my hair which I said had length, there too he did the same and my goodness!!! I was starting to look different!!!

Then when he finished doing that he then took the hair-dryer and with his comb took some hair up touched the hair-dryer to it, proceeded to the next lot took that portion and did the same, so as to give the style to my hair.

Finally when he was done, he put hair wax so as to retain my hairstyle and now I looked at myself in the mirror. I was astonished. I never in my life had a haircut which was as great as the one my hairdresser gave me. I looked like a prince in the haircut he gave and I must say that has actually changed the usual perception I had about hair-cutting, which I’ve always known as an odd job or rather a menial job which is paid very less.

Indeed, just as an artist paints a beautiful picture for all of us to admire, in the same way a hairdresser is an artist in himself as for him the scissors are his brushes, the cuts that he gives, the style that he gives are the fine strokes an artist gives for his painting and the final look that is seen in the mirror once the hairdresser has finished cutting the hair is like the canvas of an artist on which he has his beautiful painting displayed which for the hairdresser is the haircut he has given to his customer.

Therefore, haircutting or hairdressing is not just a menial job, it is an art which many of us fail to take note of which needs to be appreciated, more than that needs to be recognized. If we all have this perception about hairdressers, then I’m sure the usual perception we have about hairdressers will change and soon just like painters and sculptors, they too will be recognized as artists in themselves!!!!

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