Fiscal Cut

These days if you were to be at a hair saloon, you may see some young parents bringing their young child for a haircut and they have a special section where the child can be placed in a toy car or riding a toy horse. They even have hair salon for dogs too. In many of our childhood days, having a haircut is dreaded as we are often hauled to the neighbourhood "Ah Beng" type or the Indian barber. These folks were trained to use a comb and a pair of scissors for many years honing their skills to trim your hair or shave them. They have long blades to shave your stubble too and sometimes to clean and sharpen them they use a leather piece or something that was strapped on to the wall. 


They could even dig your ears and clean them of dirt or ear wax by putting a stand with a light bulb next to your ear. Sometimes, when their manual shaver was not as sharp or they lift it up too early when they haven't really released it completely, it actually tug at and pull a chunk of your hair and cause an intense pain that you woke up from your slumber.

Boys being boys, we have this propensity to try things out and experiment by purchasing some haircut tools and then try to help one another with hair cuts. I have done some terrible things to my friends' hair during those days. It didn't help that I have a couple of uncles who could actually trim your hair pretty nicely so I thought maybe I could learn and make the cut but as things turned out, it dawned on me that I could not make it if I were to do it for a living.

I don't know about you but I can't sit still with nothing to do and whenever at the barber, I'll automatically catch 40 winks. 

Sometimes when you drop your head when dozing off , the barber would catch and hold your head up. As the years went by, a new trend was here - that of those London trained stylists. Suddenly all the old skills of using a comb was of no use. It seems they taught that the correct way is to use their fingers and hands to hold your hair and cut them. More and more of these high profile saloons started sprouting all over the places. I wondered if they were all really so called London-trained or they have just been to London and have taken the London train. 

So I have a reservist friend who is a pioneer, a London-trained hairstylist and he invited me for hairstyling. It was good as they serve you hot tea or coffee, give you a good hair wash and head massage and you look pretty good after the hair cut. Over time there were so many hair saloons everywhere that I wonder how they keep up if indeed there are just so many heads around and most are aging and going towards the hairless zone. Or perhaps those hairstylists really make a lot of money.

Soon, a popular Japanese chain came on for a quick, no frills trendy 10-minute cut at only $10. More of such shops were set up. I can't help but notice that for guys, we either don't have much hair to cut or no matter how our hair is going to be cut, whoever the stylist and wherever he was trained has not much bearing on how our look would eventually turn out. I am also sure that many of us no matter how we choose the stylist or barber and wherever we go to, we still look ugly which means no stylist has learned how to make your hair frame you up to make you look better.

While pondering the imponderables, I stumbled upon this place which you will either love or get freaked out. It looks like a normal hair saloon in the heartlands. Students, uncles and aunties and anyone else goes there for a trim or whatever needed to be done and the haircut, yes I repeat the haircut would set you back by $3.80. No mistake with the decimal point yes $3.80. You will probably not look any uglier than the $10 cut. Can't believe it in Singapore right? This is certainly a fiscal cut!

The Barber Pole

How many of you notice a typical display in the front of a barber shop or hair saloon where a pole holds a funnel looking thingy with blue and red strips appearing to be spinning in a spiral? Do you know why is that and what is that for? What is the story and its significance?

This is called the "Barber Pole". It originated from the old days where blood-letting was one of the functions of the barber. Those two coloured spiral ribbons are actually representative of two long bandages used for twisting around the arm before bleeding and the other for binding afterwards. The original version has the pole with a bandage wound around and hung as a display at the door as a sign when not in use. Later, it evolved into a painted one in imitation of it was being used instead of hanging out the original pole with bandages. It became a permanent display outside barber shops and this was the the very beginning of the the sign.