Hair Stylist

Today's babies get their haircut at salons. They have kiddy chairs and the hair stylist comes over to style your young toddler's hair and of course I believe there is a price to pay for their designer hair.

That is why the government is worried that while there is a serious recession going on around the world but only in tiny little red dot Singapore million dollar houses are being snapped up like they are for free. Ditto for cars that start from above $100k. Amazing or frightening? It took me more than 12 years to own my first new car and first HDB flat, an old resale 3-room flat. I don't even have enough $$$ for curtains after a simple renovation. In that time with two young children when my wife stopped work, we didn't get a single cent help from the government and paid childcare in full. No tax rebates, no nothing.

In my childhood days when a toddlers' shaky milk tooth got extracted when grandma tied a string around it and tied the other end to a door knob and suddenly without warning she slammed the door shut and out flew your tooth! Those were the days when a person who cuts your hair was called a barber. They were trained through hardship to use a comb and scissors to trim your hair and when they need to do a sloping effect, they use a manual (not electric) cutter to mow your hair like they would do a lawn.

When I was in primary school, all the boys must be "Botak" a crew cut such that we look like we were from Shaolin six months later. I saw that some of my class and school mates had patches on their heads and I thought that the barbers accidentally pulled them off when the gears were not sharp enough. In my neighbourhood, there were two types of barbers - the Indian barbers and the Chinese barbers.

The Indian barbers were older and very serious and hard working  They were immaculate with their work. The Chinese were younger "Ah Bengs" and because I saw them wearing trousers that  rose up almost to their chest I got worried what kind of hair style they would give me. They would hanged around outside the shop strumming guitar singing some Mandarin songs of the time like these songs "Man Li": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDMCWl9b7IM , "Ke Ai De Ren Sheng": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsvVltEP-74 and "Yin Wei Wo Ai Ni": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4rx8kXkymA. Happy right? These may seemed old fashioned but you can feel their peace. The Chinese barbers have lots of permed hair and false side burns all of which I detested so I found myself with the Indian uncles. They were the best.

I made curious observations that barbers those days already have value-added services for the adult customers by trimming your nasal hair and digging your ears and they do so but placing a huge light bulb next to your ears. There were even happy ending when the barber massage your shoulders a bit followed by a few karate chops and a few slaps on the shoulders. They also used a tremendous amount of powder on you to ease the prickly discomfort of hair all over. 

In the old days, you either wear your hair long or cut it short to save money because many folks could not afford television. They have to go to a community centre to do so and share the same channel. Today, a family can easily have 3 television sets at home. When you were poorer you learned better values and teamwork. This was how we shared things from days gone by. Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9NF2edxy-M

Like everything else, out with the old and in with the new. There was a time where Sri Dewa was one of the most famous and popular barber. There were few Malay barbers and Sri Dewa became so successful they had more than 20 shops in the chain. I used to know one in Toa Payoh called Bugs Bunny, probably the most talented barbers in the estate because of their styling. There was even a time, my friend and I were cutting each other's hair. Fortunately, we did other professions as we could not save our life with it. 

The first time I ever went to a hair stylist was because I knew a NS reservist friend who was probably a pioneer among the early batches of London trained hair stylist. I was already working for some years. He was already rather successful - driving a continental car and living in Balmoral but his salon was out of place and when I had young children I have no time to spare just to travel for a haircut. I would then have it fixed wherever I was and when there is a little time but I could never find one stylist that can do a good job consistently. After a awhile, everyone was overseas trained. London-trained or they took the London train? I don't know.

Only women can have all kinds of hairstyle. For the guys, it was largely monotonous unlike today where even the guys can have so many different patterns. Eventually, I have even found making appointment for a haircut too troublesome. I gave up and went for the quick and easy $10 haircut. They were okay but not great as my hair and nails somehow always grow ever so quickly. My hair would feel disorderly after 2-3 weeks and needed another cut. This why sometimes I like it to be trimmed quite short. If my head were a golf green, the green speed at the sides and back would be a 10.

I thought it is now a hopeless situation for me and after a long while I went back to a hair stylist. I hopped in to a hair studio at Compass Point - Pro Trim. Waited for awhile before the stylist came over. He chatted with me casually, listened and went about his work. He was skillful. I could see that he went about somewhat differently with your hair.

When he was done, I was pleased. I was even more pleased that after about two months my hair was still in good shape. They weren't untidy or running all over the place and so naturally  I went back to him. He did the same thing but this time he was explaining how he has to give shape to the hair first before he went on the trimming. He is also very good with the ladies' styling. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Yori. Yori is young, talented and passionate.

I know many a man who could not be bothered much about their hair. Some are actually in despair. Come and give yourself and your hair a new life.