A tall, elderly gentleman wearing a crisp white shirt and dhoti is seated on a wooden stool outside his workplace, waiting for customers. It is past 10 a.m. on a Sunday and 68-year-old P. Devaraj gets his first — a lanky, middle-aged man. “I do not go anywhere else for a haircut,” the customer says before settling down on the swivel ‘Singapore chair’ inside 40-year-old Sarathy Hairdressers at Triplicane.
“Not just Triplicane, some of my regular customers come all the way from Chengalpattu,” Mr. Devaraj says about the bond he preserves with customers. Some still come back many years after moving out of the city. Establishments like Sarathy owned by Devaraj have a charm of their own with teak-wood frames that hold Belgian mirrors and tastefully-crafted wooden shelves.
Mr. Devaraj and other hairstylists of his generation used a long knife, sharpening it on a piece of rugged stone drizzled with a few drops of coconut oil. Changing to blades was not easy, as they had to work carefully with them.
Until 1990s, most shops had a uniform pattern — decked with wooden furniture and very little electrical equipment. Young customers would be fascinated with the unique ‘clut, clut’ sound of the hand-held machine haircutter.
The shops have either morphed into new-age air-conditioned salons and spas, offering complete beauty care for men.
“The trend started in the early 1990s and picked up a few years later. People became conscious of hygiene and did not want used blades. Now, customers insist on using shaving foam and want even scissors and combs to be sterilised,” says R. Narayanan, who shut down his shop at East Tambaram and has switched to real estate business.
Mr. Devaraj says his son did not want to take over the shop. “We run a ‘thavil’ (a drum) troupe,” Mr. Devaraj says, pointing to a bench inside where many customers once waited impatiently for their turn for a haircut, now stacked with instruments.
