Sidewalk saloons in Jharkhand give way to beauty parlours

Feb 23, 2007, 12:30 GMT

Ranchi, Feb 23 (IANS) Caught in a time warp, the famous 'Italian saloons' on the roadside of Jharkhand and Bihar towns are fighting a losing battle against the mushrooming beauty parlours.

No one quite knows why there is a whiff of Italy in the nomenclature but in these eastern states a roadside barber with his mobile shop for hairdressing and shaving is what the people would call an Italian saloon. But the tradition of roadside haircut is now going into oblivion.

Mahesh Nai, a barber, talks about the business in the good old days. 'On Sundays people would wait in queues for their turn to get a haircut in our saloons. Now we hardly get any customers as people are weary of getting their hair cut in public view,' said Mahesh.

'There was a time when barbers could be seen at work from one corner of a pavement to the other. Now you would hardly spot them,' he said.

Till some years back, one could see a row of more than two dozen barbers on a 200 metres stretch between Albert Ekka Chawk and Shahid Chawk in Ranchi. On a Sunday more than 100 people would get a haircut at these makeshift saloons.

'The cultural metamorphosis has changed everything. Now people look down on those who sit in for a roadside haircut. They prefer a beauty parlour instead,' said Saroj Kumar, one of the few remaining sidewalk barbers.

Regular clients of Italian saloons have an explanation. 'The saloon 'nais' still cut hair and shave beards in a traditional way. The new age beauty-conscious comfort-seeking people want a massage, a facial or a hair dye along with other beauty treatments. You can't get these at Italian saloons,' said Nitish Mishra, who still enjoys a barber but prefers to call him home rather than visit the sidewalk.

Youngsters just don't like the idea of an Italian saloon. 'It is difficult to sit in the open for a haircut and a shave with all that pollution. Also, the sidewalk barbers still use the old kind of razors. We always ensure that our barber has changed the blade. A roadside barber cannot do it,' said Bunty Ojha, a college student.

As roadside barbers charge much less than a parlour - Rs 7 to Rs 10 for a haircut and Rs 3 for a shave as against Rs 30 and Rs 15 respectively by the parlours - their clients mainly come from the poorer sections of society.

'We cater to the needs of the poorest of people. Now even the poor seem to prefer parlours,' said Kundan Kumar, also a sidewalk saloon barber.

According to an estimate there were more than 1,000 Italian saloons in Ranchi

some years back. Their number has gone down to less than 100 now. Meanwhile, the number of beauty parlours continues to grow rapidly.

© 2007 Indo-Asian News Service