I had waited too long. Between struggling with work on a so-so Internet connection last week and just being generally unimpressed with the barber shops I passed, I didn't get trimmed in Jodhpur as I should have. By yesterday, even I didn't recognize me. I had become something between Dr. Richard Kimball and a Yeti.
The decent looking barber/Ayurvedic massage shop down the way looked as though it expected tourist clientele and I figured that might not be a bad thing. I looked in the glass, expecting a large shop given the big signs advertising numerous kinds of massage as well as haircuts. I figured it was probably like one of those salons on Khao San Road in Bangkok where all the young backpackettes get their hair braided into cornrows and nails painted - the "I'm 21 and traveling in Thailand" makeover.
There was just one chair and a barber reading a newspaper. Behind him was a little room for massages. I went in and the barber was very happy to have a customer. At 11:30 am, I was the first of the day. I asked why, "Many of the Hindu people, they do not like to get their hair cut on Thursdays and Saturdays. They believe it is bad. So I don't have much work Thursdays."
When I explained what I wanted - electric clippers everywhere, zero guard on most of it, number one guard on my beard - the barber became very excited. He pulled out a very nice, professional set of Wahl clippers and said, "I have this machine I can use!"
He doesn't know what the machine is called, but he has the one he used on me, and an older, semi-falling-apart one he used only on his Indian customers. "Foreigners like the new machine. Indians don't care, so I use this."
The luxury machine used on me was a gift from a Danish customer who sent it from Denmark. He had apparently been going to this barber for awhile during an extended stay in Udaipur and wanted to introduce some new technology - perhaps to replace the junky clippers which still haven't been retired.
My barbering tour of the world has been one of the most interesting cultural experiences and insights. Each time, I have visited a local barber - people who mostly work on locals. It seems almost cliche, but the nuances of daily life in a community still run through a barber shop - especially in countries like Turkey, Greece and India where people take their time and visit.
This barber, Pradeep did a fine job - as have each of the three barbers I've visited in India. Perhaps because men still go to barbers for their shaves, a barber's skill or at least practice with a razor is higher is better. Using clippers as a primary tool is less common. Some barbers don't even have them and those that do usually use them just for finishing touches. They are still very much about the scissors and the straight razor.
Luckily, they know how to shave and even though they never shave anyone's entire head or use clippers to shave a face, it's not exactly a mind-bender and they adapt easily. By far, the Indian barbers have given more attention to detail than any of the others.
In Mumbai, the shop was big, with many chairs and seemingly even more barbers - although some of the guys were probably just friends of barbers who were hanging out, watching TV. When I went mid-day, they weren't busy and I was a curiosity they weren't sure what to do with. They all did and didn't want to work on me. They settled on a guy who I think was waiting his turn for a customer. It took three of them, though to consult on exactly what should be done since my request of a shave with electric clippers was unusual. My barber was given advice before he began. He did fine. It cost 80 rupees - $1.75, my cheapest shave to that time.
In Alleppey, Kerala, the barber shop was smaller and less polished. That's where Emily had her horrific head massage experience. My experience was much better. Despite the fact that he was using electric clippers, the barber acted as through he was shaving me with a straight razor when he worked on my face and neck, and like he was using an upright vacuum when working on my head. He sort of ran it flat, up and down, up and down like he was cleaning house. I suppose his outlook is valid because it worked.
When we left, I looked crisp and clean for only 60 rupees - my cheapest barber visit to date. Meanwhile, Emily needed to be rushed back to our hotel to shampoo out the massage oil saturating her hair and stinging her eyes.
As Pradeep proudly used his high-end clippers reserved for foreign customers, he explained to me his big frustration with his business - new, unfair competition.
For hundreds of years, Pradeep's family have all been barbers. It's their caste - there is only one job available to them. They are born to be barbers and wives of barbers. Actually, barbers' wives are midwives. Apparently, you call the barber's wife when a woman goes into labor. Imagine being born knowing your job in life - like it or not - is to help women through labor whenever they call.
Pradeep says that while they are in the low caste (third, not untouchable fourth), they are never rich, but fine. However, in the past ten years the caste system has begun to finally crumble. All of a sudden, Brahmins - the top caste - who would never have wanted to, let alone been allowed to do "manual labor" like cutting hair, are now opening fashionable salons.
Pradeep is deeply upset because Brahmins see where there is new money in fashion hairstyling as India advances and are trying to get in on something that Pradeep's caste should have the right to inherit. After all, they have dutifully served for centuries cutting hair. They stayed in their place. Why shouldn't they finally benefit from their lot in life?
Pradeep explained the difficulty making money as a barber. There is no one price for a service.
"You have to judge who is the person. The poor people, they get a lower price. How else will they get a haircut? So, you charge one price if they are low-caste and poor and another to a businessman and another to a tourist. It is our way here. What else can we do?"
That means Pradeep and his brethren only make money if they get enough higher-caste and foreign customers.
Pradeep goes after that lucrative foreigner business both with his shop location and by offering massage. He trained in massage - Western and Ayurvedic. He used to work in some of the nicer hotels in the area and he has his letters of recommendation framed in his shop. Pradeep likes to inform people of his massage services because the money is much better than barbering. He makes the most of what his caste offers.
Pradeep made me think. While the caste system is, in my opinion, in no way fair or right - maybe its dismantlement has unforeseen consequences. Who would think that an uneducated, low-caste barber would find himself in competition with the most privileged members of his society?
When a world where first-world economies are service-based collides with a developing country whose least educated and poorest have been assigned services to perform for time immemorial - what happens? As India takes out the ceiling and makes it possible for the lower classes to rise, what will be the cost?
Will it be like the Reconstruction Era South where freed slaves continue to work the same land as sharecroppers in as much or more poverty? Will the Brahmins become Indian carpetbaggers? How do the uneducated masses used to a feudal system of servitude rise in a country that still can't run water into everyone's homes?
As with so many developing nations, the social, political and environmental pains of economic development are just beginning for India - and Pradeep.
The decent looking barber/Ayurvedic massage shop down the way looked as though it expected tourist clientele and I figured that might not be a bad thing. I looked in the glass, expecting a large shop given the big signs advertising numerous kinds of massage as well as haircuts. I figured it was probably like one of those salons on Khao San Road in Bangkok where all the young backpackettes get their hair braided into cornrows and nails painted - the "I'm 21 and traveling in Thailand" makeover.
There was just one chair and a barber reading a newspaper. Behind him was a little room for massages. I went in and the barber was very happy to have a customer. At 11:30 am, I was the first of the day. I asked why, "Many of the Hindu people, they do not like to get their hair cut on Thursdays and Saturdays. They believe it is bad. So I don't have much work Thursdays."
When I explained what I wanted - electric clippers everywhere, zero guard on most of it, number one guard on my beard - the barber became very excited. He pulled out a very nice, professional set of Wahl clippers and said, "I have this machine I can use!"
He doesn't know what the machine is called, but he has the one he used on me, and an older, semi-falling-apart one he used only on his Indian customers. "Foreigners like the new machine. Indians don't care, so I use this."
The luxury machine used on me was a gift from a Danish customer who sent it from Denmark. He had apparently been going to this barber for awhile during an extended stay in Udaipur and wanted to introduce some new technology - perhaps to replace the junky clippers which still haven't been retired.
My barbering tour of the world has been one of the most interesting cultural experiences and insights. Each time, I have visited a local barber - people who mostly work on locals. It seems almost cliche, but the nuances of daily life in a community still run through a barber shop - especially in countries like Turkey, Greece and India where people take their time and visit.
This barber, Pradeep did a fine job - as have each of the three barbers I've visited in India. Perhaps because men still go to barbers for their shaves, a barber's skill or at least practice with a razor is higher is better. Using clippers as a primary tool is less common. Some barbers don't even have them and those that do usually use them just for finishing touches. They are still very much about the scissors and the straight razor.
Luckily, they know how to shave and even though they never shave anyone's entire head or use clippers to shave a face, it's not exactly a mind-bender and they adapt easily. By far, the Indian barbers have given more attention to detail than any of the others.
In Mumbai, the shop was big, with many chairs and seemingly even more barbers - although some of the guys were probably just friends of barbers who were hanging out, watching TV. When I went mid-day, they weren't busy and I was a curiosity they weren't sure what to do with. They all did and didn't want to work on me. They settled on a guy who I think was waiting his turn for a customer. It took three of them, though to consult on exactly what should be done since my request of a shave with electric clippers was unusual. My barber was given advice before he began. He did fine. It cost 80 rupees - $1.75, my cheapest shave to that time.
In Alleppey, Kerala, the barber shop was smaller and less polished. That's where Emily had her horrific head massage experience. My experience was much better. Despite the fact that he was using electric clippers, the barber acted as through he was shaving me with a straight razor when he worked on my face and neck, and like he was using an upright vacuum when working on my head. He sort of ran it flat, up and down, up and down like he was cleaning house. I suppose his outlook is valid because it worked.
When we left, I looked crisp and clean for only 60 rupees - my cheapest barber visit to date. Meanwhile, Emily needed to be rushed back to our hotel to shampoo out the massage oil saturating her hair and stinging her eyes.
As Pradeep proudly used his high-end clippers reserved for foreign customers, he explained to me his big frustration with his business - new, unfair competition.
For hundreds of years, Pradeep's family have all been barbers. It's their caste - there is only one job available to them. They are born to be barbers and wives of barbers. Actually, barbers' wives are midwives. Apparently, you call the barber's wife when a woman goes into labor. Imagine being born knowing your job in life - like it or not - is to help women through labor whenever they call.
Pradeep says that while they are in the low caste (third, not untouchable fourth), they are never rich, but fine. However, in the past ten years the caste system has begun to finally crumble. All of a sudden, Brahmins - the top caste - who would never have wanted to, let alone been allowed to do "manual labor" like cutting hair, are now opening fashionable salons.
Pradeep is deeply upset because Brahmins see where there is new money in fashion hairstyling as India advances and are trying to get in on something that Pradeep's caste should have the right to inherit. After all, they have dutifully served for centuries cutting hair. They stayed in their place. Why shouldn't they finally benefit from their lot in life?
Pradeep explained the difficulty making money as a barber. There is no one price for a service.
"You have to judge who is the person. The poor people, they get a lower price. How else will they get a haircut? So, you charge one price if they are low-caste and poor and another to a businessman and another to a tourist. It is our way here. What else can we do?"
That means Pradeep and his brethren only make money if they get enough higher-caste and foreign customers.
Pradeep goes after that lucrative foreigner business both with his shop location and by offering massage. He trained in massage - Western and Ayurvedic. He used to work in some of the nicer hotels in the area and he has his letters of recommendation framed in his shop. Pradeep likes to inform people of his massage services because the money is much better than barbering. He makes the most of what his caste offers.
Pradeep made me think. While the caste system is, in my opinion, in no way fair or right - maybe its dismantlement has unforeseen consequences. Who would think that an uneducated, low-caste barber would find himself in competition with the most privileged members of his society?
When a world where first-world economies are service-based collides with a developing country whose least educated and poorest have been assigned services to perform for time immemorial - what happens? As India takes out the ceiling and makes it possible for the lower classes to rise, what will be the cost?
Will it be like the Reconstruction Era South where freed slaves continue to work the same land as sharecroppers in as much or more poverty? Will the Brahmins become Indian carpetbaggers? How do the uneducated masses used to a feudal system of servitude rise in a country that still can't run water into everyone's homes?
As with so many developing nations, the social, political and environmental pains of economic development are just beginning for India - and Pradeep.
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