Fast to cut, nice to look

Call me sua-ku, but a novelty of sort has sprung up in Eastpoint shopping centre, a stone's throw away from where I live. These days, not only do we have fast food, fast-car-wash, fast cars, fast women and fast everything, we also have "fast-hair-cut". In a corner of the shopping mall sits a unisex barbershop that promises to cut your hair all within a space of 10 minutes.


Victor, in one of his posts, waxed lyrical about the barbers of yore who operated in the backlane of many pre-war houses. And yes, they can still be found in the backlane of Aliwal Street and Mohamad Ali Lane as discovered by Victor. The photo on the right was "ripped" off Victor's blog without permission, just like Chun See did. See? Victor's blog is just full of photos that it's slowly becoming a photoblog. Victor may be blissfully unaware that he is giving the National Archives of Singapore a run for its money.

All through my childhood in the 70s and 80s, my dad, brother, cousins and myself all had had our hair cut by the only Ah Pek barber we knew existed in Club Street. Visiting the barber then was a simple affair. We paid between 40 - 80 cents and our hair was done, all in a matter of 20 minutes, without any fancy trimmings. Needless to say, we all ended up spotting the same hairdo - what one would call the "aeroplane" style (飞机头). The Ah Pek sometimes would engage in small chatters with me while cutting my hair. And because he practically knew my family, our conversation was usually centred on family matters, like how my father was doing and how I was doing in school. The conversations were short and to the point.



As I grew into adulthood, entered NS and subsequently started working, I went upmarket and started visiting unisex hair saloon. A simple "cut & blow" back then cost between $10-$12, considered dear in those days. I was (still am) not rich but vanity always got the better of me. I once tried to save money and played guinea pig in a Hairstylist Training School where I had my hair cut by young apprentices. That haircut felt like half a day and I literally dozed off. I swore off training school after that and patronised established salons. I vaguely recall one of the salons I visited as "Peter & Guy" (dunno if it's still around). I found the air-con in the salons comforting, but was far from comfortable with the many hairdressers, mostly females, trying to chat me up make small talk with me:

Hairdresser: Not working today ah?
Me: Er.. nope.
Hairdresser: Your hair a lot hor?
Me: Like my father one.
Hairdresser: Where you working?
Me: NS.
Hairdresser: oh... Want to highlight your hair? And perm a bit to give it more "body"?
Me: Ermmm... no lah.. NS cannot highlight hair one.
Hairdresser: Why cannot? You not BOTAK mah
Me: Later CO gimme extra duties than weekend cannot book out...
Hairdresser: x

As you can see, conversations with the hairdressers always bordered on the trivialities. They just wanted me to spend more money on my hair (and God knows what). Sometimes, I would close my eyes, pretending to be asleep just to shut them up.


Then I switched to the Malay barbershops, the "Sri Dana", "Sri Kenangan" and what have you. The one thing that stands out in these barbershops is the Malay pop music blasting away either from a mini-compo or from a TV hung high up against the wall. Conversations with the barbers tend to be minimal, limited to the usual "slope cut?" and "want to keep your sideburn?". On one rare occasion, I met one particularly chatty barber who warned me against dyeing my hair to cover up some "grey matters" lest I ended in the hospital like he did due to allergy to the chemical found in the dye. By and large, the Malay barbers are friendly and I do not feel the discomfort I usually feel in a unisex salon.

So you see, a haircut session has the ability to evoke different feelings and sentiments, depending on whether I have it done by the Ah Pek in the backlane, the hairdressers in the chic salons or Ali from Sri Nada. But one thing remains constant - my hair. It ALWAYS looks the same, bearing the same 飞 机 头 style. It does not matter who the hair-cutter was. Frankly, just how many ways can you do up a guy's hair?


Today, I thought I'd give the 10-minute-hair-cut barbershop a try. The sign outside the barbershop says "Sophisticated technology and systems that allow us to offer 10-minute haircut for $10. Service does not include hair washing, facial cleansing or shaving. Our shop respect your precious time. New comb made of environmental friendly material. Alcohol hand cleaner to disinfect hands of staff and customers. High sanitation standard." Hmmm... I liked what I read.

At the entrance of the barbershop stands the "ticketing machine". I slotted a $10 note into the machine and out came a credit-size ticket bearing queue no 3. How neat, I thought. The store is manned by three female hairdressers, all busy nipping away. I proceeded to sit on the bench and quietly await my turn.



While waiting, my eyes started wondering. I was struck by the shop's neatness and state of hygiene. The shop has a nifty vacuum cleaner in the corner of the room that simply sucks away the hair on the floor left behind by the previous customer. There are also sterilizers that look like microwave ovens that sterilize the combs and razors with ultra violet ray. The hairdressers who were all in white-overall. The whole setup looked clinical, but I thought it was very clean.

What caught my attention was the fact that all the three hairdressers were wearing surgical masks. Thank goodness, I thought, no more small chatters with the hairdressers. But on this occasion, I was feeling particularly chatty. I wanna ask if they have other branches in Singapore, who the brainchild behind this new haircut concept was, etc.

I was soon to find out the answers. Just below the mirror from where I was seating was a LCD monitor running a short film that went on and on about the branch's HQ in Tokyo, Japan. Trust the Japanese to come up with ideas that are always innovative and ingenious.

Did the store live up to its claim of a haircut in 10 minutes? Unfortunately, the answer is no. In my case, the hairdresser took 20 minutes. But guess what? I'm not complaining and am very likely to visit again for my next haircut. I love the cleanliness of the shop. The hairdressers were also very polite and despite wearing a mask, they managed a muffled "Thank you and Bye" to customers when their cut is done. Besides, the Slim Lady has commented that my new hairstyle looks "nice". Of course it is! 飞 机 头 is timeless, and is always nice!

Category: Musings