After four weeks of being here in India, I decided to get a haircut. I peeked into what looked like a barber shop and was horrified. Then I decided to get a referral! My friend Shanth referred me to a place called Alankar, which I found without too much trouble.
A very nice man began to cut my hair and he did an excellent job. He has extremely limited
English skills, but we managed to get through it with hand signals and basic "yes/no" type of language. Near what I thought was the end, he asked if I wanted a head massage. I thought for a moment and then said, "yes, sure." The man took out some liquid and smeared it all over my head. Next thing I know, my scalp is extremely cold and he begins whacking me in the head in various ways. Then he took out a machine that pulsates and kind of ironed my head with it for a while. The head massage was a little disturbing because it really made me wonder if my brain was going to be negatively impacted, but it was quite interesting.During the head massage, he asked if I wanted a face massage. I said, "Oh, no, I don't want that." Then he started offering it for a specific amount of rupees. At this point I got a strange desire to go ahead and have this face massage (you only live once, right?) and so I began to negotiate the price of it while getting repeatedly whacked in the head at the same time. It was settled that the whole thing would total 500 rupees (which is $7.50 USD). I knew this was far too much money, but the guy had already spent 45 minutes on my head, and this was probably the nicest shop in town, so what the heck, right?
Out come the naturo-pathic extracts, ointments, and lotions. Oh my. I felt like some woman from the upper midwest who is visiting the Caribbean islands for the first time. Next thing I know, I've got lotion number 12 on my face with my eyes covered. I opened my eyes and, to my absolute horror, I had white goo all over my face. The American male in me almost went into a panic. But I hung in there and hoped it would be over soon. Next, a heat lamp was applied to my face and my skin felt like it would burn up. My nose was cleaned out. My ears were cleaned out. My pores were totally opened up. Somewhere in there he actually cracked my neck both ways, like a chiropractor would do. Wow, this was not what I expected, and I hope I never have this again, but man, it was pretty, uh, wild.
All in all it was a great haircut for a reasonable price, along with a good story to tell.
