The Accidental Hairdresser Hair of Disaster

The Accidental Hairdresser: Hair of Disaster

I had been a massage therapist since 2013 and worked as a freelance massage service provider. To find clients, I created my own website and made profiles on several classified sites as a spa therapist. Through those classified sites, I received such strange service requests that I couldn’t even tell anyone about them.

One day in 2017, a man called me and asked, “Are you a therapist?”
I said yes. He said, “My girlfriend wants to cut a stranger’s hair. Will you let her cut your hair? We’ll pay you.”

I immediately said yes, because my mother had been telling me for ten days that my hair had grown too long and I should get it cut, but I kept delaying it. Now my hair would get cut, and I would get paid for it too. Thinking this, I felt happy.

The man asked me to come to Thane station. At the bus stop in Thane, I met his girlfriend. She came alone. She said, “When I cut your hair, you have to keep saying, ‘Sorry, madam, sorry, madam.’ That will give me peace and enblissment.”

I told her, “In a salon, getting my hair cut while saying sorry like this is public humiliation. It’s not right. People will get disturbed.”

She said, “We’ll go to a good salon where there won’t be much of a crowd. You won’t have any problem.” She put me in an auto and took me to a salon. In the salon, the girl was cutting my hair very badly, and I kept saying, “Sorry, madam. I made a mistake. Please don’t cut my hair. Forgive me.”

I was doing all this just thinking about the ₹2000 and the new experience I would get. The salon staff were watching the drama and laughing silently. One staff member looked completely shocked.

My only fear was that she might cut my ear while cutting my hair. She cut my hair so badly that I had to shave my head completely.

After a month, the man called again. He said, “My girlfriend is very impressed with you. She wants to cut your hair again. You’re very supportive.”

I said, “I’m a therapist. After going bald, my clients felt uncomfortable. I don’t want to go bald again.”
Saying no, he still continued to call 3-4 times, so I blocked his number. That same day, I realised that I had worked in many different professions, but I had never worked as a hairdresser. So, I decided to become a hairdresser for six months or one year.

I went to the Javed Habib Salon Institute. There, I got free training and also got a job at one of their outlets. I was already a massage therapist and used to doing head massages and hair spa services, so I had no problem learning female hair-related services. Cutting women’s hair felt very easy for me, but cutting men’s hair felt almost impossible. I practised men’s haircuts, but I could never do them perfectly. So, I gave up on hairdressing completely.

After completing my training, I was sent to a mall in Kolhapur. Living away from my mother was very difficult for me, but I went, thinking I would get a new experience. The salon provided me with a room, and I lived alone. The salon was close to my room, so I used to walk there.

In the salon, I provided small services to female customers like hair washes, haircuts, hair spas, and blow-drying.

I didn’t know how to cook. There were no cheap hotels nearby, and because I had very little money, I didn’t have the courage to eat at expensive restaurants. For three continuous days, I survived only on tomatoes and cucumbers. I was starving.

On the fourth day, I couldn’t tolerate the hunger anymore. I told the salon staff, “I can’t live alone away from my mother. I’m going back to Mumbai.” Saying this, I returned home to Mumbai. At the Javed Habib head office, I told them I could work at any outlet in Mumbai, but I couldn’t live away from my mother or go to another city. They said, “Right now, there is no vacancy at any Mumbai outlet. When a position opens, we’ll call you.”

I went for an interview at the Lakmé Salon in Vashi. They gave me a task to blow-dry a female staff member’s hair. I did it, and they said, “Your work is very slow. With practice, you can improve your speed.”

They told me, “All official Lakmé interviews happen at the CST office. You’ll have to go there for the final interview.”

The next day, I went to the Lakmé head office near CST station. They said, “For the interview practice, you need a dummy model.”

I told them, “I don’t have anyone, and I don’t have any female friends I can bring.”

They suggested, “There’s a college nearby. Ask a girl. If she agrees, make her your dummy.”

I went to the college nearby. Two girls were sitting near the gate. I told them, “I’m a hairdresser. I went for an interview at Lakmé Salon. They need a dummy. If you agree, I’ll give you a free hair wash and haircut.”

They agreed, and I took both girls to the Lakmé head office.

Only one dummy was needed, so I asked one girl to sit at the reception and worked on the other. I gave her a hair wash and haircut.

The interviewer said, “For a five-minute job, you took twenty minutes. Your work is good, but you take too much time. The day you can do a hair wash and haircut in five minutes, come back for another interview. We can’t hire you right now.”

 

I then went for a job interview at a newly opened salon in Juinagar. They liked my work. I was slow, but since the salon didn’t have many customers, they gave me the job.

The salon owner was a woman, and her brother lived in my neighbourhood. We do workouts at the same gym in Juhugaon.

I was giving good hair services to female customers. One day, I gave a woman a haircut and hair-straightening service. I had helped others with straightening before, but this time I did it alone. The customer was very happy. She was so happy that she sent her son to me the next day for a haircut.

The next day, her husband brought their 12-year-old son to the salon.

I didn’t know how to cut men’s hair. I refused, but the boss’s brother said, “You can do it. You have to.”

It took me more than an hour to cut that boy’s hair. I completely ruined the hairstyle. Seeing my condition and the boy’s haircut, the boss’s brother was laughing. The boy’s father was red with anger. I was so scared that even a small scolding would have made me wet my pants.

Somehow, I finished the haircut and sent them away.

I was trying to relax when the boss’s husband arrived. He asked me to shave his beard. I told him, “I cut women’s hair. I don’t know how to shave men.”

He asked, “Do you shave your own beard?”
I said, “Yes.”
He said, “Then no problem. You can shave mine too.”

I told him, “I’ve never done it for anyone else, but if you trust me, I’ll try. What should I do first?”

He said, “Apply the shaving cream first.”

I applied the shaving cream and got the razor ready. Then I asked, “How do I hold the razor?” He showed me how to hold it.

I started shaving, but the razor wasn’t even touching his beard. I was just wiping off the shaving cream in the air. He said, “The razor isn’t even touching my beard. How will you shave like this? Do it properly.”

As soon as I touched the razor to his beard, I cut his cheek, and blood started flowing.

I said, “I told you earlier that I don’t know how to shave. This is the first time in my life I’ve even touched a razor.”

He said, “You should have told me earlier that you had never held a razor before. I thought if you can cut women’s hair, shaving would be easy for you.”

The boss said, “You are good at your work, but you have one problem. You can’t say no to anything. Learn to say no. Tomorrow, a customer will ask you to do something you don’t know, and you’ll still try and mess it up. I don’t want more trouble. You can go.”

That day, I was fired.

That same evening, I went to another salon to ask directly for a job. They said, “We don’t need staff here, but a salon in Goregaon does. You can go there and give my reference.”

The next day, I went to that salon in Goregaon. My biggest problem was being slow, so I had decided that I would work as fast as possible.

When I reached the salon, they asked me to do a small haircut on a female staff member. I immediately rushed. I made six sections of the hair, cut each section at a perfect angle, and then gave a blow-dry to make the hair bouncy and curved. I finished the haircut in just four minutes.

The madam said, “The haircut is good, but why were you dancing so much? Are you in a hurry? Is someone chasing you? Watching you jump around made all of us laugh.”

I said, “In my last interview, I was rejected for being slow. This time, I wanted to get selected, so I worked fast.”

They selected me, but the salary they offered for a month was equal to what I spent in a week. So, I rejected the job myself.

I realised that I could become a successful massage therapist but not a successful hairdresser. So, I stopped looking for work in salons and continued my freelance massage practice. I began telling my massage clients the story of my failed attempt to become a hairdresser.

One day, a client said, “You speak like a philosopher. You find humour even in trouble. You should become a mental therapist. Hairdressing was not meant for you. You should become a mental therapist.”

I didn’t even remember what a mental therapist was, but I still told him, “I’ll try becoming a mental therapist.” For a new adventure and experience, I decided to give it a try.

After leaving that client’s house, I stood in the parking area of his building, sitting on my bike, and searched for “mental therapist” on Google. That’s when I learnt that a mental therapist is someone who counsels people with mental illnesses. I realized that before becoming one, it was important to understand what mental illness is and what its symptoms are.

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