Mr.Hemanth Reddy came exactly at the scheduled time for his haircut. I gave a warm smile and invited him in .As
I was giving finishing touches to another customer I requested him to wait for 5 minutes.
Once I was done with this customer, I cleaned up the chair and Invited Mr.Reddy to take the chair.
Once he made himself comfortable in the chair I caped him and asked him how he would like to get his hair cut.
He replied "Radhika...cut it slightly shorter on sides and back. Trim it slightly on top...do not cut it short. It needs to cover my receding hairline."
I examined him through the mirror. Yes, His hairline was receding but I felt he had a wonderfully shaped head which was unfortunately hidden behind the hair. I visualized him with a shaved head and I felt it would suit him absolutely well.
But I was not sure whether he will heed to my advice of getting his head shaved. I get a lot of job satisfaction when my customer goes out from here feeling very good about his looks because of the haircut I gave...and for Mr.Reddy no hairstyle will suit him better than a smooth shaved head. I had to convince him some how for this change.
As I combed his hair I asked "Mr.Reddy...Have you ever got your head shaved?”
Mr.Reddy was a bit startled by my question..."No. never...why did you ask that?"
I replied..."I feel you have a wonderfully shaped head and you would look very good with a shaved head."
He laughed and said...”Is it? But any way I cannot get it shaved...my wife loves my hair a lot."
I said..."I am sure your wife will love your shaved head even more. And since your hair has already started receding , within no time you will be losing most of the hair."
"You are right about my receding hairline" Mr.Reddy replied...”My wife is concerned about it. So we are considering of going for hair transplant for me."
"But a hair transplant will be quite costly and time consuming." I persisted.
"I know" Mr.Reddy replied "But I see no other alternative."
I had to somehow convince him to shave his head because it is unfair to hide such a wonderfully shaped head. I had to some how....
"There is an alternative..." I said "Since it been quite recently that your hair line has started receding, I feel a regular head shave would help the lost hair grow back" I lied ...and to add more weightage to my lie I added "this is what most of my customers do when they see their hairline receding".
"Is it?" Mr.Reddy quizzed "I have never heard such thing. But even if it were true I cannot shave it even once because that would upset my wife and upsetting my wife is what I would never want to do."
"But Mr.Reddy...." He cut it short by saying "Radhika, It is not possible. My wife will be quite upset if I do that. Will you cut my hair as instructed or shall I go to someone else?"
Dejected I cut his hair as per his wish.
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"Raj,I believe this haircut suits you the most...I think you should keep it this way...what do you say Radhika?" Swathi, who had accompanied Raj for getting his head shaved by me, said giggling and laughing looking at partially shaved image of Raj.
I and Raj joined her in her laughter.
Looking at Raj and swathi enjoying Raj's head shave, my mind went back to Mr.Reddy..."If at all Mr.Reddy was as supportive as Raj...." my thoughts were interrupted by the ring of telephone.
"Excuse me" I said going towards the phone "will be back in a minute".
"Take your own time...I will get more time teasing him." Swathy replied.
As I picked up the receiver I saw swathy feeling Raj's partially shaved head and telling him something. I smiled looking at both of them laughing heartily.
"Hello Radhika...I am Kamala here...”
"Hi Kamala!" I replied.
"Radhika...Do you remember Hemanth Reddy who had got his hair cut by you three days back?"
"Of course I remember" I said "How can I forget him!!!" I thought.
"Radhika, I am Hemanth’s wife… Hemanth mentioned me that you were insisting him to get his head shaved." Kamala said.
"Yes, kamala...I insisted because I feel he will look good with a shaved head. But he said that you love his hair a lot and that he didn’t want to upset you by getting his hair shaved off."
"Yes...I do love his hair. I love brushing his hair with my fingers. But his hair line has started receding and we were planning to go for his hair transplant..."
"But Kamala...” I interrupted kamala "Hair transplant is a costly affair and it takes a lot of time."
"Yes I know...” Kamala said "But we didn’t have any other alternative or to put it another way we didn’t explore other options...options like a head shave...Now a days I see lot of men getting their heads shaved...and I should say a shaved head really looks good on most of them...Do you think that style will suit my husband."
I just said "Trust me."
"Ok then..." Kamala replied "So shall we come down to the saloon this evening?"
"Sure...is 17:30 ok" I said.
"Thanks Radhika...we will be there sharp at 5:30...Bye."
"Bye”. I kept the receiver feeling quite happy.
I went back to Raj and Swathy, Who still were having lot of fun regarding Raj's partially shaved head.
I felt so happy about the turn of events that I took all the time and care in the world to shave raj's head really smooth.Swathy could not keep her hands away from the Raj's smoothly shaved head.
I really felt wonderfully satisfied watching Raj and Swathy leave my saloon feeling very happy about Raj's new look.
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"But kamala Mr.Reddy can shave it himself or you can shave it for him" I said.
"Radhika we know that the one week long stubble on his head can be shaved at home either by himself or by me but we are insisting that you do it for us this time because we really want to thank you in person for transforming Hemanth into an extra handsome guy...you don’t know how much favour you have done to us...you have not only saved us a lot of money but also added that extra zeal in our 10 years of married life. We are feeling as if we are newly married. In fact we are going on a second Honeymoon to Munnar this evening...so before going we wanted to really thank you from the bottom of our hearts....Please don’t refuse..." Kamala Pleaded.
I felt so happy...I couldn’t refuse. So we were meeting this evening again...and most probably for the last time.
Friday, August 10, 2007
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