NEW DELHI: Hair today, gone tomorrow.” That’s what I always tell my friends who’ve started to bald, and till date, none of them has found it as hilarious as those friends who haven’t started to shed. Well, now the joke is on us, the hair-brained, with the closure of salons and barbershops stretching into a post-Covid reality. The intimacy men previously shared with the guys who cut our hair seems a memory of a distant past. This writer has had to learn how to use a hairband, while others have opted to let it all hang free, each their own personal Jesus.
There are the braver menfolk driving Google search trends of “cut your own hair”, “DIY haircut”, by several hundred percents. These hirsute heroes are willing to go under the razor, either wielding it themselves or trusting loved ones to do the deed. Indeed, verandahs and balconies are no longer places to spy on your neighbors from, but areas to complain about the present and wonder at our future, all while shedding the excess locks of sons, fathers, and brothers.
The buzz cut, so characteristic of the military and future (as well as past) dystopias, is all the rage. It’s a literal war against COVID-19, and we’re the soldiers, whether by providing essential services or staying at home and saving others lives’. Pop stars to actors are adopting the Spartan cut and posting selfies and videos, only for the look to be co-opted by their legions of fans. Others, including cricketing legend Kapil Dev, are going are even further, and getting completely bald.
Mundans are supposed to be good for the hair after all, and it’s not like anyone will be seeing you soon, apart from the bald selfie, in what can be defined as new age baldies? If videos of Anushka Sharma cutting Virat Kohli’s hair in the initial days of the lockdown went viral, more recently Priyanka Chopra gave out home remedies for dandruff and scalp care. The future may be female, but the guys need a haircut now.