At the mercy of a trainee

On Saturday morning, I went in for a haircut.

When I entered the saloon, I was pointed to a chair. I parked myself there and waited for the professional to show up. The guy who showed up with the kit was not someone I have seen there before. He looked young and was clearly a newbie there.

He asked if I wanted a medium or short cut. I obviously opted for the medium one. The guy then started working on my left side.

Within a matter of a few seconds, I found that he had gone a bit too deep there. But it was obviously the point of no return. And worse, it would have to be replicated on the other sides as well.

And the guy was so slow at his job. If he had to do a very refined work, I agree that he would have needed time. All that this guy was doing was cutting all my hair very close. And at a damned slow speed at that.

Finally after some 20 minutes, he was done and let me go. I paid the owner the dues and left without tipping the guy. It was such a bad cut that I myself was feeling bad.

The view was endorsed the minute I set foot at home. My mother's first comment was that if I'd given 10 more rupees, I could have had a full tonsure. The next comment was that if I had done that in Vaitheeswaran Kovil 2 weeks back, I would have at least gained some punniyam.

My father thought it suited me. At the project party, one of my leads commented about the pitfalls of entrusting important work to trainees right away. One other guy said that, its a short hair cut only if the hair stands up like bristles on a brush. Anything that stay parted even for a few minutes, falls under the medium haircut range.

My friends were also very curious about what I'd done to my hair. Even people who don't usually notice that I've had a haircut, came up and asked me the reason for getting a summer cut in the rainy season.

All I can say is that I am as disappointed as every other person who saw me in the past 2 days. Just hope that for your own good, I better get some hair growing quickly.