Making a virtue out of necessity is coming true with manyexperimenting hairdressing on their own as saloons are out ofbounds for nearly a month now in view of the shutdown to checkspread of coronavirus.
Saloons in Telangana like elsewhere are closed since thethird week of last month in view of the lockdown, which hasnow been extended by the state government till April 30 and bythe Centre till May 3 keeping in view the grim situation. "My 10-year old son was in urgent need of hair cut. Idecided to cut his long hair myself at home. It may not be aperfect job, but I was able to handle it to acceptable level,said Mahendar Noogooria, a journalist with a vernavular dailyhere. Several netizens also shared pictures and videos of theirskills with a pair of scissors. Fareed Ahmed, a 35-year-old IT professional and wildlifephotographer, said he tried to cut his hair by himself andended up leaving it in a mess. "Finally, my father came to my rescue, took a trimmer andreshaped it," he said.
Prabhakar Kumar, a self-employed from Anand Nagar, tookupon the job of haircut for himself and also for his two-year-old son. "In view of summer it was getting irritating for my sonwhose hair had grown and covered his ears. I took out mytrimmer and did hair cut not only for my son but also formyself. My son liked it and gave a smile after the "perfect"haircut," Kumar said.
But, not all want to take the scissor themselves andthere have been instances of people sacrificing their Frenchbeard like Sravan Kumar, a 35-year old musician. I used to get it trimmed every week. Some days ago Itried to do it myself, but couldnt. So I completely removedit. I will trim it once the lockdown is over, Kumar saidsmearing his smooth cheeks. On the other side, the barber community has been hit hardthough they admit they cannot afford to work considering theirown safety and that of their customers. Working President of Telangana Nayee Brahmin Aikya Vedika,the apex body of barbers in the state, Hari Prasad said theassociation members were following the government orders ascompliance was necessary to contain spread of the coronavirus. It will be dangerous for all of us as we will have tohandle people from all walks of life. Hair cutting or shavingis done with close proximity of the customer. We will beservicing several customers a day. So it is not advisable toopen shops at this juncture and do our job," he told . According to him, if salons are kept open there is achance that people with travel history might also come. "Thats why we asked our community members to follow thelockdown procedure, he added. Association president Maddikunta Lingam Nayee said about15 lakh members of the community in the haircutting professionneed government support as they are losing livelihood fornearly 40 days. He also requested the government to waive power bills forsalons besides extending financial support to them to overcomethe present situation. Admitting that there were cases of violations by somebarbers who keep open their shops, he appealed to the policenot to file cases against such people and create awarenessamong them. The situation is same with chain of saloons run by famoushair stylist Jawed Habib in the city with the franchisees shutin view of the lockdown. When contacted, an executive in the call centre of thegroup said they were not taking any appointments till thelockdown is over. GDK VVKVS VS