Cutting down the heat

Hassle-free haircuts are in vogue this summer.

LAHORE:
With the summer heat in full momentum, people are busy frequenting salons to get their haircut. At Munir Hairdressers located in the Main Market in the city, owner Zahid Munir’s family has been cutting hair for 30 years and is well known for affordable and good quality haircuts.

“In the summers more people come regularly for haircuts compared to the winters,” said Munir. “Shorter hair is generally better because of the dust and sweat makes it difficult to maintain long hair.”

Munir told about the various hair styles in vogue this summer. He said that spikes and ‘rough and tough’ crew cuts were the typical trend amongst men.

“Long hair is out, we have a lot of people going for spikes, which complement certain round face types. But for longer faces it’s important not to keep it too short,” explained Munir.

Bollywood is a big trend- setter, Munir says. Aamir Khan’s different looks — be it his boyish spikes in Dil Chahta Hai or his intimidating shaved head in Ghajini — were the most requested haircuts amongst his clientele.

Muhammed Ikram, a customer at the salon who had opted for a spiky look, said that people’s preferences vary according to age and social circle. He said that for many years, spiky hair had been a hit amongst people between the ages of 15 and 22.

But creative director at Toni and Guy, Shammal Qureshi disagreed. His salon had seen a declining trend of spikes amongst male adults, he explained. He said that four to five years ago, spikes had been really popular, but now there was a trend of textured hair.


“You see, most of the new styles show the hair going backward and to the side with strong texture,” said Qureshi, while browsing through a prominent men’s fitness magazine. “We get a lot of Robert Downey Jr and Bradley Cooper requests, which shows you where the trends are headed.”

“The internet has really changed a lot of things. People simply bring their smartphones  to show hairdos of famous actors that they want us to replicate,” said Rameez ‘Ramsay’ Babar, a senior stylist at Toni and Guy.

He said young girls usually request for Deepika, Ashwariya Rai-Bachchan or even Bipasha Basu’s hairdos.

Qureshi said that for women, the trends were moving to a more natural look to go well with the casual lawn fabric, typically worn during summer.

Redah Misbah from Depilex advised girls to “go short”. She added that for the last two years she had been urging her clients to cut their hair short.

“There was the Victoria Beckham movement, then you have models such as Iraj and Gia Ali and now Meesha Shafi who have sported short hair,” explained Misbah. “People need practical haircuts. For women in Pakistan there is a big hassle in maintaining long hair. Short hair is practical.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3rd, 2011.
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