My Hair is Getting Longer!

Now that I've been in New York City on my own for over six months, my hair is starting to get a bit long...  If anyone asks, I'm not really growing it, it's just doing that on its own without much intervention from me (beyond eating regularly...).

Me in early October 2010,
a few weeks after
getting to New York City

Getting my hair cut and maintaining it just isn't something that's very interesting or important to me, and frankly, salons and barber shops stink of noxious chemicals that I find really unpleasant.  It never really has been and the only times I've ever gotten it cut regularly are when other people push me to bother...

It was kind of fun in Pune the first year or so, going to Sheela's Beauty Parlor in Sagar Arcade with my buddies to all get our hair cut, and sitting and talking while each of us had our turn.

But then Leena and I started dating and she wanted my hair kept short.  Fortunately she pretty much took care of all the arrangements.  She made the appointments with the barber, who's shop is on the same block as her family's house, so it was convenient when we went there for lunch every weekend.  She took care of getting a servant to run over to see when the barber was free and could take me.  She took care of telling him how she wanted my hair cut.

All I had to do was go and sit in the chair while he worked, then go back to Leena's family's house with him for her approval on the haircut (with occasional trips back to his shop for a quick fix...)  And pay him the cash I already counted out and had ready (including a 100% tip).

Me in late March 2011
with my hair getting
longer and quite windblown...

But now that I'm on my own for a while, I just can't be bothered with finding a respectable looking barber shop, that'll still probably smell of chemicals, trying to tell a barber what to do with my hair, when I don't know the terminology ("um, just like it was before?") and wondering what's the appropriate tip and all that.  And why?  So I can do it again in a month?

And besides, I think a bit longer some of the brown hair overlaps and covers up some of the gray, but when it's short, the gray has nowhere to hide...