The resourceful hairdresser

About 8 or 9 years ago, I found a black and white photocopied advertisement in my balcony that was slotted under the door to my  house. It had a few amazing offers, one of which was a $5 haircut. The hairdresser was located in a HDB near my own home. At that time, I was quite sick of my long, massive mane of hair. It was a pain to maintain, and though I dreamt of gorgeous movie stair curls, I was generally not the kind of girl who enjoyed taking a few hours to get ready in the morning.

 My sister and I called and made an appointment with a lady who seemed to know enough English to be able to understand that we wanted to drop by. She replied in a mix of strongly accented mandarin and a few simple English words. Strangely, that did not stop us from going to see her.

She welcomed us into her home, where her little girl greeted us with a cute hello and ran away. She had a salon type reclining chair in the kitchen. In one of the bedrooms, there were two mirrors, two salon chairs and a few heat lamp things, the kind that does something to hair I never really understood. A section of the room was curtained off, and that was where the little girl played in her bed.

Our hairdresser, was a sweet lady who had recently migrated from China. I believe she was married to a Singaporean, a man I sometimes saw sitting shirtless, eating noodles in the living room. She offered us a flat bread with some gravy for a snack. She said it was typical for where she came from in the more northern part of China. Amazingly, we communicated, us in English and pidgin Mandarin, her in Mandarin and pidgin English.

She gave me the best haircut I had ever had in my life. She took that mass of hair that was hiding my face, and revealed my true self from within it. Since then I have always cut my hair the same way, because that made me look like me. Sure, I always had a reasonable amount of self-confidence and self-esteem. Still, I felt uncertain of who I was when I went in there, but I left knowing my true self in some ways. She made me see myself in a way I never had before. I always feel grateful to her for that.

She had come to Singapore an immigrant, she thought herself hair dressing as a means to supplement her household income. She provided great service and was very hardworking. She had an amazing sense of aesthetics. Her skills may not have been that of a professional hairdresser but her sense of aesthetics was far beyond any hairdresser I had met. She could see the pretty face behind the hair and bring it to life. I truly admire her.

We continued to have our hair cut with her even after we had moved from that area. We continued to have our hair cut there the last 8 years, and I introduced my husband ( then boyfriend) who thought she was the best hairdresser in Singapore. Over the years, her english improved, she upgraded her little salon when she moved home, and we saw her daughter become a young teenager.Earlier last year, she told us she was no longer is the business of cutting hair. She had found other employment and had changed career. Hairdressing in Singapore had lost a star.