If there is one thing I’ve learnt in this world it’s this: Most people have issues with their hair. Actually most people have issues with everything. Very few seem to be happy with what they are and what they have which is why there are so many Gurus giving so much advice about so many ‘issues’. With regard to hair, there are basically two issues

• removing the hair that you don’t want
• improving the hair that you do want

Obviously hair has an important part to play in our anatomy or it wouldn’t have been there in the first place and would have fallen off like the tail man lost during the course of his evolution into Homo Sapiens. But equally obvious is the fact that every human is not happy with his hair: men love hair on their bodies while women don’t. The minute a baby girl is born the first cause for concern is the lack or otherwise of hair on her head and the lack or otherwise of hair on her body. Indian babies are subject to the traditional oil bath to improve the quality and quantity of hair on the head and are rubbed down with unguents to remove the fine hair on their bodies. Happy Hairless compares the different kinds of hair removal methods available in today’s market and pronounces depilation as by far the best, painless and most effective way to remove hair but I’d like to think that nothing can compare with the old fashioned lemon and sugar ‘wax’ that we made at home. I first learnt of this method when I’d spent one night at my friend N’s house. She had promised to teach me how to make ‘wax’ at home so we got up early before her pesky brother was awake and made our way into the kitchen. There she took three lemons and squeezed them into half a cup of sugar. We stirred the mixture in a thick aluminium pot till the sugar dissolved and the mixture started thickening. Then quickly taking the pot off the heat, we made our way into the bedroom where we powdered our legs and applied the thick wax with a butter knife. Then slap went a thick strip of cotton cloth which we yanked upwards to leave our legs smooth and hairless. This process was repeated month after month and year after year till finally now we have no hair to pull out! Admittedly, this has much to do with aging and the natural process of reduced hair growth rather than waxing. But while we don’t have hairy legs, we’ve developed hairy chins which means our battle with removing body hair is far from over yet!

So while we have one obsession with removing hair, we have another with improving the quality of hair on our heads. I particularly had a head of thick, curly, unruly hair and was actually called Gollywog ( those days it was allowed) and I would spend hours pouring over articles on how to improve one’s hair .  I remember once coming out of my bedroom with my turbaned hair having a strangely rancid smell, much to the disgust of my dermatologist father who  firmly refused to believe that hair quality could be changed and was quite amused by my attempts at improving my hair. I sheepishly told him that I’d made a mixture of raw egg, beaten yoghurt and warm olive oil which I’d massaged into my scalp and then wound my head with a hot towel so that my hair would be soft, thick and silky. He gave me a withering look and said sarcastically that’ I’d forgotten to add the mustard seeds  ( tadka) alluding to the fact that all Indian food is tempered with mustard seeds that pop in hot oil! Over the years, I’ve tried all kinds of things to improve my hair – hot oil massages, henna treatment, Evian and Olive oil, washing with soap seeds ( reetha), changing my shampoo every month, changing my hair dresser and hair style every six weeks so that my thick and unruly hair would look well groomed. And now that my hair is soft,silky, thin and fly away am I happy? Naturally not! I would do anything to get back the lovely head of healthy hair of my left youth left behind .

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