Hair, There and Everywhere.. at old Bedok kampong

“What?  You brought him back from the barber without him having his hair cut?”, this writer’s (the older brother) mother asked my father incredulously as he brought the by-now dried eyed little boy back from the ‘frightening’ experience at the barber’s to our Bedok kampong house. “He refused to have his hair cut, so I brought him back…” was my father’s honest reply.

Babu (or Mr in Indian terms as explained by former neighbour Ronald Ho) was our preferred go-to barber for all the male-folk in the family, not the Chinese one situated a little farther along. Babu’s shop was located near (or next to) Ah Yam’s provision shop, along Bedok Road (Ah Yam's story was posted on October 16, 2024) and just where the bus stop is (now Cold Storage). He was mostly dressed in a white short sleeved shirt and had a genteel and calming way about him. He was great, but not the aura of his shop and equipment!

As a little me recalled, I intensely disliked seeing the chair which had a fear aboding look, and I had to sit atop a wooden plank placed across the arms. Then the white cloth tied (to a little me was choking) around my neck, followed by the terrible feeling and smell of the powder puff tapping across my little neck hairline (with the overwhelming white-powder poof). Finally the cold feeling of the metal hand shearer pressed against my neck and head that looks so menacing and gives off this tick tick sound. The worst feeling? All those little hairs dropping through the sheet onto my neck and onto my back.. Just everywhere… Which little boy could take it back then? Gladly as I grew older, I got used to this ‘methodology’ of my hair cut days!

So what happened to the little me who refused to get his hair cut and brought back home by his helpless father? A scolding from the wife, a cane to the backside from the mother and off I went back to Babu with no more protests!

Credit for the aiding of this recollection of a little me in my barber days to Mr Yeoh Hong Eng’s own experiences in his book “The Little Red Cliff” pg 43 to 47.

Credit to Lam Chun See and the estate of Joe Elliot for this photo

Credit to Vintage Adventures for this photo (used only to illustrate a typical Indian barber's chair in the old days from 50's to early 70's)

Hand shearer, credit to Etsy

Powder puff, credit to Etsy

1964, a 3 year old (now smiling) me in the garden of our Bedok kampong house