Light up your hair

NO snips, no cuts, just styling... by singeing. And that too by using the humble, everyday gas lighter... well, that’s way the hair falls for an Ahmedabad-based barber.

Nilesh Parekh, 30, has even found a ready clientele in the city’s hip and happening crowd. As far as he sees it, his is a flaming innovation that calls for global recognition.

"I want to see my name in the Guinness Book of World Records for discovering this method," says Parekh, who has a salon in the middle-class Sabarmati neighbourhood.

A gas lighter might be the last thing one would imagine in a hairstylist’s hands, but then that is exactly what is drawing the crowds.

In this age of the metrosexual male, his clients are teenagers and fashion models of both sexes.

Remarks Anuradha Sharma, one of his first customers to will her hair to his lighter: "I was a bit afraid when he talked of using a lighter. But I wanted to help him in developing the technique. It only sounds fearful, but he uses the lighter deftly. Using a flame rather than scissors gives a better get-up to your hair. Moreover, ends of the hair don’t get split," she said.

There are enough like her who flock to his shop for ‘cuts’ ranging from Rs 150-350.

The styles on offer are varied, and becoming of any self-respecting salon.

Parekh offers the "prince step", the layered look, as well as the entire range of cuts — bob, mushroom, Italian mushroom, feather, U and even V.

The innovations, however, did not start with Parekh, but with his father.

"My father started using fire to cut hair. He used to cut hair by torching the ends with a lighted candle," Parekh said.

"The trouble with candlelight, however, was that the hot wax would drop on the customer’s scalp. He had to be helped by an assistant to prevent that.

"So I thought what if I use a gas lighter in place of the candle. I tried it out, successfully, about a year ago." Parekh’s fame has taken him to Mumbai, Pune and Nasik for demonstrations-cum-workshops.

"I wanted to do something unusual, something beyond the ordinary. I can claim that I am the only one in the country or possibly the world who uses fire flame to set hair," said the man who could study only up to Class X. — IANS