Confessions of a Hairdresser

It was a normal visit to the salon - after the photoshoot I had the other day, my hair was just abnormal; it was like tali rafia knotted together and I was walking around with a rug on my head like that was what it literally looked like. It's almost semi-afro and semi-dreads.

I shampooed, and it got worst. The amount of hairspray they piled on my hair was just insane. So I made a visit to the salon - a place I haven't been a long time (hello black roots and split-ends), to get my hair fixed.

Little did I know, I was about to get more than just hair treatment - a spiritual talk, a penny for the thought, by none other than the hairdresser. A note though, this is not your normal salon; it's one of those dodgy ones that noone goes to (yeah I needed something fast and wallet-friendly).

So this hairdresser is 35 years old (she told me), and let's call her Kak Nor. So Kak Nor is an Indonesian who has been working and living here in Malaysia with her husband for many years. She dresses like any normal "urban" woman would dress - purple blouse (with a little bit of cleavage just enough to tease the mature-men's imagination), black leggings, 4-inch flip-flops and large loop earrings. Her hair was..never mind.

So she had that dozy look on her when I got in, asked me what I wanted and quickly attempted to
kill me with the water-proof robe she choked at my neck.

"Sit", she said.

Noone else was in the salon. Great, I thought. I'm gonna perish in her hands.


Then she started massaging my head with shampoo. The lather tipples down my forehead and nearly got in my eye. I didn't dare move to wipe it off.

I looked at her through the mirror and she looked at me.

"Puasa tak adik?", she asked. I nodded.

"Kakak ni, dulu jahil - puasa kadang-kadang je. Tarawikh, lagi tak pernah!" she said, sounding almost surprised with herself.

I didn't react anything, as I don't want to either encourage or insult her. So I just nodded, to indicate that I'm listening. At intervals, I would look down at the  Hello! Magazine she handed me earlier from a year ago.

She continued with her life story.

"Tapi Ramadhan kali ni, akak terasa sangat-sangat. Rasa mukjizat dia. Akak puasa, lepas tu akak pergi tarawikh. Semalam, buat pertama kali dalam hidup akak, akak buat Solat Tasbih. Ya Allah dik, rasa macam magic tau nggak!"


She speaks Malay fluently, but sometimes her Indonesian accent surface.

"Entah lah nak cakap macam mana dik, akak rasa jahil sangat sebelum ni, baru aku tau tinggi rendah langit tuh!"


And then she continues. She told me she hadn't sleep for the past few nights, as she joined the group around her house to 'submit' themselves in prayer in the wee hours. I've always been told that this is the best time to pray - when everyone else is asleep.

She said during the day, she spent more time than she used to to think about Islam. Submitting to God has been the best thing that's ever happened to her, she said. Now she truly understood how people can sacrifice anything and/or everything in the name of God. She felt small, and I saw her shed a tear as she spoke the words to me. I thought shampoo got into her eyes.

"Dik, kalau lah ada satu nasihat yang akak boleh bagi, nanti kau keluar dari kedai ni akak nak kau masih ingat nasihat ni; apa yang kita pakai kat luar ni hanyalah hiasan, benda zahir, tapi kalau hati kau bersih dik, Tuhan pasti sayang kau.. 


Akak nak tanya, bila kau puasa, kau lapar tak? Lapar kan? Jadi supaya tak lapar kita kena makan kan? Kita kena makan nasi, sayuran, minum air supaya badan sihat. Itu semua untuk badan..untuk jasad kita. Roh kau, kau bagi makan tak?"


Err, tak pasti lah kak, I answered almost quizzically. I wanted to know where she's getting at.

"Roh kita pun kita kena bagi makan tau..tau apa makanan roh? Zikir lah! Zikir tu adalah makanan roh kita. Bila akhirat nanti, amalan zikir kita lah yang jadi bekalan makanan kita.. Badan kita akan sakit dan mati. Roh kita hanya sakit, kalau kita tak bagi dia khasiat, tapi dia tak akan mati. Roh kita kekal sampai bila-bila. Jadi dik, kau kena bagi bekal secukupnya dekat roh kau.."


Wow. That really got to me. Have I got enough "food" for my soul? By the time she finished blow-drying my hair, I just got goosebumps all over me. I felt scared. She told me I shouldn't be scared, but to be grateful that I still have time to make a change.

One final thing she told me:

"Kau tau dik, orang yang sembahyang tunggang-terbalik pun belum tentu masuk syurga. Inikan lagi orang macam akak ni. Dalam berbilion-bilion orang dalam dunia ni, cuma 88,000 orang saja yang akan masuk syurga Ustaz tu kata. Kau fikir dik, berapa ramai orang ada dalam duni ni sekarang? Tak kira lagi orang dari zaman-zaman dulu! Wallahu'alam lah dik, mungkin yang lain tu akan terima hukuman dulu baru masuk syurga..apa pun kita cubalah yang terbaik.."

Sigh. Too much information from a hairdresser. As I step out from the salon, my head got heavier, my mind thinking and I felt almost numb. But in a good way, you know? Like an eye-opener.

However heavy I felt after, I still think that I'll definitely make another visit there; not only my hair looks wayyyy better, but she also gave me a discount, a free sample of hair tonic, and one really good lecture.

Funny how random people can affect you.