Although it has just been over a month, Truefitt & Hill already commands a certain aura of extreme comfort which makes it stand out in the crowd. A high end establishment at a swanky address in the capital, catering exclusively to men, convinces you to splurge. Boasting of notable patrons like Charles Dickens, this one will demand a second visit from the dapper in you. Christy Varghese checks in
With the intention of appeasing my parents’ incessant badgering about looking shabby all the time and ever-reducing chances for prospective brides, I finally decided to pamper myself a bit. The mission brings me to Truefitt & Hill salon, sipping on some first rate in-house coffee.
I observe wall to wall wood panelling, tapping my feet to the lilting rhythmic blues playing in the background. Their tagline, “Grooming Men for Greatness”, seems very much appropriate after I find out that apart from Dickens, Truefitt has catered to glittering names such as Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Sinatra, Oscar Wilde and Sir Winston Churchill. Established in 1805, Truefitt & Hill is the world’s oldest barber shop, according to the Guinness Book of records, and are barbers and Royal Warrant holders to The Duke of Edinburgh. This officially gives them the right to service the British Royal Family as and when they demand or require it. I chide myself for making a big deal out of a “puny” haircut even if it is from the royal barbers.
That is when an extremely courteous Anisur Rehman interrupts my train of thoughts. While engaging in some friendly small talk, he leads me to my chair. As the soft-spoken barber sizes up my hair, I recall the receptionist telling me that she will have the best barber under Truefitt & Hill’s tutelage tend to my dishevelled bush and give me a shave as smooth as smooth can get. I silently, and fervently, hope that the receptionist doesn't call every barber here, as “the best barber that we have”. But my apprehension disappears in a short while though, probably due to the polite demeanour of Rehman.
Though he seems really intent on attending to my hair with extreme concentration, my attempt at provoking him into a steady conversation proves successful as he opens up about himself and, to a large extent, the esteemed establishment that employs him. He had been practising his trade in Mumbai for the past 17 years and came down to Delhi after passing an interview and a month of training to work here. “A quick and witty Englishman from Truefitt & Hill trained us in the techniques and customs attached to their culture. He embedded in us trainees the thought that whatever service we provide to a customer, one thing should always be kept in mind, the comfort of the client is priority number one. After having learnt that last lesson, I truly consider myself to be a part of Truefitt’s vast heritage”, Anisur tells me, while prancing around my chair with a pair of shiny scissors.
After he’s done trimming stray strands of hair to signal the conclusion of The Royal Haircut, he expectantly asks me for my opinion on his work. Well, I have to hand it to him, he has pulled off a miracle of some sorts. I never have liked the slick after-haircut look but even after trimming my hair to an extent which I consider brutally short, Rehman’s handiwork makes me look not so bad, on the whole. And no, I wasn't deliberately prodding myself on to be optimistic about it just because I’m spending some money on it.
When I mention this to him, he laughs, giving the products of Truefitt & Hill due credit for this miracle. “The products offered by the house of Truefitt & Hill are the cumulative results of over 209 years of research and intimate customer relationships”, he tells me. While there are several ranges to choose from, with each range having its own set of products under it, the colognes are the signature products here. To humour me, Rehman teases my olfactory senses with a brief whiff of every bottle that he has. Amongst them all, I find the essence of the West Indian limes and Freshman cologne captivating enough to linger on.
Since its initiation, the franchisee has released limited products and makes sure that the essential composition and the appearance of the products aren’t tampered with. Pointing to a bottle labeled C.A.R Cream, amongst several that are lying in front of me, Rehman recounts an interesting story. He tells me about an incident of somewhat epic proportions wherein one of the salvage operations, amongst numerous others, to retrieve valuable items from the wreckage of the RMS Titanic recovered a Truefitt & Hill product, C.A.R Cream. How much more closely entwined with history can this place get, I think to myself. Coaxed by my seemingly undying curiosity, he tells me more about Truefitt & Hill than the official website possibly could.
While he wraps my face in a hot towel to cleanse my face of any leftover foam after the careful, time consuming Royal Shave, Rehman tells me that every object touching my skin happens to be a Truefitt & Hill product, including the towels, razor and the shaving brush. I can hear my vibrating (due to the machine-aided face massage) mind squeal with delight when he tells me that the bristles of the brush consist of hand knotted badger hair.
Once he’s done, Rehman ceremoniously dusts me off before bidding me adieu. While wishing me well for all future endeavours, he recommends that I should experience the relaxing Royal Manicure and Pedicure as well. I had always assumed that getting a manicure or pedicure is an act more in sync with the opposite sex. But since I am really pleased with the dapper treatment that I have received from the oldest barber shop in the world, I decide to go with the flow and enroll myself for a pamper session as well.
While the pair of therapists assigned to me, Ajay Kumar and Rahab, tend to my hands and feet with the lavender-scented scrub before dipping my feet into a tub of warm water, I close my eyes. The soothing mellow aroma of the lavender bath salts complement the relaxation-inducing churning motions of the adequately warm water and both sensations combine to aid me in dropping into a trance like state.
Next thing I know, Ajay is swivelling my toes, one by one while Rahab is applying the fragrant massage cream. I must have dozed off or something as I can’t account for what happened in the past 15 minutes. When I express my panic at this unexpected occurence, Ajay assures me that he's used to clients dropping into a brief siesta while he’s “oiling their squeaky hinges”, which is how he described his massages. He tells me that during the brusque duration while I was asleep, he vigorously scrubbed my heels to get rid of the dead skin I had amassed over a lot of time before applying a lather of lavender-based moisturiser. Ajay laughs whole-heartedly when I declare that this whole procedure seems manageable enough to do it by myself, before asking me that why wasn’t I then taking the appropriate measures to care for my own skin, considering that it’s the only one I haveIJ Saving me from an embarrassing silence, he calmly proceeds to tell me how we humans are too engrossed in chasing the things they want, while shying away from doing the things they need, like taking proper care of ourselves. A pretty philosophical justification as to why we need to visit salons for a monthly manicure and pedicure, I think to myself.
But there’s no bad blood between us, Ajay’s honest, genuine smile tells me while he shakes my hand before I take my leave. While I descend the steps, I’m humming to the catchy tune I heard in the salon. I feel confident enough to approach a random stranger and strike a conversation and when she doesn’t shoo me away, I’m certain that I couldn’t have spent my money in a better way. And for that moment, after my “puny” haircut, I feel invincible. I feel like I have been finally “groomed for greatness”.
