Paresh Chandra Pattnaik of Dhenkanal town, who retired as an Art Teacher from the Government High School in the year 2012, has curiously had never sought help of a barber for the last 35 years to have his haircut.
When asked, Pattnaik told The Pioneer that he is not having his hair dressed for the purpose of saving money.
Rather, the art of trimming his hair by himself has become his hobby after he joined a Naval camp for training as an NCC teacher at Kanya Kumari in the year 1981.
Paresh Pattnaik, who hails from a middle class family and is the son of poet late Kabibhushan Raj Kishore Pattnaik, said that the day he reached the Naval camp, Army officials asked a barber to round cut his hair to very small size.
But from that day, he began cutting his hair simply with the help of a mirror and a pair of scissors and combing it even after his return from three months of training, he said.
Pattnaik said he was also inspired by his father when he found the latter was cutting his hair with the help of a comb, a mirror and scissors.
Further, Paresh Pattnaik added that he had cut the hair of his daughters and stitched their dresses when they were children.
Pattnaik, who qualified from the Khalikote College of Arts in the discipline of Fine Art after his Pre-Professional degree from the Dhenkanal College, makes doormats (Papochh) for his house.
Besides, he is simultaneously a play writer, a serial artist and a film artist. He had acted in Odia serials Mausi and Swabhiman and also in Odia film Drama.