So I had nothing to do and I went for a haircut. I went to the usual salon that I visited over the years. To be exact 13 years. 13 years is a long time, and some of the hairstylists had come and go. It was a cozy evening and I had one of the longest serving hairsylists serving me. She is my favorite hairstylist, probably 10-15 years older than me, I dont know her name. She has been there ever since my first visit when I was 15 or 16 years old. There is this uncanny relationship that we have. Not that I have a crush on her but somehow she knew what kind of hairstyle I want and what style suited me. We never exchanged more than 2 lines of words. Our conversation are limited to what occupation i'm in and if i'm busy with my life.
I dont visit the salon all the time and not every time that I visited the salon I will get her to serve me. She might not be around or could be serving her off days. What prompted me to write was today's experience made me realised that this hairsylists that I had, always took longer time than usual to cut my hair. Not that she is slow but she always made more effort and I started to observe her attention to details. I was never bother by it because in today's context, everyone especially guys, want our haircut to be fast which is nothing wrong. But we never really enjoyed the process. After the haircut I felt fresh and good but not only that I felt she is different from many hairsylists. I could feel she really 用心 cut my hair which is different. She dont have to because after all the effort, my hair will grew just the same in the end and I still pay the same money but she did it anyway. Other hairstylists made me felt i'm just another customer, its just another haircut, its just a job, its just a service. I can't explained fully. I wanted to document it down because I hope when the opportunity arises I will like to make an artistic haircut scene much like wong kar wai style set in 60s/70s.
I once watched a food variety show on TV. Its about a unique hawker stalls that sells seafood bak ku teh. The chef shared that before he came out with this unique receipe, he was just selling bak ku teh. It was just like any other average stall. Not doing exceptional well nor bad. One day an Caucasian visited the stall besides his. It was a steamboat hawker, however on that very day the Caucasian visited, it was closed. He was a frequent visiter. He was disappointed because everytime he visits, he would bring along the fishes and seafood he caught to cooked on the steamboat. So he visited the chef stall and order ba ku teh. Then he put all his freshly caught seafood into the ba ku teh. The chef saw what he did and then invented the seafood bak kut teh. What favor! So after sharing his daily routine, recipe and story the host of the show asked, "Uncle so after you shared everything on the show, would you be afraid that people start to copy your recipe?". He answered "No no no I'm not afraid because I 用心 煮". When I heard it I was like wow what confident but at the same time what does he mean by 用心 煮? This puzzled me till now. Is it the attitude? But I know even if someone will to cook the same standard as him, over the years he had build good relationship with his customers, his food has also invoked a certain experience among the people. Thus I know his customers will not drop. Its amazing how sometimes our outlook and attitude in the small things we do can bring about such special experience to the people around us.
This article was written sometime ago but posted today
