The salon’s atmosphere is more like a temple – with incense and devotional music floating through its neatly-kept interiors. Kerala Hairdressers, Pondy Bazaar, that's been in existence since 1939. “They’re all in a hurry to get a haircut and get on with their routine.” “Customers don’t have the time to admire all this these days,” he feels. Mathivanan, though, is very matter-of-fact about his workplace. The oldest relic in the salon is a framed photo of Gandhiji that Mathivanan’s father got autographed when the Mahatma visited Madras in the 40s. Customers have dwindled, but he still draws the regulars, who find comfort in the polished wooden chairs they’ve sat on for years. Mathivanan hasn’t changed the workings-on at the salon much. Vanakkam red oxide floors panels of Belgian mirrors framed in Burma teak and pista-green wooden beams across the high, whitewashed ceiling. Jothi has been done up like a typical salon of its times - concave green glass doors with a hand-painted picture of a boy in shorts saying “They were my father’s clients,” says Mathivanan. Karunanidhi and the late Murasoli Maran and actor Jaishankar were in their prime.

Jothi’s history can be traced back to the days when M. “In the past, there wasn’t a day that went by without my customers discussing what was in them.” The salon was set up in 1952 by his father S.P. He points to a clump of newspapers on plastic chairs. Mathivanan, proprietor of Jothi Hair Dressers, as he sits on a chair at the entrance of his salon on a dull afternoon, waiting for customers. Jothi Hair Dressers, in Royapettah, that's been in existence since 1952. Frozen in a time when they did roaring business, they take us back to the city of Madras, where streets were calmer and people had time to savour little luxuries like haircuts and shaves. They opened their doors to electric trimmers, hair dryers and steamers modified and air-conditioned their interiors.

Friendships were formed over the ‘snip, snip’ of hair dressers’ scissors opinions were shared as Ilaiyaraaja blared on the radio at the counter.

This was what salons were for, a few decades ago.

Back in time barber shop