By Rabindra Rooplall

THOSE of us who enjoy an old-fashioned scissors trim encounter great difficulty when searching for a reliable barber with this ability.

But there is one available: Fifty-nine-year-old Tullahram Dass, popularly called “Tullah,” who has been cutting hair since the age of 14.

Once you spot a classic Wolseley, PS 874, parked at Light Street, Alberttown, Tullah is most likely in the barber’s shop, doing to a grateful client what he has been doing best for 45 years. No wonder he is considered one of the most senior barbers in the country, and one of the few who mostly use scissors.

“In order to become a barber, you have to have love for the profession; a dedication, a passion to please each customer that sits to have themselves groomed,” Tullah confided.

“You have to fully appreciate what a person’s appearance means to them. If you don’t, you’re in the wrong business,” he cautioned.

He defines what he does as tonsorial art, thus he and his ilk can be referred to as tonsorial artists. But we’ll leave that for a bit later.

Tullah says not all barbers can “properly cut or deal with” various types and textures of hair…or shapes of heads. He says the reason for this limitation is that most new barbers depend totally on appliances such as the electric trimmer.

“The older men who have grown accustomed to the scissors trim have fallen prey, or victim if you will, to the abundance of barbers who have abandoned the scissors-and-comb style.

“You need to have some flexibility or your work will be ordinary. You can’t restrict yourself to one thing,” Tullah confided.

He says many of the current crop of barbers have entered the profession not for the love of cutting hair, but for the monetary benefit.

Then he spoke of the respect:
“In my time, and how I know it, barbers never wore anything else but a white gown…in any part of the world; but now, if you go around and check barber shops, there are all different colours that have no meaning.

“It may sound unbelievable, but in the olden days barbers performed some surgeries,” he said, perhaps referring to medieval Europe, when a barber’s trusty blade was depended on to not only cut the hair of soldiers, but to amputate limbs and much more during or after a battle.

“The barber and the doctor used to wear the same colour gown, and this was because in ancient time barbers did a lot of the cutting of patients, and not the doctor, as some doctors never used a blade.

“I was trimming a young man’s hair who worked in the medical profession one day, and he was wearing a green outfit. When I asked if he knew that green was supposed to be used only in a theatre to perform surgery, and the white gown was for the office, he said it didn’t matter.

“Then I told him that’s why things are how they are, because there are no standards.”

He continues: “Take, for instance, the use of a barber pole, which I once had in my shop. This was to let persons know where they could find a barber shop. No one needs to know the language of any country they are in to figure out that where the barber pole is, is where they can go and get a hair trim. You could go and check it,” he invited.

I did later learn from research on the Internet that the two spiralling red and white candy striped ribbons around the pole represent two long bandages, one twisted around the arm before bleeding and the other used to bind it afterward.

Originally, when not in use, the pole, a bandage wound around it so that both might be together when needed, was hung at the door as a sign. But later, for convenience, instead of hanging out the original pole, another one was painted in imitation of the first and given a permanent place on the outside of the shop. This was the beginning of the modern barber’s pole.

It was clear that this ordinary man had not only spent over four decades of his life trimming the hair of thousands of clients who trusted and believed in his expertise, but, in many ways, he had made the profession a study.

“Let me tell you…I had a sign on my barbershop that said ‘Tonsorial art done here by Tullah’ and the amount of questions I had to answer from clients about the meaning of tonsorial art and who is doing the art, and what is the art, I decided to take down the sign!” he declared.

He explains that tonsorial art relates to the work of a barber, and specific hairstyles have meanings. Giving an example, Tullah says making parts in the hair has great significance.

“When a man got married, for instance, he carried a middle part in his hair. When a man is a master, he has a left part in his head; and when you are a widower, there is a right part in your head. But now people put a part as a style. It is the same thing with people wearing rings on their fingers. Each finger has a meaning, but people just wear rings for style, without understanding the significance,” Tullah explained.

The maximum period he would spend on trimming or cutting a customer’s hair is 15 minutes.
“I have been standing on my feet for hours every day for decades, and I have no sickness. That (good health) is very important for a barber; trust me,” he declared.

Currently operating in Alberttown, Tullah noted that his cuts have been influenced by senior barbers who took pride in their talent.

“I learn from the old-timers, and I am very glad about that. I think they were the best. My styles have varied over the decades, yet they keep some resemblance over time.

“The thing is that the same styles would come back every decade or so with a different name. The fade, as you know it now, was called the tapered cut, but it’s really the same thing,” Tullah explained.

Tullah has, for the past 38 years, been husband to Carmen Dass. Their union has produced two children, a boy and a girl.