Vanity

It turns out I share a vanity with Indian gentlemen - the desire to cover my grey hair. After whining about my hair for the last 2 weeks I finally got tired of listening to myself the other day and splurged on a visit to a salon in Jaipur. The salon boys did a lovely job, and freshly coloured and blown-dry for the first time in a couple months, I felt like a movie star. It's a look the local 50 plus male crowd are going for as well, but perhaps with slightly less success. The cost-conscious gentleman can pay 5 rupees (15-20 cents) for a large bag of henna, which, when applied to white and grey hair, turns it a bright, almost neon orange. At first I wondered whether orange hair had its roots (ha! I kill me) in some religious tradition, but my Group Leader Sunny explained that it was just a combination of vanity and frugality. Unfortunately, contrasted against their naturally black hair, the application of henna actually fails miserably at subtley achieving its objective. Instead, it just sort of screams 'Yes, I'm going grey, please look at me'. I've turned into a paparazzi in the last couple of days, desperate to capture an image. So far the shot has eluded me, as I'm always riding by in a rickshaw and my subject ends up being blurry. Or I'm in a situation where it would be incredibly obvious that I am taking the photograph of an old Indian man, and well, that would just attract attention I really don't need. But I'm determined, so stay tuned.