When scissor and needle get to work

Hakim's Aaalim salon, where many a Bollywood star and cricketer have surrendered their mane to or skin to be pierced into a tattoo has a new address in town. We bring you back a report card

When scissor and needle get to work

Hakim's Aaalim salon, where many a Bollywood star and cricketer have surrendered their mane to or skin to be pierced into a tattoo has a new address in town. We bring you back a report card

Hakim's Aaalim has changed the looks of many in Bollywood. From Sanjay Dutt to Deepika Padukone, top actors have at least once experienced the magic touch of his scissors. And, so when one of the most sought after hairstylists in the country opened his shop in Namma Oru Bengaluru, we decided to stop by.

Hakim visits the Bangalore store from time to time on requests and demands. The salon that mostly offers haircuts, skin and hair spa and tattoos, is done up in shiny black panels, life size mirrors, quirky, colourful portraits of Aaalim himself and his team of hairstylists. The salon is divided into an area for washing hair and the other into a zone for hairstyling and spa. The reception area is designed like a lounge and you can spend time gaping at several framed pictures of Aalim in company of tinsel town stars and cricketers. A couple of rooms inside are meant for tattooing and hair treatments.

A Face Off
Visiting Hakim's Aalim and not getting a haircut would be a waste. With this thought we chose to experience a haircut, fruit facial, hair spa and tattooing. While my friend was ushered in the tattoo studio, I was suggested to try the Fruity Facial (R 750). The salon also offers pearl facial, face clean up, gold facial and more. With curtains drawn, the small room where I was taken was clean and cozy. As I lay down while my face was scrubbed, cleaned and massaged with the fruity cream containing extracts of apple, orange and more. I felt relaxed. A good 45 minutes later I woke up to find my skin fresh, supple and glowing.

A Style File
A haircut at Hakim's Aaalim can be steep and is priced at R 850 onwards. If you want the top stylist to snip your locks, then you have to dish out R 1,100. After a long chat, the top stylist suggested a natural look and advised me not to shorten the length and keep my curls intact. After the initial shampooing and conditioning, she took nearly 20 minutes tou00a0 snip, shape and style my locks into a hairstyle which made my curls frame my face naturally. The layers fell at the right places giving the hair a bouncy but not an unmanageable look. For someone like me with curly hair, this cut looked perfect as it gave me a chance to flaunt the style and also to tie my hair into a small ponytail when required.

Designs on you
While this reviewer had made up her mind to get a tattoo done on her right wrist, the idea of getting pricked was not very exciting to be honest. Choosing the smallest possible tattoo designs, in this case symbols of love, peace, a smiley, a star and the Apple logo (yes I wanted everything from world peace to sheer consumerism). The two tattoo artists present sketched out my requested designs in the right proportion and showed it to me. They assured me that the prick will feel exactly like an injection and not more. They put on some soothing music, explained the process of the tattooing in detail and told me that they would only prick the surface of the skin and not go deeper.

After tracing out the shapes on my wrist, one of the artists set to work on it. And he was right, there was just a wee bit of a prick as if i had been bitten by an ant. My tattoo hardly took fifteen minutes, though after the first five minutes when the artists filled in the heart and the star symbols it did burn a bit. Post the tattoo, I was given instructions as to how to take care of it for the next ten days. My tattoo looked exactly like I would have imagined it to be.

At Hakim's Aalim, 20/1-1, Eliza Manor, Lavelle Road
Call 42110380
For Rs 2000 including haircut and hair spa and tattoos, Rs 2,500 first 3 square inches after which it is Rs 600 per square inch.