It is a hair dressing saloon. But, it is raising eyebrows. Not for any new tonsorial style or celebrity hairdo. But for its hair-raising decision not to clean-shave.
That is Safa Hair Dressing Saloon for you. An innocuous notice put up at the saloon, tucked away in a lane at Kurmaguda in Saidabad, has set tongues wagging. Come October 30, and Muslim customers will not be able to avail the clean shave facility here. However, non-Muslims are exempted from this condition, the notice says.
“No need to feel surprised. Muslim men are not supposed to go in for a clean shave,” explains Mohd. Nazeer (30), the saloon’s proprietor, who himself sports a full beard.
As the deadline nears, the no-clean-shave decision has become a topic of animated debates among customers. “Yes, Muslims are expected to grow beard. It is a sin to clean-shave,” says Saleemuddin, an elderly man.
Youngsters like Imran, too, agree but maintain that it is rather early for them to sport a beard. “I might have to scout for some other saloon,” says the man in his 30s.
But, the saloon owner remains unfazed. “People are free to do as they please. But, I won’t commit the sin of clean-shaving Muslim men. The least I can do is trim their beard,” says Nazeer.
Though he has been running the saloon for the last five years, it is only now he has decided to stop clean-shaving Muslim men. “I may lose a few customers, but it doesn’t matter,” he says.
The soft-spoken Nazeer has stocked a good number of books on Islam, including a Telugu translation of the Quran, at his saloon. He gifts them to customers who show interest. “I try to dispel the wrong notions about Islam to the best of my capacity,” he says.
