Mangaluru (The Hindu): He belongs to the Bhajantri community and comes from a lineage of nadaswara players. A hairstylist by profession, he has been honoured for his social service at the Akhila Bharatha Kannada Sahitya Sammelana. What is the connection between sahitya (literature) and hairdressing, you wonder? Walk in to V. Harish’s New Modern Bombay Men’s Parlour on Southend Road at Basavanagudi and you would be amazed at the modest shop lined with photos of most Kannada literary personalities, along with rows of books stacked for distribution.

The writers and their works are popularised here by taking their identities beyond their pens. It’s their hairstyle, beard, eyebrow and facial looks that have been observed keenly by Harish’s family since his father’s time, when they were hairdressers to well-known personalities, including literary stalwarts such as Nittur Srinivasa Rao, G.S. Shivarudrappa and Champa.

A master at work

Mr. Harish, 59, who charges Rs. 100 for cutting and shaving, has been a barber for 40 years. He never went to school nor enrolled in any formal diploma in hair styling, instead imbibing the nuances of the art from his father Basavanagudi Venkateshappa, turning them into his signature cuts and styles.

At his salon, customers can choose between a Kuvempu mushroom cut, a Shivaram Karanth scissor cut, Girish Karnad's thread-like thick eyebrow, Chandrashekara Kambara’s face bleach, Masti’s machine cut, Gokak’s oil massage, or Da Ra Bendre’s silken shave. Rajkumar’s make-up is also done. “I wish I had done Rajkumar and Vishnuvardan’s hairstyling,” Mr. Harish wishes.

Distributing books

“Karnataka has been lucky. Our Jnanpith awardees, Rahtrakavis and many other poets and writers as Kuvempu, Shivram Karanth, Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Nissar Ahmed, Master Hirannaiah, U.R. Ananthamurthy, Girish Karnad and others have distinct styles that can be underlined. In my passion to create awareness for their work and do my bit for popularising Kannada, I have been projecting these styles, which writers wore to publicise them as heritage Karnataka styles. Also, during the one month of Rajyothsava, I distribute Kannada Sahitya books to nearly 60 plus people a day,” says Mr. Harish.

This Rajyothsava month too will see Harish and his sons H.Girish and H. Venkatesh, and his brother T. Sudarshan distributing nearly 2,000 books in Kannada for their customers. “It is 35 years since my father attended to the hairdressing for 94-year-old freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy, 108-year-old Sudhakar Chaturvedi and 104-year-old lexicographer Venkatasubbaiah. As a family, we feel blessed to be taking forward this art of hairdressing and facial beauty,” says Girish, adding that even the ‘Dhoni cut’ and ‘Kohli cut’ that people ask for are like the good old Kuvempu and Karanth cuts.

Deserves recognition

That’s not all. The Harish family takes up free hairdressing for hundreds of people at orphanages and old age homes as a regular service on actors Rajkumar and Vishnuvardhan’s birthdays. No wonder writers like Bargur Ramachandrappa, Pundalika Halambi, Champa and G.S. Shivarudrappa have often said Mr. Harish’ s service needs to be recognised bigger ways.