Beauty & Grooming  Discussion Forum

Dear xyz,

Don’t you have enough courage to disclose identity? Anyway….
Yes sir! When anyone offers her/his hair at Temple, it doesn’t matter who is the barber. For you it’s ok, as I guess you are not a girl/woman. But for a girl like me matters a most!
When a lady visits such holy place, She sits if front of barber with devotion. But the barber touches her with vulgar thought… Isn’t it disgusting? Won’t you feel angry, if you would have been a girl?
I read in newspaper & on Internet about lots of women devotees have complained that they have had to suffer the lewd looks and touches of the male barbers when they go to tonsure their heads.
I agree that not all male barbers are same. But still I wish, I should do my tonsure from female barber.
As this is my first experience, I am worried about it.

Kalpana

Hi Kalpana,
Your concerns are genuine to some extent. Here is what the temple authorities have in place to prevent such incidents.
1 > The tokens issued to the devotees (male / female) for geting their heads tonsured are all computerised tickets and at the entrance of the kalyana katta hall, just before the queue gets distributed to the available barbers, the computer operator sees who is requesting the token (male or female) and enters the same in the computer and so for all female devotees the token numbers will be of those barbers specially identified to shave female devotees as a priority and they take care to select the barbers based on their history (number ofcomplains) and aslo they are mostly slightly old barbers who are seasoned and its less likely the female devotees feel uncomfortable. So if you go the barber as indicated in the token you are to some extent taking are of your concerns...

2 > When people who go in groups or either family, they request for tokens in a group and that's when there is no one-to-one binding of the devotee to the barber, and since the whole family would be around the female devotee getting herself tonsured, they are okey with such arrangement...

3 > They have camera's mounted all over the place and so there cannot be too much of forcable / unwanted tocuhing of the barbers....

4 > In addition to all this people can have the pleasure of having a barber come to the cottage and shave the female devotees according to their comfort in the presence of other family members, that another way of avoiding what you just mentioned...
5 > In the current day I myself know of many girls / women getting their heads shaved in te beauty parlours and then carry the hair and deposit it in the hyundai, that is also acceptable.. In face in one of the uni sex salon I visit (Nayana), one female came to the saloon and got herself completely shaved, and she was sitting net to me and she was telling that it was a offering to Tirumala, so they took care to collect the hair in locks and give it to her, that was a smoot shave by another female barber and so that is another option... But then I notice that most females who visit the saloon prefer to have ther haircut / washed etc by male barbers when femlale stylists are available,, may be some enjoy the same and some like you might not like the same....

Hay so that's some explanation I had to share with all you folks out there.... leeme know if you what wish to share your experiences with me at ramadu72atyahoodotcom.. bye -Ram

Actually;I did not know about this fact.
Anyway;I cannot help the matter though.I
feel sorry for writing without knowing the real fact(as a boy; I had visited Tirumala seven years ago last).I think people must also complain this to the temple board so that it serves as a warning to them.Please;write about your experirnce here later.All the best to you.