In "New Bazaar", across the street from home, is Purnima's where, on a Friday afternoon in February, I finally got a hair cut--long overdue.
The range of services covers most everything, except hair washing and drying. Plus, there's the added benefit of house calls.
After 45 minutes worth of work, it turned out just fine. Cost: $0.65 plus tip.
Purnima was gracious about taking "before" and "after" pictures. That seemed the least intrusive way to record the interior of her shop.
In a later conversation with her, she has had the shop for two years. For a decade before that, she worked in a factory across from her apartment about one kilometer up the street owned by her husband's family. The factory made letters, perhaps signs as well, out of sheet metal.
Purnima has a sister in Scotland working as a nurse and a sister-in-law in a small shop a block away working as a seamstress. Limited by her 10th grade education, Purnima would love to find a way to work for several years in one of the Arab countries on the Persian Gulf--a strategy used by many Nepalese to earn money to improve their circumstances here in Nepal.
Update:
Purnima came to the house yesterday to introduce the woman who will be taking over her shop for the next two years. Purnima is leaving in two weeks for Dubai. She has a two-year contract through an agency to work as a hair stylist. She is leaving behind her husband of 13 years and her nine year old daughter.
