Deluxe Saloon Proves That India’s Barber Shop Nostalgia Is More Than Just An Aesthetic

Deluxe Saloon is a digital archive that captures the unmistakable atmosphere of Indian barber shops through music playlists filled with classics by artists such as Kumar Sanu, Alka Yagnik, and S.P. Balasubrahmanyam. The project taps into a growing nostalgia for neighbourhood salons and the cultural memories associated with them. At the same time, it raises questions about how everyday practices are romanticised by those who no longer participate in them.

I remember the first time I went to the barber shop with my dad when I was around seven years old. Until then, I had only gone to white-light-lit, posh salons with my mum that charged ₹400 for a haircut. Here I was, perched opposite my dad as the barber, the same one he had been going to for the past couple of years, cut his hair with precision, but also with an air of absolute ease. There was always some old Hindi song playing in the background, and the place was guaranteed to make you feel more relaxed than any spa, with its constant gabbing and a guaranteed massage if you were a good tipper.

No wonder, someone wanted to capture the feeling you get inside a saloon. Which is exactly what Yash Bharadwaj did with Deluxe Saloon, a website that plays music found across Indian salons. With YouTube Music & Spotify links to playlists that have absolute bangers from Kumar Sanu and Alka Yagnic to S.P Balasubramaniam, the music will transport you to that strangely shaped but weirdly comfortable chair, amidst the furious, yet calming snipping of scissors. 

We tend to glamorise these seemingly mundane experiences — like going to the salon or wearing gajra in our hair — treating them as relics of the past rather than daily practices for many people. It might just be because they are easy to romanticise and difficult to actually make a part of our privildged worlds. For many people who look back on them with a sense of nostalgia, these things simply do not fit into their aesthetic. They only want the parts that are palatable to them — the music, the posters, the atmosphere — but actually walking into a saloon to get a haircut does not sit right with them. Because the traditional saloon is more and more catering to a certain class, and the people who use websites like Deluxe Saloon are by-and-large, not part of that class.

Projects like Deluxe Saloon are incredibly creative and well-researched initiatives that tap into a nostalgic longing for simpler times, when the only inspiration you had for your haircut was Salman Khan from 'Tere Naam' or Jennifer Aniston from 'Friends'. But it is also important to note that saloon and hajam culture have existed long before we started romanticising them. And they will continue to exist regardless of whether the upper classes choose to see them or not.

Check out Deluxe Saloon here.

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