Delhiwale: A lady dastango’s go-to salon

The historic SRG Unisex Salon in Connaught Place blends heritage with modern vibes, featuring elegant decor and frequented by storyteller Fouzia.

The first thing that arrests the gaze is the row of hand-woven chairs with polished wooden armrest. You no longer see such super-elegant chairs. They must be truly old. Then the gaze is hijacked by the three low-hanging fans suspended from the unusually high ceiling. One of these has to be an antique—indeed it doesn’t function anymore, and is here merely for the show. Then the gaze turns to the grand entry door, as tall as two Amitabh Bachchans.

Fouzia is being attended to by his colleague Simmy. (HT)

Finally, you notice the celebrity in the room—storyteller Fouzia. Delhi’s pioneering woman dastango, she is having her hair coloured (reddish-brown, if you must know). Fouzia has been a patron of SRG Unisex Salon since 2002. The initials in the salon’s name stand for Shamsur Rahim Gaur, the salon’s founder. His grandson Mujeeb Ur Rehman now administers the landmark. Standing in Connaught Place since 1934, the establishment is almost as old as the colonial-era shopping arcade. (One of CP’s other landmarks, Oriental Food Mart, came up in 1935.)

Despite a major restoration a decade ago, when the salon dismantled its wooden cabins, the place evokes an intense feel of heritage. Yet it doesn’t overdo the bhoola-bhisra nostalgia. Unless you count Michael Jackson as nostalgia. This afternoon, his hits are playing in the salon. In fact, the in-house music tend to be English pop numbers from the 1960s to 2000s, those being the favourite of the aforementioned Mujeeb, the salon’s premier stylist. The man is dapper, presently dressed in brown shoes with red laces, blue denim pants clasped tight with a DSQUARED2 logo-buckle leather belt, and black-rimmed Phillip Lim glasses. (And he commutes on an Enfield!) Indeed, the stylish Mujeeb must be vastly different in appearance from his great-grandfather, who was a Sufi mystic, and whose shrine lies in UP.