Sun Flower Chinese Beauty Parlour

The Sun Flower Chinese Beauty Parlour opened in 1979. Our neighbor, Thoshi Dadi, has been coming here every fortnight since, for the past 38 years. She gets her hair blow-dried and coiled into an elegant bun by a lady named Pinky, a second-generation Indian of Chinese descent, who's known Thoshi Dadi all these decades. Today, Thoshi Dadi took Nani and I to meet Pinky--me for a haircut, and Nani to have her eyebrows shaped. If you look carefully in the photo above, you can see Pinky greeting us at the door.

Inside, there's only one hair-washing sink and shelves filled with old, half-empty shampoos and hair tonics. Large women with curlers in their hair sit behind plastic curtains eating lunch.

A lady carrying samosas and ladoos (an Indian sweet) walks around to the customers selling her wares.

When Pinky's done with me, I look like those housewives from the 60s, with pouffy hair, all bouncy and popping outwards at the edges. "You look so beautiful," says Thoshi Dadi proudly. And strangely, in this odd little gem of a parlor from another era, I actually feel it.