Of hair and Philippine culture

A cut at last: Barbershops and salons were allowed to reopen in the Philippines early this month after over two months of lockdown amid the Covid-19 outbreak. — Reuters

“WHAT happened to your hair?”

For the first time in months, I was visiting my long-time barber, Roger Rivera. A fellow mountaineer, Roger has been my barber since I was a graduate student and whenever I got back from long trips, he would immediately spot changes in my hair as surely he did when I arrived at Jing Monis Salon a few weeks ago, wearing a face mask.