Refusing to come of age

In the last few months (more than a year actually)I started going to the kinyozi early on Sunday morning. One of the benefits of not having itchy feet on Saturday evening is that I sleep early go for the 730 mass and then have a whole hangi free day to myself. But it is weird that I get a lot less done than when I used to stagger into the house at between 2 and 4 pm. I like going to the Kinyozi before 10am to avoid long queues. I cannot stand the wait especially since they take much longer fixing up a guy now that they decided to also be washing peoples heads after they cut the hair. I also like knowing that I will get the same person to cut my hair. I like the predictability and knowing that later that evening or the next morning I will not be looking at my head and thinking I look weird. Most of all I get the same guy to shave me because I do not have to explain to him how I want my hair cut. How do you go about explaining how long or short you want your hair. Your are left saying stuff like, 'Refu kidogo kushinda yako' which of course they guy does not understand so he first shaves the top of your head and asks, Hivyo? and all you can say is Sawa since the hair is already gone.

There is a guy who usuallys also goes in for his haircut at around the same time as me. I guess he is in his mid to late 40s and usually comes with his 3 or 4 year old kid who I bet begs to come with him but soon gets bored of the waiting and starts in and out of the barber shop making car, train, sounds to my great irritation. This guy does not usually just come for a hair cut, he also gets his hair dyed black. The process of dying the hair is quite interesting first the hair is cut, then the barber wears some gloves and applies dye on what i presume to be the white spots. I always wonder about the gloves. Are they to prevent the barber from getting very black hands or to protect them from the corrosive dye he is applying on somebodys scarf. After the dye is applied the guy has to sit around for another 15 minutes or so waiting for it to dry, set or whatever it is. I thought the guy was weird until this past Sunday when I found two guys sitted at the kinyozi's in a manner to suggest that they had just gotten their hair dyed.

I cannot be too far from getting white hair. I find myself wondering why anyone would want to hide the fact that they have white hair. Is it because Kalonzo does it? I think Koffi Annan looks pretty distinguished with his white hair and goatee. We were grown to believe that respecting our elders is the right thing to do so I would imagine white hair is desirable since it earns you respect. Are guys with white hair discriminated against? Forced into retirement or taken advantage off? I really struggle to understand why anyone would want to pretend to be younger than they are.