KZBlog

I went to get my haircut this weekend at, I might note, a fairly expensive (but conveniently located) salon. There was a sign on the door that said

We asked about this and the salon workers told us that the akimat dreamed this up. The salon claims that staff of the akimat came to every salon in Astana and told them participate in the program or they could be shut down or audited for taxes.

Obviously this led to some ill will on the part of the salons. They said the program was incredibly stupid because if they are forced to give free or cheap haircuts, they aren’t going to take the time to do a great job. Further, they claim that almost no one showed up for the free haircut, and people are showing up outside the designated hours and demanding their free haircuts, threatening to complain to the akimat, etc. etc. They also say that some percentage of their clientele are pensioners or veterans who have the cash for a good haircut, manicure, pedicure, etc, and these people will now come when it’s free. Finally, the fact is that there are salons whose business is serving older people, with low-priced decent haircuts, and these places will likely go out of business.

Overall, if everything we were told is true (and I have no way of verifying this), it seems like a step backwards. Instead of giving pensioners more money, they give them free, low-quality services. Instead of trying to generate voluntary, good-will inspired altruism and community, they force businesses to participate in programs that will hurt them. One can’t help but wonder if pensioners really need haircuts and a savings of a whole 300-800 tenge a month! Did someone in the akimat see a group of old people with bad hairstyles and think, “How inappropriate for our beautiful new capital that there should be ugly people in it?” Or perhaps someone’s grandfather is a veteran with fast-growing hair?