I went to Southall today to get a variety of things including supplies for doing dance hair. This is my haul, showing you what I got, how much it was, how to use it and where I got it. First off though, I've talked about Southall an awful lot and some of you may be wondering what on earth it is. Southall is a large suburban district of west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Ealing. (Thanks Wiki!) Southall has one of the largest concentrations of South Asian people outside of the Indian sub-continent and is especially known for its concentration of Punjabis. (Oh Wikipedia you clever thing!) Southall is primarily a South Asian residential district, sometimes known as "Little India". According to the Commission for Racial Equality, over 55% of Southall's population of 70,000 is Indian/Pakistani. There are ten Sikh Gurdwaras in Southall. The Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, which opened in 2003, is one of the largest Sikh gurdwaras outside India. There are two large Hindu temples, more than ten Christian churches and three Mosques in Southall. In addition, the signs on the main railway station are bilingual in English and Gurmukhi, which is one of the written scripts of Punjabi. (all again thanks to Wikipedia.) So that's Southall, and it's the go to place for pretty much everything South Asian in the South of England. However it doesn't really cater to classical Indian dance. So what I got today is what is available near to me at little cost.
This is fake hair. It comes ready made in three strands and you plait it into your hair, or you can tie your hair in a bun and attach this below. I got it in a jewellery shop in Palika Bazaar, I have bought things at this shop before and it is good value. These were £5 each, they were available in black and dark brown. Sadly there never seems to be anywhere that caters for classical Indian dancers with blonde hair, you could though dye this hair I suppose.
This is what the hair looks like out of the box, it's pretty long as you can see. This picture was taken after I brushed it, keep reading for my advice about what to do when you get it home...
This is just to show you the binding at the top. This is a pain to conceal when wearing I have to admit.
Ok so, when I got it home I took it out of the box and brushed it with a paddle brush as I would brush hair normally. I tried to untangle it a bit with my hands first. I then plaited it because this way it should stay untangled and then put it back in the box.
Please excuse the bad photo! I also bought some paranda today, which I shall talk about in more detail in a minute, so this is just an example of what a paranda would look like at the end of the fake hair.
You'll be bored of seeing these soon I'm sure! But I just wanted to show what the ones from Southall look like. This was £1.
So this thread/rope is actually made for Sikh men who tie up their beards and despite the packaging it is only the thread inside, not the net. I wanted to use it with the fake hair though. I tied it to the top of the hair and then when it is plaited into the dancer's hair, you can tie it around the hair and downwards like the way ballet pointe shoe ribbons are tied. I got 4 packets, two slighter thinner. They were 69p each from New Fashion House.
Ok so these are basically scrunchies, they were 3 for £1 and looking at them I realised they were perfect when using a hair doughnut because unlike a regular hair band they are tight enough not to need doubling up and therefore much neater.
Black embroidery thread. This stuff is gold to an Indian classical dancer. This is ideal for attaching all of the head jewellery as well as the rakodi and tying off the end of the paranda. I got the whole lot for £1.
Ok so this is a bit boring and perhaps a tad over-priced, they're hairnets, ideal for a neat dancer's bun, they were 2 for £1.
BUN PINS AT LAST! Or jura pins as they are known in Urdu/Hindi/Punjabi. Above it is hard to tell but the first picture shows smaller pins. There are 10 in each box and they were 2 boxes for £1.
More bun pins! These look to me to be better quality although I haven't opened them yet. In the second picture you can hopefully see that they are shaped slightly differently from the others I got. Again they were 2 for £1.
As mentioned Southall doesn't cater for Indian classical dance so this is the nearest I could get to dance flowers. They're actually meant for decorating homes for weddings and festivals but they can be used as a substitute for dance flowers too. They came on one long string and if cut it in two, there would be enough for two dancers. I think it was about £1
So these are the paranda I bought, you might notice that the tassels are tied together, that's how they come when you buy them. You have to cut this off before you use them.
And lastly, I have finally bought a plastic comb. The handle on combs like this is perfect for parting hair. This was way over-priced in my opinion at £1.89 but there you go!
That concludes my Southall haul, hope you enjoyed it!
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