Indian barbers turn heads with haircuts featuring customers’ favourite celebrities

They practice their art on willing customers who are given free haircuts

A customer poses for a photograph after he has his head shaved in the shape of Mickey Mouse by barber Rajwinder Singh Sidhu in India (Reuters)

Barbers at a far-flung town in the northern Indian state of Haryana are turning their clients’ heads into canvasses with creative haircuts that include portraits of their favourite celebrities.

Rajwinder Singh Sidhu and Gurwinder Singh Sidhu, barber brothers from the municipal council town of Dabwali, have sculpted near-immaculate images of Michael Jackson, Mickey Mouse, and even the Taj Mahal on their clients’ heads.

Gurwinder Singh Sidhu displays a photo of Michael Jackson next to a customer after he made a hair tattoo of the pop star in the customer's hair inside his shop in Dabwali town (Reuters)

Clients can choose from a wide variety of images and the two men say they are flooded with requests. The brothers, aged 29 and 31 respectively, have received requests for portraits of Bollywood stars and popular Indian sportsmen.

The Sidhus, who started their business seven years ago, use a range of tools, including different sizes of trimmers, pencils, and scissors to shape the dreams of their customers into reality.

They start by partially trimming off the back of a person’s head, followed by drawing the portrait using a pencil. They use different tools to shave off patches of hair to form the canvas for their art work.

“We have made hair designs featuring cricketers like Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, and [MS] Dhoni,” Gurwinder Singh Sidhu told the South China Morning Post. “We have also [drawn] famous faces like Dan Bilzerian, the Rock, [Cristiano] Ronaldo, and [Bollywood stars] like Ajay Devgan and Hritik Roshan.”

They honed their skills on their customers in exchange for free haircuts.

Gurwinder Singh Sidhu shapes the hair of a customer into a lion inside their shop in Dabwali town (Reuters)

“In the beginning, we used to give anyone we could get hold of free haircuts so that we could practice our skills on them,” Rajwinder Singh Sidhu told Reuters.

“Some days we used to practice till 2am because during the day we used to run the regular salon,” he added.

According to the artists, complicated designs usually take four hours to cut, while simpler images can be tackled under an hour.

The barber brothers charge approximately £15-25 for their special haircuts and plan on taking their skills and business abroad one day.

“[We want to participate in] hair design competitions held in US and Mexico,” said Gurwinder Singh Sidhu. “We will try and take part, representing India to make our country proud.”