If life is a battle, then men and women play it in different arenas. Men prefer to duke it out amongst each other in places like boardroom and sports field, while women show their competitive edge in the areas of child-rearing and relationships. Consequently, their areas of preparation are different: the men prepare for battle in typically masculine places such as the locker room at the gym, where they show off their physiques and glance furtively at others’ muscles the way gorillas display their musculature in the jungle before proceeding to kick each others’ behinds to prove who’s the biggest monkey on the block.
      A woman’s place for battle, however, is the beauty salon, or, as it’s so quaintly called in Pakistan, the parlor. But make no mistake: although the purpose of the parlor is ostensibly to relax while your every beauty need is meticulously taken care of, the real undercurrent in the salon is every bit as competitive as the men’s locker room, perhaps even more so, because for women, this is where you come to look good or die.   
     In Pakistan, going to the beauty parlor takes up a major chunk of the average woman’s time. Some women like to frequent it daily for a wash and blow dry. Others go once a week for the same chore, or for other mysterious ministrations. If you confess to someone that you just visit a beauty parlor every two months for your usual trim, you are likely to be marked as a freak of nature and everyone will start to question your allegiance to the female gender. Women have been trained since childhood that the parlor is a vital destination, on the same level or maybe even more important that going to school, buying milk, or Next>