Salon doubles as antiques museum

YOU are browsing through some old photographs in a time-worn creaky album. Then you come across a black-and-white picture of yourself and your bossom buddy.

The picture is already slightly faded. A smile comes to your face and memories of those happy ‘and mischievous’ times come flooding back. Then suddenly, nostalgia overcomes your heart, giving you that sweet sorrow feeling and making you think how nice it would be if you could go back to that time —- even for a moment.

That’s the type of feeling old things can trigger in a person — which is why antiques can be priceless to many people with some even making it their hobby to collect, especially those things with a touch of history or which still hold in a beauty of the past.

Antiques collectors can be said to be passionate about history. They may have spent a lot of time researching every collector’s item they acquired. Perhaps for this reason, collectors have a special sense of pride in owning these old-fangled items.

Not every antique necessarily has to have some ‘serious’ monetary worth.

Antiques are usually thought of as just some pieces of old furniture or old car models. But anything can be an antique so long as it has a memorial value — be it to people in general such as an old building, or to the person who possesses it like a photograph.

“Some people find that antiques speak to them on a personal level. It could be something as simple as a hair comb that reminds them of their grandma or a pocket watch that looks like the one in their great grandpa’s photo,” said Kalvin Chan, a creative director of the Hair Dimension hair house salon at Kueh Hock Kui Commercial Centre, Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce.

“Antiques can be anything created or built a long long time ago. And one thing about them is that their value or price is somewhat subjective,” added the 40-year-old who picked up the hobby of collecting antiques six years ago and now has about 2,000 antiques — and counting — he keeps in his salon.

Kalvin cautioned people not to be confused by things which are truly antiques and those which are not.

He said nowadays, there were things sold in the market, designed to look like antiquated items, when, in fact, they were artificially made.

He revealed a good place to find old stuff which could qualify as antiques was at a second-hand shop where such ‘oldies’ could, sometimes, be bought at a very low price after being sold as junk by their owners unaware of their values.

“It’s at this type of shop I sometimes find my priced needle in a haystack of junk,” said Kalvin who used to frequent second-hand shops at Mile 4 and Batu Kawa.

The shopowners usually came to realise the values of the antiques only after Kalvin had been to their shops regularly, looking for things of antiquity. After that, the shopowners

would be reluctant to sell him the items he wanted, reasoning they wanted to keep the items themselves.

Like a museum

Normally, you would expect to see posters of hairstyles or wigs on mannequins when entering a salon but not so in Kalvin’s case.

Stepping into his salon would make you feel like being transported back in time because you would see antique items of all sizes, makes and designs piled up around the premises.

Asked why he treated his hair house like a museum, he let out a hearty laugh: “Because I don’t want to give it an overly commercialised image whereby everything is about money or making profit. I want to give my customers something different … like a different exposure and experience. I want them to feel romantic — even re-living some nostalgic moments when they are in my hair house.”

Kalvin said his salon resembled a mini museum because he had customers — young and old — bringing their families over just to see the antiques collections on display.

“The young customers would come with their elderly family members to see the antiques and trace back some of the old times while the more senior customers would bring their younger family members or the latter’s children, to see the antiques and share stories about them.”

He said a lot of people, including himself, had a ‘special connection’ with the antiques in his salon — as though the antiques could ‘personally speak’ to them.

For instance, he added, the antique vinyl disc player brought back fond memories of his childhood when he, his siblings, parents and grandparents had spent time together. Although poor, the family bond was strong and “we are happy just to be together.”

The old records remind him of love stories from the past as in the old days, a lot of the songs were written for famous romance movies.

As for the antique TVs, they remind him of the time his family got their first set back in 1984 when he was in primary six.

“Prior to that, only the well-to-do could afford TVs, a luxury item at the time. I remember I used to cry and beg my dad to buy us a TV. I also remember how we often sneaked over to the neighbour’s to have a peek at their TV from outside the door. But sometimes when the neighbour’s kids were not happy with us, they would shut all the windows and doors and turn up the volume to let us ‘hear’ but not watch the movie. We felt really sad,” Kalvin recalled.

On the search for antiques, he said apart from looking around shops, he would also go online just in case he might stumble upon old ‘junks’.

There were times he would drive around the suburbs, hoping to spot something that might interest him. Who knows, one man’s trash could well be another man’s treasure.

He would usually come across all sorts of junk — many discards, left to rust or rot, but with his antiquarian sense, he was able to pick out the treasure pieces, then seek out the owners and ask if he could have the items or buy them.

 

Hunting ground

Old little shops were another favourite ‘collectibles’ hunting ground for Kalvin. He found that some shopkeepers tended to put aside their no longer sellable old items or merchandise, usually on the top-most racks or in some forgotten corners to gather dusts and cobwebs but they were exactly what would make Kalvin rub his hands in glee.

“I’d approach the shopowner to ask if I could have the items or buy them at a cheap price. They could be anything — luggage, clocks, radio sets, books, wooden furniture, mirrors, fans and lamps,” he said.

Whenever he went travelling or holidaying board, he would not miss out the ‘old shops’ at his port of call. And he has brought antiques back from places like Taiwan, Thailand, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Johor.

According to Kalvin, more young people are now foraying into antiques with some eyeing objects of sentimental values, especially old personal items they used to have in their youth and practically grew up with.

He observed there were many modern cafes decorated with antiques or at least antique-looking items such as furniture, among others.

He said the cafes knew people loved the ambience as it gave them a special feeling of being surrounded by historical mementos.

On his hair house, Kalvin, with a sparkle in his eyes, likened it to some sort of education centre because it had somehow taught people about the values of old things which they might otherwise have dumped into the garbage bins.

“After visiting my place and admiring my collections, some people even told me they would dig up some of the junk at home, start polishing them and turning them into treasures.

“Can you see how my place teaches and changes people’s mindset about antiquated stuff? Antiques, once you throw them away, that’s it. You can never find new pieces to replace them.”

He also said there were even customers who persuaded him to sell them some of his collections, offering good prices, adding that someone once offered RM1,000 plus for a 1960’s cash machine he bought for RM100 from a second-hand shop.

Most of his collections were made from the 1950’s onwards. Almost every week, he would have people coming to his salon, asking to buy his antiques of one kind or another. The most sought after are antiquated phone items but Kalvin said “they are not for sale at whatever price.”

On whether thieves had ever broken into his salon to steal his collections, Kalvin said fortunately never — so far. However, he has bought insurance to cover the risk and also installed CCTVs.

Antiques help to keep history alive and in some small way, the memories of those who have passed on. The age-old things people still have in their possessions will serve as a link between the past and the present.

So, if you have never stepped into the world of antiques, and are ready to begin, it’s never too late.