Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Jharkhand Monkey Enjoys an Unexpected Salon Visit

The chair was empty. The mirror was waiting. Then the customer walked in.

No appointment. No barber. No haircut.

Just a langur.

The unusual visitor entered a salon in Jharkhand's Garhwa district, climbed onto the chair and settled down in front of the mirror. For nearly two hours, it stayed there, looking at its reflection and occasionally shifting its position as people outside watched the extraordinary scene unfold.

The viral footage shows the langur apparently absorbed by the mirror. The incident took place in the Kandi area of Garhwa, according to the report. But did the animal actually recognise itself? That's where this funny little salon story gets unexpectedly interesting.

So, how did the langur end up in a salon?

According to a report shared by ETV Bharat, the langur entered the salon without warning and made itself comfortable.

Instead of immediately bolting when people noticed it, the animal climbed onto the salon chair and positioned itself in front of the mirror.

And then it stayed. For almost two hours. Residents gathered outside to watch and record the spectacle on their phones. The langur, meanwhile, appeared largely unconcerned by its audience.

For a brief stretch, the salon had become less about haircuts and more about one very curious customer.

What did it do in front of the mirror?

The langur repeatedly looked at the reflection and changed its position. It appeared to examine itself from different angles, at times moving closer to the mirror and then shifting back. The footage also appears to show it touching or grooming parts of its body while looking at the reflection.

That is what makes the incident so visually irresistible.

It looked, at least to human eyes, as though the langur had discovered a giant mirror and decided it deserved a proper inspection. But there is an important scientific caveat.

Did the langur recognise itself?

We cannot know that from the video alone. Looking into a mirror, spending time in front of one or even touching one's body while facing a reflection does not, by itself, establish mirror self-recognition.

Scientists have traditionally studied this ability using the mirror test, in which an animal is given a mark on a part of its body that it cannot normally see and is then observed to see whether it uses the mirror to investigate or touch the mark. Research on mirror self-recognition among primates is complicated. A major review published in Primates found no compelling evidence, at the time of publication, that monkeys and lesser apes showed spontaneous mirror self-recognition, while acknowledging continuing debate over how the ability should be tested.

Other research has challenged that neat divide. A 2010 study published in PLOS ONE, for example, reported self-directed mirror behaviour in rhesus monkeys, while later researchers questioned whether the evidence met the standard required to establish self-recognition.

So the Garhwa langur may have been fascinated by the reflection. It may have been responding to something it perceived as another animal. Or it may have been using the mirror in a way that we cannot confidently interpret from a viral video.

The safest conclusion is also the most interesting one: we simply don't know.

What happened to the unusual customer?

Eventually, the langur got off the chair and left the salon on its own. No haircut. No grooming bill. No dramatic chase. Just a quiet exit after what was, by all accounts, an unusually long appointment. The incident also appears to have caused no reported injuries or damage.

Why has the video gone viral?

Because every now and then, an animal does something that seems to momentarily blur the line between the wild and the everyday.

A langur sitting in a salon chair is funny enough. A langur sitting in a salon chair staring into a mirror for two hours is something else. There is also something wonderfully human about the scene. The animal is surrounded by the tools of grooming — chairs, mirrors, the familiar setting of a salon — and appears to be doing exactly what a human customer might do when handed a mirror.

Except nobody actually handed it one. And perhaps that is why people can't stop watching.

The shopkeeper had a salon. The langur had the chair. And for nearly two hours, the mirror had its most unexpected customer yet. No haircut. No appointment. Just one very curious visitor wondering what, exactly, was staring back.