Indian Air Force Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla on 15 July became the first Indian to receive a haircut in space, getting a trim aboard the International Space Station roughly 400 kilometres above Earth. The milestone took place near the end of his 18-day stay as a mission specialist on Axiom Space’s privately funded Ax-4 expedition. The procedure was carried out by US astronaut Major Nichole Ayers, who used NASA-modified clippers fitted with a vacuum hose to prevent stray hair from floating inside the orbital laboratory. Personal grooming sessions such as these are common on long-duration missions to maintain hygiene and morale ahead of the stresses of re-entry. Shukla and his three crewmates boarded the SpaceX Dragon capsule “Grace” and undocked from the station hours after the haircut. The spacecraft is scheduled to splash down off the California coast at about 3:01 p.m. India Standard Time on 16 July, concluding a mission that also involved several microgravity science experiments and more than 250 Earth orbits. The episode offers a light-hearted footnote to India’s renewed push into human spaceflight as it prepares for its government-led Gaganyaan programme.