Kesh-lochan is the plucking out of the hair of the head and beard by hand, in handfuls, performed at initiation and thereafter at least twice a year, generally before Paryushana and in the spring. No blade is used and nothing is applied afterwards. The reasoning is exact and characteristic: a razor is a possession, or requires borrowing one, and creates dependence on a barber; hair cut with a blade also grows back requiring repeated recourse to it. Plucking requires nothing and no one. It also constitutes a deliberate, voluntary, unspectacular endurance — parishaha, the hardships a mendicant is expected to bear without complaint, of which the texts list twenty-two including hunger, thirst, cold, heat, insects, and this. It is done in the presence of the community, often with other monastics assisting, and takes hours. Observers consistently note that no drama is made of it, which is itself part of the discipline: an austerity performed for effect binds karma rather than shedding it.