Kathmandu, June 3 :    Kathmandu, June 3:  Sons of Nepal are shedding tears - and hair. Thousands of men today flocked to barber shops in the kingdom to shave their heads in a mark of mourning usually reserved for parents, not kings. But in death, Birendra, 'the gentle' king, has become a father figure for Nepal. Barbers across Nepal did brisk business in impromptu saloons that mushroomed overnight as motorbike-borne youths zipped around looking for a vacant seat under the clipping blades. A government order had yesterday made head-shaving mandatory for only civil servants. But several people who waited outside the barber shops said they decided on the tonsure on their own. 'Under Hindu custom, sons shave their heads as a sign of mourning. The people of Nepal are doing just that for they have lost their father -King Birendra,' a local journalist said. Many consider the deaths a personal loss. 'The murder of the royal family was like the loss of my own parents. We have lost our father, mother, brother and a sister. I feel saddened, as well as honoured, to be able to perform this rite as a mark of respect to the royal family,' said 29-year-old Bhupendra Ram Shrestha, who runs a travel agency on Kathmandu's upmarket Kantipath, near the Narayan Hity palace. 'We even organised free shaving in our locality this morning. A single barber shaved as many as 500 heads. Like all Royal government employees, we, too, felt privileged to shave our heads as a mark of respect to the departed royal family,' Shrestha added. Om Prakash, a private security guard posted at a local bank, told Reuters that having the head shaved was 'one small gesture to show that we're feeling the loss of someone we love and respect'. Gajendra Singh, a taxi driver, said the last time there was such a rush for head-shaving was nearly three decades ago when King Mahendra died. 'At that time, they almost made it mandatory for everyone to get his head shaved. This time, people are doing it more out of respect than compulsion,' Singh said. Many have also stopped having non-vegetarian food and have vowed to mourn for 13 days, though the official grieving period is five days. Besides tonsuring, high-ranking officials have been asked to refrain from taking salt for three days as a mark of respect. Cable operators have switched off entertainment television channels, beaming only the state media and a handful of international news services.