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Reading hairlines
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Hairdressing is about knowing personalities, says stylist Jawed Habib
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Photo: K. Ramesh Babu
STYLE STATEMENT Jawed Habib: `A customer's need is the trend'
One may admire President Abdul Kalam on many counts. But his hairstyle is not likely to figure in the list even for his greatest admirers. In fact, one newspaper thought this issue was worthy of an intense debate and had several hairdressers pronouncing their choice of haircuts for him when he took over as President.
"Let him be, no," pleads Jawed Habib. "It's his trademark, part of the personality." The man behind Habibs, the famed hairdressing salon chain, and the brand ambassador for Sunsilk, comes from a traditional family of hairdressers. His father's most famous client is Kalam and his grandfather had several star clients himself, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Lord Mountbatten. "It's a 100-year tradition in the family. My grandfather opened a saloon in 1905 in Delhi."
Changing times
The world of a hairdresser has changed much since then. "It was just bal katna in my dada's days. Now it's a profession," Says Habib with pride. And a profession glamorous enough for a brand of shampoo to consider not a film star but a hairdresser for an ambassador. Outside Shoppers Stop on Bannerghatta Road, where Habibs has a branch, stand cutouts of Habib hugging a bottle of shampoo.
Habib, who once considered a career in the hospitality industry and went abroad to study, did an about-turn and returned to the family profession. But he brought with him an ambition that saw Habibs go places. "We are today a brand recognised not only in the country, but in most of Asia. I want to make it an international brand. It's my vision, my karam..."
What's desperately needed to take an Indian brand that far, Habib says, is complete professionalism. "That's lacking in our country." It's to fill this gap that Habib started opening hairdressing institutes in several parts of the country. One is slated to open in Bangalore by next month. "You can't show a client a picture of Dimple Kapadia in a magazine and offer to cut her hair like that. Not every woman is Dimple," says Habib. "She may be better. Every person needs a cut that suits her and you need proper training to know what that is."
That means reading individual needs carefully, going beyond seasonal trends, straightjackets meant to fit all. "The customer's need is the trend. It depends completely on each one's personality." But then how does one know an entire personality in the fleeting interaction with a client? "If you are good, you should be able to know it as soon as a person steps in, by the very body language." In fact, a hairdresser must be so good that the client should simply switch off and surrender her head to him once she is done with giving her basic guidelines. "I am a professional and I need complete freedom to give my best. I can tell what a person really needs once I touch her hair."
That sounds like a strange brand of psychoanalysis, the kind one saw in the crossover film Everybody Says I'm Fine. Habib laughs: "That's my personality only. Completely copied!"
BAGESHREE S.
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