Bhopal: Beauty parlours reaches slums, because every women is worth it

Bhopal: Beauty parlours reaches slums, because every women is worth it

SmitaUpdated: Wednesday, May 29, 2019, 08:17 AM IST
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Bhopal: A narrow, winding staircase leads to a midsize room on the first-floor; the room is clean, with white tiles covering the floor. On one side stands a high-backed chair, facing a full-size mirror. There is a washbasin and a table overflowing with bottles of all shapes and sizes.

Welcome to a beauty parlour bang in the middle of the Roshanpura slum cluster in the city. The parlour has a name but it is displayed nowhere. “We had a banner but it got torn in a storm and I have not replaced it,” says Sabina, the owner of the business nonchalantly. Anyway, she hardly needs a signboard, for the entire locality knows the place to head to for a threading or a waxing session.

The spread of the beauty parlour culture has helped many women in gaining economic self-reliance. For instance, Sabina who is widow started the business 8 years ago said, “On normal days, I make up to Rs 500 daily. In the festival season, I do business of around Rs 1,000.” Her earnings are good enough to decent upbringing for her two kids.

Cut to Ahata Rustam Khan, another sprawling slum locality in the city. “Women’s Gallery Hair & Beauty Parlour”, the flex hanging outside announces, besides listing the services available including “Bridal makeup All Type (sic) of Facial, Pedicure & Medicure (sic). Below it, the glass frontage displays blowups of women with luscious lips, wearing blood red lipstick.

If you thought beauty parlours are patronised only by the well-heeled with enough money to spare, it is time you changed your opinion. Your ‘domestic help’, more likely than not, gets a facial done and so does the woman who sells veggies on the pavement across the road from your house.

“It has become a craze. In fact, the number of customers from the low-income group has shot through the roof and they far outnumber the women from upper- and middle-class families,” says the President of MP Beauticians Association, Sarita Shrivastava.

“Many girls are getting trained in giving beauty treatment. That has not only become a source of income for them but has also helped improve their lifestyle,” Shrivastava says. No wonder, beauty parlours have mushroomed all around to cater to these beauty-conscious women. Ahata Rustam Khan alone has five parlours and all of them are doing reasonably well.

“The competition has also increased, as the number of parlour has sprung up. Housewives mostly visit here for threading, waxing, facial and bleaching treatment while college going students come for hair colouring. Professionals visit us mostly for manicure and pedicure,” said Sadiya Khan, owner of Women’s Gallery Hair & Beauty Parlour who has been associated with the field for 13 years.

Similarly, Tanveer, owner of Tanvi Herbal Beauty, Ahata Rustam Khan says “I am associated with the business for 10 years but after I took break from it after marriage. But I have to restart it again due to huge demand of my customers.”

Of course, they are simple affairs. The décor is minimalist. There is no air-conditioning, no plush leather sofas, no carpets and no soft music. Mostly, things are managed by the owners themselves. There are no suave, English-speaking assistants and nobody asks you whether you would like a cup of coffee. Customers have to make do with a fan or at most a room cooler.

But no one is complaining, least of all the customers. For the rates are decidedly lower than what you would expect at an upmarket place. For example, a facial that costs you a minimum of Rs 500 in a parlour in other localities, would set you back just by Rs 250 at the ‘Women’s Gallery.’

Similarly, a manicure and a pedicure cost just Rs 300 in these parlours, as against Rs 800-2000 at the plush ones. While Free Press was interacting with Sadiya, a fortyish, burqua -clad woman stepped into Women’s Gallery Hair & Beauty Parlour. She turns out to be a regular customer who wants to get threading done. “Achha dikhna achha lagta hai” (lt feels nice to look good), she says before settling down on the chair. One cannot agree more.

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