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Business of beauty
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Does it pay to preen? SOMA BASU surveys the beauty scene
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"MIRROR MIRROR on the wall, make me the most beautiful of `em all".
In the big beauty bazaar today, beauticians with their array of cosmetics and technology hold the magic wand. Mirror is the beauty parlour where women are willing to spend hours and money, shed inhibitions and impatience because self-worth has become synonymous with looking good.
If you feel you don't have the looks, simply spin the moolah and buy it in today's quick-fix world. Everybody wants to get noticed. To become more beautiful is a national, regional, local obsession. All this may sound weird particularly when one believes that beauty comes from within and that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Perhaps its not so simple any longer.
The urge to remain beautiful forever gives birth to millions of beauty consumers. Expectations raised by beauty clinics leads to a heady growth in salon market each year. Whether she is a woman in Mumbai or Madurai, Coimbatore or Calcutta, indulgence in the beauty routine is an undefinable emotion and a desirable exercise.
"It is a human desire to maintain your body and skin. Since we lack both time and patience, most of us prefer that someone else does it for us as only then can we relax and enjoy,'' says Sudha Sundaresan, a businesswoman and a regular at parlours she "carefully selects".
"It is a great pastime," says a shy Kreethika, a housewife. Indeed it is. Replete with pampering and primping the beauty routine at the local beauty parlour is an escape from the strenuous daily chores in the house. It is a fantastic getaway for the young and aspiring tied down by studies. It is a welcome time-out for those spending hours in a stressed out office environment. It is a great mental leveller for the greying who are health and beauty conscious.
And if the beauty industry knows no borders, the business has no gender distinction or discrimination either. Men no longer complain that parlour visits are an unnecessary vocation of rich and bored women. Cosmetic procedures are for all, who want to join the prettification bandwagon and stay on top of the fashion curve.The cost is secondary.
It is estimated that there are over 1,500 beauty parlours in Madurai. This explosive growth has come about in less that a decade's time, says Indu whose family owns three parlours - one on Town Hall Road and two in Anna Nagar and is planning a fourth. She endorses that beauty business rakes in money if only you are able to give "superior and satisfying services" to your customer.
What scares the Jain family successfully running their salon in KK Nagar for almost two decades now is the mushrooming of beauty parlours.
"The problem is an unregulated business with no monitoring,'' says Mr.Rishabh Kumar Jain and shares that nearly 1,000 parlours in the temple town are run by either unqualified or inexperienced diploma holders from their homes.
This problem is universal - from megapolises to small metros, big cities to small towns. While the level of hygiene may be a matter of suspicion, the small units do brisk business with just basic services like threading, waxing, pedicure and ordinary facial. Their cheap rates attract customers in drones cutting through different economic and social strata. While entering a parlour - small or big - it is the familiarity that matters.
"There are women who do not want to be seen visiting a parlour and are comfortable walking into the house of her friendly nextdoor neighbour or are known to enter a parlour after sunset to avoid being spotted easily,'' says Indu, who also feels that beauty clinics have undergone a sea change over the years. The big ones who can afford are fast converting into complete centers of fitness and personality enhancement than simply restricting themselves to beauty lifting services.
But hygiene can be a casualty anywhere anytime.The high-profile beauty parlours who elevate themselves to an incomparable status with their self-acclaimed swift service, hospitable staff, quality products, level of expertise and hygiene can also be potential health perils in their race for customers fetching fast bucks. As an unsuspecting Nalini Muralidharan realized much to her horror. Recently she just strayed into a well known parlour for a facial for "fun and experience". After coughing up Rs.950, she did not get what she had dreamt of - a flawless skin. Instead, she returned with two scars on her cheeks on either side of her lips. Four months on, she is still visiting a city dermatologist who is treating her for "derma abrasion". The discoloured patches have diminished in size but her emotional scar hasn't.
People like Nalini are not alone. An overwhelming number of beauty seekers either ignore or do not realize that even routine procedures like pedicure, waxing and facial are not risk free. Unsterilised equipment, unwashed tubs and towels, unclean combs and even a beautician's unwashed hands can cause infection.
The Jains, who were the first to introduce laser in Madurai in 1995, feel the blame for something going wrong ought to be shared.
"We don't guarantee 100 per cent result for anything since perfection is impossible to achieve. Despite our taking utmost precautions, if a client develops any problem, we will like them to return to us. But they panic and run to doctors,"says Mr.Rishabh. He also shares how difficult it is to handle and convince customers who ask for impossible and permanent looks. "They approach us with the idea that if they are willing to shell out money, we better do it,'' he points out.
Particularly in a place like Madurai where the average population is dark-skinned, apparently lot of women come to parlours with the hope of becoming fairer. It is here where the professionalism of a beautician comes to play. "We should set ourselves with high moral and ethical standards so that we are able to explain and turn away a potential customer instead of simply eyeing the money he or she is likely to bring if we pander to their request with no desired outcome,'' opines Rachna Mohanlal who set up her parlour in 1986.
"We try our best to play safe but if there is even one case going wrong in any of the good parlours, it is like a setback to the community,'' she adds, informing that an Association of Beauticians in Madurai is in vogue with about 150 members. Despite being competitors, they meet periodically to assess, review and exchange information on their respective performances and latest beauty secrets and also try to educate the newcomers by holding workshops and training courses.
The mid 80s is considered as the turning point in temple city's history of beauty parlours. It was during this time that a good number of quality parlours came up and who have maintained their standards, expanded into holistic salons and blurred the line dividing beauticians, cosmetic surgeons, dermatologists, massageurs, image therapists.
The all in one beauty spas are here to stay even though bankers give lowest priority to this business group for granting loans. Roughly, it takes Rs.10 to 15 lakhs to set up a reasonably decent parlour with all basic, modern and specialized services now. And it takes not more than 12 to 18 months to break even.
The low investment-high return feel good factor of beauty business lures young girls take up a career in beauty procedures and techniques. Madurai itself gets 60-odd students from the Women's Polytechnic besides an equal number from other crash courses every year. While some of them join the big parlours to acquire practical experience, many it seems start business straightaway from their homes and garages or even makeshift sheds investing as less as Rs.50,000.
It is important for both the giver and the taker to guard against inferior service. Because beauty is precious and its pursuit eternal.
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