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Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

Showing the way Nayana Karunaratne

According to Nayana Karunaratne, founder of the Sri Lanka Association of Hairdressers and Beauticians and Director/Owner of the Salon Nayana chain of salons, the only thing that stops your local barber from trading his sweaty shop, grubby towels and Rs. 30 haircuts for lush carpets, chic hair driers and Rs. 800 haircuts is attitude.

“I come from a middle class family and started working at 15. In 1980, I had one mirror and one chair. Now I have 13 salons, 150 staff,” she stated, looking meaningfully around a room crammed with bewildered barbers, at a seminar organised to promote hairstyling and beauty therapy as a career, held at her Image Academy of Hair And Beauty, above Salon Nayana in T. Nagar. She continued, “I travel abroad more than ten times a year. I have educated my two boys abroad. I am not a manager, accountant or big politician. I’m a hairdresser. Everything I have is by cutting hair.”

The barbers conferred among themselves, and then finally spoke up, in Tamil, stating that none of their customers would agree to pay more than Rs. 35 for a haircut.

“That’s because gents’ salons are C grade. It’s got nothing to do with the customers,” she countered. Apparently, men love indulging themselves at beauty parlours. “Over here, at Salon Nayana, men pay Rs. 300 for a cut and Rs. 1,500 for a facial. Gents hair styling is now big business.”

Men’s parlours have another advantage. “You get to cut their hair once in three weeks. If they’re colouring, you can talk them into doing a cut, colour and massage. Women will come in only once in three months for their hair,” said Nayana, attempting to convince the barbers that they can make money if they change their attitude.

Time-management, for a hair stylist, is crucial. “We charge between Rs. 500 and Rs. 700 for a hair cut. You can do a maximum of 16 cuts a day. Even if you charge Rs. 50, four haircuts fetch you Rs. 200 in an hour.” Staying in India is probably a better option now when long, black hair and natural beauty is passé. Nayana says “At least 5,000 qualified hairdressers are needed right now… India is the place to be. Salesgirls who were getting Rs. 3,000 are getting Rs. 6,000. Where does that money go? They are eating pizzas and buying clothes. We should get a part of that!”

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