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Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

Scissor Hands For Habib, style is just a snip away

“How do you feel?” he asks. “Bindaas!” says the girl with a grin.

That, in a word, is Habib’s mantra. Not quite what you’d expect from one of the country’s top hair-stylists. Where’s all the high-funda talk about the latest styles and fashions?

“The most important thing about feeling good about your hair is to become bindaas,” says Habib firmly, when he finally settles down into the couch after a whirlwind of laughing and chatting with the model, the photographers et al. “Stop worrying that there’s something wrong with it, and accept it for what it is.”

It’s not so surprising, then, that Mr. Bindaas is all for the casual look: “All my styling is very casual—anyone can do it at home. We’re talking wash and go.”

And all his hair-care tips are common sense—drink a lot of water (“Water is health.”), and wash your hair everyday (“Dandruff is poison.”). “I don’t know why people worry so much about putting shampoo on their hair everyday,” he laments. “You wash our face with soap, don’t you? What’s the difference?”

In between, Habib breaks off to catch up with his kids—Sana, 18, and Anosh, 16—asking how their exams went. “I travel 25 days a month,” he explains ruefully, hanging up. “Even when I’m home, they’re in bed by the time I get in and still sleeping when I leave in the morning.”

It’s easy to believe that. The man is a restless bundle of energy, answers coming in staccato bursts as he explains his ambitions for Habib’s Salon. “We have 96 salons in 36 cities—150 is my target,” he says. “We’re going to increase the number from one to six in Chennai in the next six months.”

Plus, he’s planning on opening his academy in the city by January 2008—there are already nine academies all over India, including Bangalore and Hyderabad. Chennai and Cochin are up next. “People here are beginning to realise that hair is big business,” he says. “And like all other professionals, hair stylists need to go to school.”

The self-proclaimed ‘Scissor Man’ (“I eat, sleep and breathe hair.”) believes that the next step in South India will be for hair to become a branded culture. “Brand consciousness is growing in terms of clothes, shoes and jewellery, but it hasn’t yet spread to looks, to hair,” he says. “Someone needs to take initiative here to make hair dressing branded.”

Habib’s bindaas brand of hair styling seems like a good place to begin.

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