Comments
Your friendly neighbourhood ‘saloons’ could soon get a makeover and hair-dressing could get a bit more fashionable.
In a trendy initiative, a leading national training institute has upgraded the skills of about 500 barbers, or hair-dressers, with the help of stylist Jawed Habib.
The short-duration, intensive training programme was organised by the National Institute for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (NIMSME), Hyderabad, recently.
In addition to training, about 50 of the participants were given loans under the MUDRA scheme by State Bank of India. The Institute helped them with the project proposals.
The idea is to train freshers and help them set up salons. Those who are already working as hair-dressers will get to upgrade their skills and diversify into offering beauty treatments and other cosmetics services, says Sanjeev Chaturvedi, Director of the Institute.
The first effort in Telangana has proved encouraging and it will be replicated in other States in collaboration with the Jawed Habib chain, Chaturvedi told BusinessLine .
The outreach programme was facilitated by the Telangana government and the Nayee Brahmin Sangh, many of whose members work as hair-dressers.
The first batch of trained persons was give certificates, and many of the professionals said they would benefit from more such training programmes. At the workshop, Jawed Habib gave professional tips and shared his experiences with the participants.
Future training programmes will be tailored for entrepreneurs who want to start a salon or a beauty parlour and will be of 40 hours’ duration for those who need an upgrade and three months for beginners. The Institute is looking to get banks to finance the programmes.
The barber’s profession in India is traditionally practised by a certain caste or clan. In villages, the outlets are called barber shops, and in urban areas as ‘saloons’ or hair stylists. Traditionally, in saloons, the senior trains the juniors, who get to learn by watching the seniors snip away.
Encouraged by the response to the pro-active effort to train and strengthen hair-dressers’ skills to meet contemporary needs, the Institute is in in talks with Lakmé, Shahnaz Husain and luxury salone chain Mirror to take the initiative across India.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.