Making Life Beautiful !

After pulling out a batch of fresh brownies from the oven, I neatly cut them into cubes and packed them into 3 different boxes. One was for me to keep in the refrigerator, one was for my friends to gorge on the next day and the third was for an extremely special person in my life who I have looked up to since I’ve known her.

As I scrambled out of home at 8:30 pm, juggling the box of brownies, my handbag and a carton full of trash (a result of the seasonal cooking), I made my way to the car. While I drove, I thought of all the things I had pending on my plate for the next day at work, how my car needed to be dropped off to servicing and how I had to plan my dad’s birthday (which was the next day). At 9, I finally got into the elevator at my destination to drop off that last box of brownies.

Heena Shah (Heena Aunty as I call her) is Superwoman in disguise. She, like many other businesswomen in today’s world has an innate sense of balance between work and home. On a typical day in her life, she’ll wake up and ensure breakfast is on the table, make lunch, get ready and head out to work by 10am. She’ll spend the day at her parlor, having interesting conversations with her customers, overlooking the inventory or simply talking to her staff about their life. She’ll ensure she makes it home for a quick lunch break with her husband and son to catch up with them on their day, before heading back to work. She’ll be the last one out the door at work, lock up and come home in time to plan dinner, which she ensures is a family affair.

After I handed her the box of brownies, we sat down to catch up and I had to ask her how she did it !

  

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“(Laughing) It isn’t as difficult as it seems. When you have a family of your own you’ll do it too,” she tells me. “I always knew that I wanted to work, even after getting married. My family and my work are the two most important things of my life and hence I never let one get affected by the other!”

Heena, born and brought up in Kolhapur, studied Commerce. Always a tomboy, she grew up wanting to be a lawyer, but knew that the studying and grind that came with that line was not her cup of tea. She got married to her ‘high school sweetheart’ soon after graduation and realised that that was the start of her life! “Our time was very different. Once we got married, women were assumed to be housewives and caretakers for the kids. Husbands too had certain expectations from their wives. But, since none of that agreed with me, I decided to set my own path.”

“After getting married”, she tells me, “I was sure I wanted to work. Being a housewife was not for me and I have always believed in women being self sufficient. When I weighed my options, I decided to try a beautician’s course. My sister, and now business partner Bina and I signed up for the beautician’s course at Gazelle and my life was never the same after that. My elder son was 2 years old and my husband too was at an important stage of his career. I faced some flak from my family and in-laws about studying cosmetology, but my husband supported my decision and I guess that was all I needed!”

Giving me her views on housewives and women working after starting a family, she said, “Being a housewife is not for this era. Children today are extremely independent and don’t need their parents around after a certain age. Women who pledge their life to their homes and their families, soon start facing existential crisis about their purpose in life. I have always believed in being independent and standing on your own feet. Of course that doesn’t mean you ignore your family and kids. But finding the right balance is essential.”

When I asked her to tell me about her course at Gazelle and what else she did to add to her craft, she adds, “I did my course at Gazelle in 1989-90. At that time, we had to do the full course, unlike the specializations present today. So I learnt everything from skin care and hair care to make up and styling. It was an extremely extensive yet intensive course and set the foundation for me to build on over the years. After my course at Gazelle, I decided to do a hair styling course with Jasbir Arora as well, since he was known in Pune for bringing funky and new hairstyles to the cosmetology world.”

Heena Aunty is now the co-founder and owner of a parlor in Vimannagar, Pune called ‘Looks’. One of the first of its kind in the area, Looks has been an institution for 20+ years and has evolved from being a simple parlor, to teaching and mentoring aspiring beauticians.

Speaking on the journey, Heena tells me, “Setting up ‘Looks’ was a dream come true. I wasn’t only a beautician anymore but also a businesswoman and that meant a lot to me. I don’t know how I would have managed to do that alone, since I was expecting my second son then. But my ‘partner in crime’ (laughing) and sister Bina decided to work with me, and we set up the parlor together. I was exposed to a whole new world of entrepreneurship and it’s been all uphill from there. We were one of the first parlors in Vimannagar and the locality was a new and upcoming one, so we knew we were on the right track. But both Bina and I knew that just setting up the parlor didn’t mean that we were done. Over the years, we have attended multiple seminars and signed up for different workshops to keep increasing our expertise. We have tried out combinations of various products and studied different brands and their suitability to different kind of people. This is a dynamic industry and there are new styles and different trends almost every month. So for us, keeping up with the industry and the changing times was very important in order to stay updated. Hence, we have thankfully been able to stay in touch with customer demands and market needs.”

Heena Aunty has told me how one of the best parts of her job is that she gets to learn something new very often. There is no age limit to learning, she believes, and says that this is an industry where there is always something to learn and a new skill to obtain.

  

Advising students and housewives who want to venture into the world of cosmetology, she says that there are 3 important things everyone should remember.

Technical Know-How

“This profession might look easy from the outside in. But there is a lot of technicality and precision involved. So it is very important to do a good course in cosmetology from a reputed or well established institute. Things to look out for when choosing the institute would be the course offerings, experience and reputation of the faculty, and what you will get out of the course”

Dedication

“It’s important to understand as a beautician that you deal with one of the most (if I’m allowed to say it), vain aspects of people’s lives; their beauty and their body. So it is very important to be dedicated towards your work and understand that your efforts and your craft helps boost people’s self-confidence and ego. Also, a lot of people might think that this could be a part time job. As a job, maybe it could be, but as a discipline, it must be full time. Hence being dedicated to your work is very important.”

Passion

“I believe that this would be true to any profession and not just cosmetology. If you set out in life to do anything for the sake of it or just as a source of income or to kill time, well, pack your bags and quit right then. If you are truly passionate and dedicated to your work, you will enjoy every minute of your work day and it won’t take long to be the best at what you do. Passion, dedication and hard work is the key to any profession.”

Heena Aunty and I said bye to each other and she ended our conversation on the note, “My work (after my family), is my favourite part of the day. I get to meet new people every day, hear their stories and be inspired. My work and my art helps me remember every day that each person I meet is beautiful in their own unique way, and my work just helps enhance that. It is a truly humbling experience!”

Heena Shah is currently busy helping her son pack to go to the US for his Masters and is looking forward to doing a new hairstyling course in a few months!

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If this story rings close to your heart and you want to find out more about Heena’s journey, let us know and we can set up a mentoring call for you with him ! 

About the Author

Aanchal Sant is a third year Arts student, pursuing a majors in English Literature. She has a keen interest in management and administrative work and is a part of The Potter's Earth team. She loves interacting with her peers to help them find their unique life purpose ! Away from her crazy and eccentric life, she loves music and dance and spends her evenings in the company of her white and brown weird dog, Boochie!