Asian Window

Carla Power in Time:

It’s like a fish market,” says Jawed Habib, fondly surveying the Sunday-afternoon hubbub of his south New Delhi hair salon, one of 12 he runs in the Indian capital alone. Heaving with stylists, JAWED HABIB PRO TEAM emblazoned on their bold red-and-black shirts, the salon recalls less the chaos of a fish market than the disciplined efficiency of a well-run kitchen. His golden quiff defying gravity, the 46-year-old Habib serves as both head chef and maître d’, helping a matron into her chair, judging the angle of a junior stylist’s cut, checking the helmet of sludgy green henna drying on an elderly gentleman’s hair and moustache.

Habib’s salons aren’t India’s poshest, but that’s not the point. Over the past decade, the New Delhi native has brought branded hairstyling to a country where millions still get their hair trimmed by mummy-ji in the bathroom, or by barbers whose salons consist of a tree trunk with a mirror tacked onto it. Habib has helped convince Middle India that hair isn’t just something that grows on your head but rather a market waiting to be primped and tugged at. “People used to think hair care was a low-grade profession, with no future,” he says. “I showed them that it’s both a science and a business.” More:

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