Beautician, a fetching career for women

Nalgonda: Every woman desires to look beautiful. Moreover the impact of movies, increased number of beauty pageants even in small towns has increased the beauty consciousness of women. Here comes beauty parlours which play a great role both in enhancing the appearance of women and also make the women self-employed. These parlours, which cater to the beauty needs of the women from head to toe, are once confined to metro cities and a few advanced urban towns.

But now, the situation is quite different with so many beauty parlours appearing even at mandal headquarters. Women aspiring to take up beautician as career will complete the two to three months basic training course either from any private parlour-cum-training center or free training from government institutions like District Mahila Pranganam, SBH-run training centers under corporate services or by paying nominal fee at Swamy Ramananda Tirtha Rural University, located at Bhoodan Pochampally in the district.

After successful completion of the training, these women were opening parlours at a busy location or even in their house and earning on par with their husbands. Majority of the beauticians across the district are housewives, belonging to middle and below middle class, as it needs minimum amount to start a beauty parlour. According to sources, women who want to open a parlour in their house needs only Rs 20,000 as investment.

The common services available in majority of parlours are eyebrows, facials, waxing, hair coloring, makeup, mehandi and bridal makeup. The price range of these services varies from Rs 25 to Rs 4,000, depending on the needs of the customers. There are a few advanced beauty parlours that provide special services like hair perming, hair straightening, hair cutting, skin tightening, pimple treatment, pedicure, manicure, bleach, tan removal and hair spa besides basic services, available in other parlours.

The price range of these services varies from Rs 250 to Rs 8000. There were only a hundred or so beauty parlours in the district in 2000. But now one can see a beauty parlour almost in every street and their number has multiplied to about 10,000. This means that about 10,000 women are getting direct employment while another 20,000 to 50,000 are getting indirect employment as assistants. While some others were offering beauty services at the customers’ houses.

According to sources, any beauty parlour in the district, on average, is earning Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 per month. They will get more money during marriage season through bridal makeup, mehandi etc. Responding to the reporter of this paper, some of the beauticians said that most of their customers are students, followed by employees and housewives. They are happy with the profession as they are getting name, fame and also money. Any women, irrespective of cast, religion, age and educational qualifications can choose this profession after going through basic training and minimum investment, they added.