My idea is to create a McDonald’s of hair saloons: Jawed Habib

Jawed Habib was at work, attending to a customer and trimming his hair when we entered the portals of what is his institute for hairdressers in Andheri. We were asked to wait in the conference room as he with great dexterity gave his client a surprise haircut.

Habib would have been a teacher of the French language if he hadn’t, in a soul searching moment, decided to return to his roots, to a profession three generations old. Habib decided to break away from a single successful saloon studio, which his family owned, to set up a chain of saloons, complete with an institute which will churn out hairdressers for his fast expanding chain. His ambition is to build a McDonald’s of hairdressing saloons. Excerpts from an interview with DNA:

Why did you decide to set up a hairdressing saloon chain?
Today the mind is a brand. The T-shirt is a brand, trouser is a brand, a pen is a brand. Then why not a haircut? So when you talk of a brand, you need a system. I want people to go to a branded saloon for a hair cut and not to an Imran Khan for a haircut. In our country, hairdressing is something very personal. People have their own tailor and their own barber. But times are changing.

How are you creating a brand?
If you put education and science into it and a system in place it can be as successful chain as McDonald’s. No one believed we would require a corporate house to run a saloon. For them saloon is just four five counters, a facial room and just cutting hair. That was the business.

Are you saying there is no hair saloon chain in India?
Yes. Not even in Asia. We are the biggest brand at the moment. It is very difficult to acquire saloons as the mindset and culture fit of the single saloon owners is very different.

That’s the biggest block in acquiring them. We were talking to a few people in Mumbai. We thought they were smart and savvy, but after a few meetings with them, we realised they couldn’t understand us. They had very modest ambitions of catering to a few film stars. We were talking business and not about hairdressing. They were not able to digest our language. They were scared that we might just eat them up.

What’s the way forward, if people in your profession are scared of you?
We’ll grow by franchising. It’s a learning process. We thought it would be easier. It’s not so. They don’t understand equity stakes, etc. They are not ready. There were some who had established practice in Mumbai, who went to New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad and failed.

Because each state has a different culture and hair styling, needs are different in each state. They thought they will work in Mumbai for a week and then fly to Delhi to cater to their clientele there. They failed miserably. I am from the third generation of hairdressers. I am carrying a legacy, but now as times change, I’ve put science into my profession. I am not in this profession because I’ve learnt from my dad. I had to learn the craft from a school. You learn the basic science of it.

When you go to a small town, they’ve copied your style. They say Habib uses his fingers and scissors.
(Smiles) I think this industry requires just these ten fingers and scissors. Nothing else. If you need a good haircut, you don’t need a blow dryer. What I teach is a good quality basic cut. I don’t teach them to use a blow dryer. This is my science.

How much of it is a myth?
No. I am the first person to have said hairdressers need good education. I never thought of it as my father’s profession. When I went to small towns, I used to start teaching them. They (small-town barbers) never thought there was a school for hairdressing. If there are schools, they are product-based and not skill-based institutes.

So I started a technical based school. Earlier they were coming to Delhi and Mumbai. I went to them to teach them. Because beauty parlours, about 90%, were female oriented. Which meant restriction from mother-in-laws, husbands, fathers...So they could go to a town or a metro. So I went to them. I told them, let’s learn hairdressing not as beauty parlours, not as barbers but as a profession. We are like designers. Earlier, when I held a conference, someone said kya bade bade baatein karte hon, nai ka kaam karte hon...

Today, it has changed completely. What has helped this change is the media. Today, there are so many TV channels and newspapers have supplements on beauty and good looks. I am not selling a product. What I am selling is something like yoga. Hair yoga. If your hair shines, your skin also glows. It’s not shampoo that makes your hair shine. That’s just a cleaning agent. I moved my office to Mumbai about six years ago. Why I moved was because I used to be a part of dad’s business. I moved because our ideas were clashing.

My dad was very happy running one salon. My idea was to create a McDonald’s in hair saloons. So when I set up this office, I had a conference room and people called me mad. The software system is developed by TCS, the same that is used by Kaya Clinics (Marico’s). We are on a learning curve.

Could you explain the business model?
It is completely based on a franchisee model. We have 12 stores which are in a joint venture format. The balance is franchised. We take franchisee fees from them when they come on board. On a monthly basis, they have to give 15% of the total revenue. These are the two major revenue streams that we have.

Apart from them, we have something called territorial selling, where we sell territories to a master franchisee, so that he can manage the territory. He acts as an agent of us for that territory. Then we have a lot of floor space in our saloons, which we rent out to business firms that match our profile. We have rented out that space to a firm that goes out to sell it to others.

How many employees do you have in your roster?
We have direct hires on our roster, which include our trainers, IT staff, the main office administrators etc. Indirect hires come under the roster of our franchisees although we control them, but they are on their pay roll. Going forward, they’ll come in our pay roll, as we can ensure our interest in them. Average size of our roster in each saloon if we put at five persons, then we’ll have about 1,000 people in our network.

How do you control the quality and hygiene factor of your franchisee network?
Right now, we have mystery shoppers who visit our franchisees unannounced. We also do quality audits. We also have master franchisees in all our territories and they are responsible for maintaining a certain standard in all our franchisees. Going forward, we’ll control the stylists and we control the franchisee. What we’ll do now is control the incentive of the stylist and thus control the quality of the network.

Can we say Kaya Clinics and Lakme are your competition?
There is no competition. There is competition maybe city wise, where there would be a few competitors but not at national level. Lakme is a beauty parlour for ladies. We are unisex. They are primarily structured on product-based styling.

Do you have outlets in Bangladesh and Dubai?
We are concentrating in India at the moment. Remember, India has 1.2 billion people. Whoever has hair should come to us. We are hair-based company. Ninety percent of our work is hair related. Beauty salons are 70-80% beauty based. Ours is 90% hair-based salons. Today, lifestyles are changing. They have no time to go to a beauty salon and they can do it at home, but for a haircut they have to go to a hair salon.

Are there similar hairdressing saloon chains in the developed world?
There is a brand called Super Cut in the US. They have 10,000. But they don’t have much presence in the European markets. In Europe, every country has its own brand. There is no pan-continent brand. In fact, ours will be the first time, an individual hair company will be listed, anywhere across the world.

Will you diversify and grow in the future into the manufacturing of shampoos, etc?
No. We don’t think we would do so. As I said, this country has a population of over a billion.

Why did you stop working with Sunsilk?
I think I had been with them for long. Nine years. (But) no doubt Sunsilk has helped Jawed Habib to be known all over the country. Actually, Jawed Habib has become a spokesperson for the hair industry and Sunsilk has played a very important role in that.

What percentage of women are your clients?
I think now its 50-50 (women-men). Initially, it was 70 male and 30 female. They (women) were shy.

What keeps you motivated?
Hair styling is madness. I don’t cut hair. I design. Simple. It is more science. Hairstyling to me is 10% art and 90% science. My dad will say it’s 90% art. I disagree. If it’s art, I will stay with one saloon and serve 10 clients.

Five years from now, what kind of business are you looking at?
There is a potential to have 5,000 saloons in the country. So that is the potential.

How much can an average hair dresser earn in your business?
They start from Rs6,000 plus. Plus commissions and tips.

How many franchises do you visit?
I visit the franchises either for the launch or for some workshops.

When did you first realise you wanted to cut hair?
Very late. I was doing my masters in French. It was a five-year language course at JNU (Delhi). I was confused by the final year. I didn’t know why I was doing the course. My father could see I was lost. So he sent me to his alma mater where he did his schooling. So I did that in 1988. The school was London’s Morris School of Hair Design. It was then I realised that hairdressing was glamour. That changed my mind. That was not India. What was hairdressing in India 20 years back. But there (London) it was glamour. And glamour attracted me.

So now is it easier to open a saloon?
Much easier. Because people now understand that saloon is also a business. Saloon is not a stigma. It’s like any other business.

Even in small towns?
Yes, even in small towns. And today, every hair dresser in the country wants to imitate me. (People in small town saloons say) Jawed has worn black jacket. I will also wear black jacket.

So you are now a celebrity hairdresser
No. I am a professional.

How have you grown in the last five years?
We started with 37 in 2006.  Now we haved 184 outlets—both franchise and owned.

And how about revenues?
Last year, we were close to Rs22 crore. This year, we should be able to close at Rs50 crore.

So what will the IPO proceeds be used for?
Primarily for acquiring some small saloons across the country. Also, in brand building. Some funds will be used for growing our own saloons.

What about hair transplantation?
For now we are not into that. We could get into that in the future. But for now, no. It’s more surgical and I can only do styling.

And what about the business. How long does it take to break even when you open a store?
When we open a store, may be in six months, we start making profits.

Among the business tycoons, who do you think has the best hairstyle?
PRS (Biki) Oberoi. He is one of the most successful businessmen. He looks after himself. I think he has the best hairstyle. Ratan Tata is second. And that is missing in the Ambanis. Mukesh Ambani, well, he will be last as he does not give too much importance to this. The younger one, well does not have much hair (laughs).

Among politicians?
Rahul Gandhi is not bothered. I’d like to give him a spike haircut. He has very thick very curly hair. So that’s why he keeps it short the army cut. It’s good. It suits. Lalu (Prasad Yadav) hairstyle suits his personality. He is a very shrewd politician and so is his hairstyle.

Are they your clients?
I won’t name them. But yes, I have many people (clients).

And how long does it take for a good haircut?
Five minutes. I think its much more do with styling.

And who cuts your hair?
One of our stylists. They all are well-trained.