“Be patient, encouraging and impart confidence along with the correct skills.”

"The Professional Beauty & Hairdressers Journal India magazine has great content and a lot of sharing from the industry experts without ads being overbearing"

Seema V Jerajani, Founder & Educator, SVJ Academy of Hair and Makeup, shares some key tips for aspiring beauty artists and budding trainers, along with her thought behind her winning look at the World Championships competition.

YOU HAVE BEEN AN ACTIVE PART OF THIS INDUSTRY FOR MORE THAN 3 DECADES. HOW HAS THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY EVOLVED?

Back in the 80s, we had to source hair colour and perm lotions from people who travelled abroad, and one had to be lucky to have a good mentor and quality training. I consider myself amongst the lucky ones. Today, the industry has evolved well, and there is no dearth of products, brands, training online and offline, trade events, awareness, acceptance in the society, media promotions for individuals and companies. The scenario has totally changed.

HOW IMPORTANT IS TRAINING AND LEARNING IN THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY? WHAT WOULD YOUR TIPS BE FOR THE BUDDING TRAINERS IN THIS INDUSTRY?

Training is of primary importance, firstly to have a good foundation and secondly, continuous learning to keep up with the trends and techniques. This is important for continued success. My tip to the budding trainers is: It is important to update yourself by doing offline courses as well as keep yourself updated through the media with what is happening globally. As a trainer, you influence your students. So it is important to see that what you share in terms of skills, communication, mannerism, and attitude has a positive influence. Work on yourself to be patient, encouraging and impart confidence along with the correct skills.

HAT SHOULD AN ASPIRING EAUTY EXPERT KEEP IN MIND HILE SHORTLISTING THE ELEVANT COURSES, ACADEMIES ND INSTITUTIONS FOR RAINING?

• Check out the academies offering he relevant courses, find out who the trainers are and what their education and experience is. See the kind of work they o and the kind of work their students o. Today, this is possible as information is available on platforms such as Instagram r Facebook. Many well-known academies have teachers who were students in the previous batch at their institute.

• Check reviews by connecting to the student of the institutes, this is possible on Facebook.

• Check if the qualification that is being offered has global or national recognition or is it great skills that you wish to acquire from an experienced teacher.

• Check if courses are completed in the given time or they get extended.

• Check out the after training support by the academy or possibility of placement.

YOUR EXPERIENCE OF PARTICIPATING IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS COMPETITION AND WINNING FIRST PLACE? TELL US ABOUT THE THOUGHT BEHIND YOUR WINNING LOOK.

It began with the lockdown online education where the kind of hours needed for practice was a minimum eight hours per day. During the lockdown, responsibilities at home were far greater, availability of products was not easy, and under those circumstances to win the first place was beyond my dreams.

The look that had to be created was a fantasy hairstyle and the prerequisite was the flag of the country to be included in the hairstyle. I wanted to create something that was totally Indian, so to start with, I designed the moodboard. The concept was Goddess Laxmi, the goddess of wealth, fortune, love, beauty, joy and prosperity, both material and spiritual. I focused on maintaining the holiness of the divine look yet creating the fantasy hairstyle.

I made a few sketches until I liked the design. Then I created the base structure on the mannequin head with using newspaper to check how the form of the design will look since hair wasn’t immediately available due to lockdown. Some of the coloured hair required for the style was not available. Luckily Streax Professional had launched their Funky colours and I just took a chance and did a test strand to see if they worked on fake hair too. It worked! Then creating the shapes flawlessly took some practice till I got the finish I was satisfied with. Head jewellery was part of the design and had to be customised. One more challenge was that the jewellery was ready on the previous day of the photo shoot and the structure of the hairstyle had to be changed to technically and visually look good.

It was a great honour to represent my country for this world championship where 68 countries and 1,000 hairdressers participated. While the world championship was virtual, the results were announced at a huge event held in Sochi, Russia.

WHAT’S GOING TO BE EXCITING OR THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY – SALON OWNERS, HAIRDRESSERS, KIN EXPERTS, MAKEUP ARTISTS, AND BRANDS – IN THE YEAR 2022?

With a better ability to deal with circumstances, better hygiene standards in the beauty industry, trimming of unnecessary expenses, new norms, and more skilling during the last two years, the beauty industry looks forward to – events, offline education, new products, competitions and human interaction.