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FORTNIGHTLY QUIZ-181

The beauty of being a beautician
Pervin Malhotra

Thanks to the increasing fashion and beauty consciousness coupled with rising incomes and focus on health and fitness, beauty culture or cosmetology has emerged as a major occupational avenue with significant commercial potential. Spurred by new scientific developments, techniques, products and media hype, the Indian fashion industry has truly come of age, generating mega revenues.

An interesting aspect of this field is that it does not demand high academic qualifications although a flair for the job is definitely an asset. Also the training period is generally brief and can even be taken up at a later stage in life. Even at the age of 30 or 40 you can opt for a course in beauty culture and hairdressing or the myriad other specialisations - after the gates for most other career opportunities have closed.

You have a whole range of specialisations to choose from: beauty therapy, hair styling and cutting, make-up, massage, facials, manicure, pedicure, electrolysis, herbal beauty care, etc. There are other closely related jobs like those of a beauty lab assistant, health club instructor, cosmetic sales person, consultant, etc. While it is possible to practice more than one of these simultaneously, you can choose to be a specialist in any one — hair or skin or make-up if that’s where your interest lies.

After gaining some hands-on training, you could open your own beauty parlour or hairdressing salon or a combination of both and provide all beauty services under one roof. To open your own parlour you need thorough professional knowledge of beauty culture, sufficient funds, an accessible location, quality equipment and materials and dollops of business sense.

There are countless courses on offer for fee ranging from Rs 2000 to 25,000. However, don’t go for fancy-sounding crash courses that drill a hole in your pocket and leave you none the wiser. Training in cosmetology typically takes 6-12 months, with theory, demonstration and practicals being part of the course. Training is imparted by various vocational institutions like polytechnics as well as by reputed professionals in the field.

Important aspects of the training include essentials of healthcare, latest make-up and hairstyling techniques, laser therapy, mixing and application of cosmetic preparations, handling of specialised equipment and their correct usage. You will also learn how to prepare and use herbal cosmetics, henna and special masks for different skin-types, dyeing and tinting, facials, manicure, pedicure, waxing, threading, bleaching and the hundred little things that go into making people beautiful.

Personal qualities for a cosmetologist include a pleasing well-groomed personality, gentleness, dexterity, an eye for fashion and beauty, willingness to work with your hands, loads of stamina (you may have to stand for long hours at a stretch), conversational savvy and the ability to put your clients at ease. Creating a soothing and relaxing atmosphere for your client and neatness and efficiency are equally important - nothing can be more off-putting to a client than a hurried, impersonal and sloppy job.

The beautician’s basic work lies in the area of beauty care, nail care, hair care, waxing, body care and make-up. If you are specialising in hair care, the work would involve cutting, colouring and styling hair. To achieve professionalism and repute you must learn to blend technical skills with a dash of imagination. An expert hairdresser in a South Delhi salon, says, "Shaping and styling hair gives me the greatest thrill...I’ve been working for the past 10 years in this line and it gives me tremendous job satisfaction, besides an opportunity to expand my practice. Financially too, hair dressing has paid me extremely well. Today I can afford all luxuries of life."

The make-up artiste’s job is to make the face look attractive by using complementary shades of colour to tone and highlight the beauty of the face while camouflaging and down-playing the flaws. It is fascinating to watch an expert create several faces on a single individual with a few deft strokes. This is a highly specialised field, besides being a very well paid one. Besides bridal and party make-up, these specialists are in great demand in the fashion, theatre, advertising and television industries. Screen make-up is a specialisation in itself.

The facial expert's main work is concerned with skin problems like acne, dark patches or premature wrinkles and providing appropriate facial treatment for maximum physical and psychological benefit. An electrologist is a specialist trained in the permanent removal of superfluous hair and needs to be technically adept at handling the job.

India’s booming cosmetic industry is worth Rs. 1,800 crore today and with a projected growth rate of 25 per cent annually, it is bound to generate a high employment potential in the years to come along with the need for related services.

Of this, the herbal segment, worth Rs 300 crore and growing at the rate of 40 per cent, is perhaps the fastest growing.

As there is a dearth of specialised courses in cosmetology, a degree in pharmacy, ayurveda and even botany, with basic knowledge of cosmetology or cosmetic chemistry, find favour with employers in the herbal care industry. The job range includes R and D/analytical chemist, quality controller, one supervisor. Starting out at Rs 8,000-12,000 per month, you could gross as much as Rs 45,000 per month after a few years of experience. The big players in this sector are the Shahnaz Husain Group, Lotus, Herbals and Biotique.

Nagpur University’s BTech in Cosmetic Technology, perhaps the only one of its kind, enjoys a good reputation.

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Where is landscape designing taught?

A Landscape architects design areas to make them functional, beautiful and compatible with the surrounding environment. A landscape architect decides the location of buildings, roads, walkways, gardens, even the arrangement of trees flowerbeds, fountains, etc keeping in mind the conservation of natural resources and history of the area.

However, several excellent landscape designers I know are essentially self-taught. Armed with excellent gardening skills and some knowledge of horticulture, they proceeded to experiment with small home gardens before venturing out on more ambitious projects. In the USA and the UK, short-term courses are available for graduates. But in India you need physics and maths in class XII for admission to the BArch degree.

While the subject is covered at the BArch level, specialised courses in landscape architecture in India, are offered at: School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), New Delhi. Course: Master of Landscape Architecture. Selection: entrance test and interview.

Centre for Environmental Planning Technology (CEPT), School of Architecture, Kasturbhai Lalbhai Campus, Ahmedabad. Course: Master’s in Landscape Architecture

The number of seats, however, is limited (roughly 15 in each).

Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University, Nasik, offers a Diploma in Floriculture and Landscape Gardening which does not require any special qualifications to the best of my knowledge.

However, some institutions in the UK like the University of Essex and a few others, offer courses in landscape design and landscape management as part of broader courses in agriculture as well as stand-alone ones at the undergraduate level.

A The most valuable pointer I can suggest is to first work out a written career plan for, say, the next five years, including your realistic yet ambitious goals, and with an honest assessment of your strengths and shortcomings. Without such a plan, it is impossible to successfully plan your career growth.

Once you have drawn up your five-year career plan, you must then assess the opportunities available for someone with your qualifications, skills and experience.

The third step is to marry the two, namely your goals and the opportunities available.

Thus, for instance, considering your experience, you might wish to become a top-flight finance professional. In which case, you might like to consider a switch from your present job to some other, faster-growing company in the financial services sector. Or, is it that the company you currently work for is not growing fast enough to provide you sufficient growth opportunities?

In a nutshell, work out your goals first, the action you need to take will then automatically be evident.

A Instead of losing hope and feeling dispirited, what you need to do is to work out a positive action plan. Here is how:

Objectively assess your software knowledge vis-`E0-vis the current market requirements. You have mentioned that you do have some knowledge of software; talk to some friends and contacts in the computer software field who can help you assess whether there are some significant gaps in your knowledge which can be filled in with the help of some specialist courses.

If your knowledge base is already sufficient, you might like to go in for some certification which will then convince potential employers of your proficiency.

Side by side, try and also get some part-time work so that you get hands-on experience which is something employers in this industry value greatly.

You write that you are determined to succeed in the software field; once you add the relevant skills/certification to your determination I am sure you will succeed.

Pervin Malhotra, Director, CARING

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FORTNIGHTLY QUIZ-181

1. Name the indigenously developed pilotless target aircraft (PTA) which was recently test-flown at Chandipur-on-sea in Orissa.

— Tarun Sharma