The other day at the salon, while getting a head massage, I reflected on how what is now an indulgence used to be a regular weekend activity with my mother. That train of thought got me thinking about humans and grooming in general. Humans have always enjoyed beautifying themselves and each other. There is also archaeological evidence dating to the Stone Age, where humans used a red-coloured rock to colour their faces. And ancient Egyptians used kohl to darken their eyelids, and the Romans used sheep fat or blood as fingernail polish! 

And yet the beauty sector (stereotypically called pink collar industry!) has often been considered superficial and one that objectifies women. While some may see a beauty parlour as a space where women indulge themselves, it is much more than that. In some communities, women still find it difficult to step out of their houses or colonies, but getting their eyebrows done at a nearby parlour with the neighbouring ladies is permissible.

These beauty parlours are important social congregation points for women, which they see as a safe, accessible spaces to express themselves. This is where women let their guards down and share their worlds.

The “parlour didi” is a friend, confidante, guide, and mentor at once. And this is where Godrej Consumer Product Ltd’s (GCPL) decade-old CSR programme, Salon-I, comes in. We work with women from economically weaker sections to train them to become beauticians and help them set up and grow their businesses. Over the last decade, we have worked with over 2.6 lakh women across most of the states in the country and have also taken this programme to Kenya and the Republic of South Africa, where the focus is more on hair care.

The Salon-I program promotes a sorority of sorts at all levels. From the GCPL team to the NGO partners, to their on-ground teams and the young girls and women we work with, there is a strong bonding and a shared sense of purpose – that of enabling every woman in our sphere to live up to her potential.

Our training sessions are far more than a space to impart technical and business skills; they are a space to share their journeys, hurts, disappointments, win, and the road ahead.

Our program has been an avenue for so many women chasing their dreams or getting their firsts’… first time outside their city, first flight, first time on their own!

There are no limits to what a woman can achieve when she sets her heart to it, and when empowered women empower other women, there is a ripple effect in terms of a strong, conscious, enabling community.

Salon-I is a living testament to this. The spirit of the programme is that each woman is beautiful and unique. The curriculum embodies the culture which cancels out body and colour shaming and focuses on identity and self-expression. From trainees becoming NGO trainers or trainers taking a leap of faith to become beaty-preneurs, we have seen many brave journeys. The sorority has come together repeatedly to support individuals to navigate family, community and their inhibitions to emerge stronger. Every alumnus (and here, I include all of us in the GCPL team, NGO partners, and trainers) will always hold the experiences via the programme close to their hearts and pass it forward somewhere down the line.