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As a child, I grew up wanting to be a doctor, someone who would take care of sick children and make them healthy and happy.
I visualised myself wearing a white coat and a stethoscope around my neck. To me, a doctor represents authority, strength and kindness. Being a doctor was someone of significance.
Today, I’m convinced that the next best thing to being a doctor is being a hairdresser. I get to wear disposable gloves and use scissors, and I make people feel better than they did when they walked into the salon. As a hairdresser, I also learned the art of listening to the beat of someone’s heart without using a stethoscope.
It was in Istanbul, one of the world’s most alluring and exotic cities of the world, that I fell in love with the beauty of hair, and beauty itself, and in love I remain.
Not just hair
The atmosphere and energy in my uncle’s salon, located in the heart of Istanbul, was uplifting and lively. Women would come in with unkempt hair, get their coiffure done, and walk out with a bounce in their step. It wasn’t just about doing their hair.
It was the conversation, having coffee or freshly brewed tea, and the warm böreks fresh out of the oven from a downstairs bakery.
It was also the background music and the scent of hair products that lingered long after customers left the salon. Mostly, it was about giving people self-confidence and feeling good about the whole experience.
Although I more or less fell into the hair and beauty industry, I felt in my heart that I was ordained for a journey of haircutting my way through life.
My journey in the fashion and beauty industry spans more than three decades and has enriched me with meeting interesting people from all walks of life and the privilege to be taken into their stories from their ‘once upon a time’ to the ‘here and now.’
