For the past 15 years Joseph McCalman and his wife Joan have been an integral part of Guyana’s multi-million dollar hair and beauty industry; their reputations extending beyond owning and operating a beauty salon and into what, these days, is the equally lucrative pursuit of training mostly young women searching for career opportunities.
Hair Tech International, one of the best-known institutions of its kind in the city has its roots in Joseph McCalman’s past as a sort of family stylist. Apart from serving as a barber to male family members and friends at weekends, he recalls assisting his mother with the application of then well-known Amritdhara brand, in the dyeing of her hair. In 1994, McCalman left Guyana for Barbados where he spent four years at the Caribbean Design Academy. He returned home in 1997 to practice his craft, working at various local establishments including Studio 7 on Duncan Street, GB’s in First Federation Building on Croal Street and Blue Flame on America Street. Eventually, he acquired the premises at 9 North Road, Bourda.
Fifteen years has been more than sufficient time for McCalman to develop an understanding of the sector that goes way beyond his professional attachment to it. He believes that the sustained popularisation of hairdressing is both a boon to the Guyana economy and a valuable avenue for the acquisition of a potentially lucrative profession, particularly for young women. By the same token he says that success comes easiest to those who can combine discipline and determination with a creative flair.
Part of Hair Tech International is cosmetology school. It trains between 50 and 60 students annually. Courses run for eight months and tuition costs $250,000, inclusive of equipment, raw material and access to models for practical training. McCalman says the need for models allows him to offer free styling to persons who might need the service but cannot afford it. Sixty per cent of his students are females and these include both professional women and housewives. Hair Tech also offers shorter courses for barbers and nail technicians, all in considerable demand. Those courses cost $85,000.
Having overcome the challenges associated with training the new graduates must now transform their skills into a profession. It is often a choice between finding work at a station inside an established beauty salon, investing in the creation of an established business or providing a limited service from their homes.
The industry, McCalman says, is growing continually. Perhaps more significantly the various disciplines that comprise the beauty industry have, in many instances, been merged to form a single business entity. These days, there are few beauty parlours that do not offer some or all of the various services associated with the industry as a whole. This trend opens up more opportunities for employment across the range of shills that comprise the sector.
The role of the media in the popularisation of beauty as a ticket to recognition has meant that women – particularly, though not exclusively – are prepared to invest significant sums in looking good. McCalman says “face and hair are important.” More than that, women, increasingly, are seeking out various forms of beauty advice, which has given rise to the creation of a niche for beauty consultants.
The hundreds of millions of dollars that are invested in styling hair are also associated with the need to show off new styles frequently. The contemporary industry owes much to the growth of the entertainment sector, including, particularly, the proliferation of night clubs and the frequent visits to these shores by international artistes.
Unofficial monitoring mechanisms render it necessary for women to have a different hairstyle for every occasion. Over the years merchants have been quick to respond to the trend. Current estimates of the monetary volume of equipment, braids, creams, shampoos and other paraphernalia associated with hair styling are believed to total hundreds of millions of dollars. The number of urban beauty parlours are simply too difficult to count. Rising costs, McCalman says, impose their own pressures. All women crave that good look. Some, unfortunately, cannot afford what they desire most. He explains that it is not uncommon for women to walk into beauty parlours carrying voluminous braids and insisting on styles that do not suit them. Pleasing women bent on having their own way, McCalman says, is an occupational hazard of the beauty sector. The sustained expansion of the sector has made customer loyalty a valued commodity. He observes that mature women can be much more loyal, “provided they are satisfied with the service.” If they are not they voice their concerns before they arrive at a point of transferring their loyalty elsewhere. Younger, perhaps less well-off clients, are more inclined to shop around.
The sustained growth of the sector has resulted in a significant adjustment in the mobility of the professionals. These days, working women spend a significant proportion of their earnings on beauty care. More than that, there are probably not too many women who have not stored their stylists’ cellular numbers in their own cellphones.
Along the stretch of North Road where Hair Tech is situated, there are about half a dozen other salons. The steady growth of Hair Tech International is linked largely to the fact that the establishment embraces a broad range of services and perhaps more significantly that it offers training courses in a sector that seems set to grow even further in the foreseeable future.
