Capturing the hearts of fashion conscious women:

More women taking to hair dressing

Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

In a world that is fast changing and becoming a global village the role played by women too has changed. Their contribution to the economy is significant and they are no second to men in many business spheres. Hair dressing, once regarded as a male dominated field, has now become a more women involved sector.

Nayana Karunaratne has captured the hearts of the fashion conscious women with her chain of 13 saloons with three in India and is today a leading business woman in the country.

She was interviewed by Daily News Business.

Q. What is your business and how did you set about it?

A. I am essentially a hair dresser and also a trainer in two fields, one in hair dressing and beauty culture and the other is personality development.

I have set up an academy and have a big resource team including doctors and nutritionists.

The academy caters to different needs of clients and this is a novel concept in Sri Lanka.

Q. How do you balance your family life and business?

A. It is important to prioritize your work as both business and family life are important. It is a problem for many people to manage time. I believe in quality time and I have a priority list. I pre-plan my work and manage accordingly.

Q. What are the challenges you faced?

A. Initially there was resistance from people, especially those who were engaged in the skilled industry.

The trend was to become a doctor or an engineer. I have dispelled that notion and the society accepts me for what I am. The most difficult challenge I face is to manage quality human resources. I have grown systematically and therefore reaching each level was possible. However, on a day- to- day basis it is a challenge to get work done by people.

Q. What is your advice to women in business?

A. My first advice is not to feel guilty for what you are doing. One must strike a balance between the family and business life.

You should not neglect either as both are important for you. Women should be women and I stress the need for a woman to remain a woman.

At no point should she try to be a man. I also feel that if you conduct yourself with respect and dignity you too will be respected. I firmly believe in this. I also advise women not to feel discriminated.

Q. Being a woman was it an advantage to be in business?

A. At times it was an advantage as more doors were open for women. This is for women of substance. If you do a worthy thing the society will certainly take you seriously.

Q. What were your achievements in business and family?

A. The greatest achievement was to bring up my two sons. I have experienced setbacks in my personal life. My first marriage did not work. However, I was determined never to give up and succeeded eventually.

My husband is a tower of strength and helps me to achieve my goals. I want to bring up my sons well. They are balanced and quite intelligent. As every mother's wish I want them to do well in life. Being a working mother I try my best to have quality time with my family.

In business life, my first achievement was to set up a saloon and reach this position. In 1999 I won the first award. It was an international recognition from Bangkok. In appreciation of my services to the world of hair dressing and beauty culture I was honoured with two awards by the World Federation of Hair Dressers in 2002 and 2008.

Locally, I was awarded the Woman Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008 and also won the Business Woman of the Year award. Currently I am the President of the World Federation of Hair Dressers.

Q. What are your goals?

A. I set up new saloons in partnership with my staff. I also set up three saloons in India. I wish to expand the business as now there is a conducive environment in our country. I work towards a set of standards where there should be some minimum qualifications for hair dressers with Government approval.

This would help the profession and the quality of service provided. I wish to plant trees along the Marine Drive, a task which I have already started. I like to add colour to the environment.

As far as my family life is concerned I am content. I wish to maintain my health and to work as long as possible. I dread the feeling to be in one place having nothing to do. I am not a collector of material things and do not want to accumulate them.

Q. What is your contribution to the society?

A. I do corporate training as a job, but I also engage in training the less privileged and orphans. I intend to expand it.

I strongly believe that people should not be given material things alone. If you merely provide material things alone people will never understand its value. We should help them to identify their skills and potential to do well in life.

Things given free have no value. My contribution is to make them understand this and make them live accordingly.

I am keen on making the Marine Drive green and for this purpose I will plant more trees along the way. It is very unpleasant to see people dumping garbage all over the place. I clean places as much as possible. I blame the upper strata of society for neglecting things like this when they are capable of playing a bigger role.

They are careless and wait for someone to clean it for them and blame the Government for things not being done. We are not doing enough to rectify things, despite how simple it is.

We need to create awareness, but awareness alone is not sufficient. We need to make a difference and this change is a must for a better society.