From the balcony to the beauty biz

Sabikun Nahar had an interest in hairdressing from a young age. She completed her training in unisex hairstyling from Sydney School of Hairdressing- Toni&Guy Education in Australia. At the age of 25, Sabikun started out with turning the balcony of her house in Dhaka into a studio, which she named, HairBar. Since then, the young entrepreneur has come a long way. For the past few years, Sabikun has been successfully running her salon in Mohakhali DOHS and Gulshan 2.

"Initially, my parents thought that hairdressing should be a hobby and not a career choice, but when they saw that I was passionate about the profession, they supported me," says Sabikun. "In the beginning, I trained one girl and the salon was operated by just the two of us. Right when my business started taking shape, my father passed away. That toughened me up for the real world. I did not have any marketing strategies - word of mouth has played a central role in the success of HairBar." Besides the two branches of her salon, Sabikun also has personal clients. From haircuts to spa and make-up, HairBar caters to a wide range of beauty essentials, serving their customers with high quality local and international products. Currently, Sabikun has close to 35 trained staff members working at her salon. Much like her, they also have their personal clients.

"I want to pursue further studies on hairdressing and open an academy where I can host workshops to teach what I have learned to young people," adds Sabikun. She also hopes to open more salons.