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The beauty within
Gone are the days when the Pakistani bride looked like a crimson tart overburdened with heaps of jewellery and looking thoroughly victimized. Today, notable beauty artistes seek to make a fine convergence between a model and a bridal make-over without making either look out of place. And this is where new talent is making sizable inroads.
Saba Ansari is comparatively new on the styling block but the person behind the dynamic Sabs Salon has still managed to make waves in the beauty industry amidst the presence of styling giants like Nabila’s, Saima’s and Depilex among others.
“I started my career with Depilex at a time when it was getting noticed,” she says, adding, “I got my training, inspiration and devotion to work from there. After years of attending courses both here and abroad, I opened Sabs in 2001 and since then there has been no looking back for me.”
Saba says her philosophy involves personal involvement in all her client dealings. “To me a salon is a place where people come to relax. I am not from the school of thought that supports a martial distinction between staff and clients either. My girls mingle with everyone irrespective of the fact that they are celebrities or not.”
She calls her staff are her greatest asset, “They stay with me through thick and thin and no matter how late or early.” Saba, it seems, has learnt her lessons early in life and quite well at that from examples in the styling industry where one hears of big names disassociating themselves from giant styling concerns all the time, not always on friendly or speaking terms, only to start working for their competitors, and setting tongues wagging in wake of the unfolding drama.
‘My work as a beautician of repute speaks for itself and my share of success so far has been due to hard work and a lot of good luck. And no matter how camped an industry is, good work eventually shines through,’ says Saba Ansari
Sabs, some say, has managed to get hold of some really good beauticians from other salons. SO what does Saba have to say about it? “If you take good care of your workers they never leave you. People no longer work just for a salary, they need fulfilment in a broader sense which is what I give them.”
So exactly how does she explain the fact that both she and her salon have made their collective presence felt in a relatively short period of time amidst fiercely guarded camps and cliques of the fashion industry? “My work speaks for itself and I am working with the aim of being counted among the top slot of beauticians. My share of success so far has been due to hard work and a lot of good luck. I had excellent teachers and good projects from day one. And no matter how camped an industry is, one’s good work eventually shines through.
“Also, I feel I have been lucky in the sense that I got good breaks in the print media as well as music videos. I did the styling for Junoon’s Pappu Yaar video and Strings’ Sohniye.” Saba says she also did the cover make-overs for Eman Ali, Iraj and Vinnie for a well-known beauty magazine and the results have been an immense professional gain. “Eman’s shoot was th first time to date that she got her styling done from anybody other than Shehzad Raza of Ather Shehzad, which created quite a sensation,” she says pointing to the enlarged, glass-encased blowups of the shoots gracing her salon wall with all the puffed-up pride of a big-game hunter who shows off his prized kill mounted as a trophy in his study.So what does she enjoy most — print, videos or regular clients? “To me every avenue is important as it gives me a bigger palette to work on. I recently did the Expo 2005 Wedding Show which included top-notch models of the country and their look received praise from serious fashion critics,” she says.
Commenting on the cliques Saba says, “I wish our fashion industry would get over the Karachi-Lahore bias. Unfortunately, it is especially the models from Lahore who like to work with their preferred camps. I wish this was not the case and if all of us work together, we will excel internationally.”
Catching this writer rather by surprise, it is for a brief, rare moment that she lets her guard down during the course of the interview to comment on the rivalry that exists between the two fashion capitals.
It also becomes painfully clear at this point of the conversation that Saba believes in playing it safe, opting to look from behind rose-tinted glasses while taking the safe path to avoid any controversy whatsoever. While it may be a good place to be, the fact remains that sometimes one needs to take risks by speaking one’s mind, if not anything else but to simply let it be known where one stands on certain issues and be taken seriously.
Saba Ansari says she particularly enjoys working with Iraj, Vaneeza Ahmed, Sunita Marshall, Rabab, Tooba and Zainab Qayyum. She talks of Nadya Hussain, her first model, very fondly, too. “These girls are professionals. They enjoy their work while being creative. As far as photographers are concerned, I hold Deevees, Abid Saleem and Arshad Tareen in high regard.”
The mother of three kids one of which is a teenager, the stylist juggles her career with family thanks to her supportive husband. “I try my best to give them whatever quality time I have though work often takes up most of my time. Having said that, I realize that I would have not made it this far without my husband’s encouragement.”
Saba’s philosophy on beauty is very simple: “A lot of women ask me what they should do to look good. What’s the ultimate regimen to be followed in diet, grooming or fashion. I simply say they should feel happy and be good human beings. No matter what, when you are a happy and positive person you look good. That is perhaps the best advice I can give to a woman for looking her best.“Fashion sense has permeated the average Pakistani girl now and I get clients who have a very good sense of what suits them even though I do get a ‘make-me-an-Aishwarya’ bride now and then,” she says cattily.
In an industry where beauty and looks matter but vice runs free and untethered, Saba Ansari has only just scoured the surface. And though she has made a name for herself, the wolves are there eying her every move and ready to pounce if and when she falters. How gracefully she conducts herself in the face of adversity will serve as the litmus test of her survival skills, polishing them to razor-sharp perfection.
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