A look of a celebrity hardly misses the internet. Be it Ranbir Kapoor’s side cut or Vicky Kaushal cascading hair in ‘Chhaava’ or Virat Kohli’s sharp beard, a simple hair look can change it all. Having that one person who understands your desires, whom you can trust with your hair is important, believe it or not. Do we all not like to go to that one hairstylist who knows us! Similarly, film stars too have their favourite. There is on hair stylist in the industry who is the celeb favourite. It is possible that all those sharp, rugged suave look you might love of your favourite actor, it might be this man behind it.
It is another story of rags to riches. It was a childhood in poverty and financial woes but today he is one of the richest hairstylist in India. His name is Aalim Hakim. His father too was a well known hair dresser who reportedly had styled Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor among others.
Aalim Hakim’s father, Hakim Kairnavi was a famous stylist too. Unfortunately, he passed away at the age of 39 and all responsibilities fell on the shoulder of a nine-year-old Aalim. And today, the Hakim legacy is being carried forward by Aalim.
The art of styling is not everyone’s cup of tea. Maintaining the trends or setting a trend, experimenting, taking risk and understanding your client, everything is essential. And for Aalim, this art seems to be running in his DNA. Hakim, started out from a balcony in his home and today owns several outlets. In a podcast with Maniesh Paul, Hakim said, “I wanted to carry forward my father’s name. I wanted to do start from where he stopped. He was Hakim. I wanted to add my name to him – Hakim’s Aalim, and make it a brand”
“I used to go back my home and work, my work place was at my home, which was in the balcony of my house and there was only one small fan. So, I collected a little bit of money and bought a second hand air conditioner and at that time the second hand air conditioner was also for Rs 30,000, so my monthly installment was Rs 2,000 or Rs 3,000 for the AC. Once, I finished that EMIs, I felt like, I am a rich guy, I have got a salon, barber shop which is air conditioned barbershop. I felt very proud in 1990s,” he said in a conversation with Brut.
Reportedly, his talent was recognized eventually. He was sponsored by L’Oreal and sent abroad to work with few international hairdressers. And setting foot in India again, this Aalim was now ready to take on the glamour world with more technical knowledge.
Today ALL Big Names- Rajnikanth, Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Ajay Devgn, Virat Kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Shahid Kapoor etc.
Recently, he dropped a post with Ranbir Kapoor’s latest make over. Earlier MSD and Virat’s viral looks were also curated by hime.
Speaking about the monetary part, in an interview he revealed “My fee is very simple which everybody know How much I charge. So, it starts from Rs 1 lakh. That’s the minimum.”
