Beauty is power

by Lakmal Welabada

'Beauty is power; a smile is its sword' - Charles Reade

Shenuka Anthia Fernando, a charming, medium proportionate young beauty with a lovely smile holds the third key of their beauty family business gate. Janet Balasuriya, Shareen Fernando and now it's Shenuka....

"I'm the grand daughter of Janet Balasuriya, the pioneer in beauty culture in Sri Lanka," she says with pride.

 The humble and friendly grand daughter has many things to utter about her grandma, but let us divert the story line not towards to the granny, the celebrity in beauty world, but to this 'little beauty maid' who now lectures at her grandma's school - Janet Academy of Hairdressing and Beauty Culture.

Shenuka is an award winner. She won the Gold award in the Trend (Ladies) Cut and Style category in the Hair and Beauty Fair sponsored by L'oreal and City and Guild held at Hotel Galadari on March 2 this year. She won the Silver last year in the same category.

"In this category we have to colour the hair (of the model) before hand, and only the cutting and setting (styling) is done on the stage. We has to do the colouring according to the hair style we are going to set," she says.

"I studied at Holy Family Convent at Bambalapitiya upto O/Ls and then entered to the Gate Way International for my London A/Ls. Actually I wanted to do Business Administration, but since cosmology is in my blood stream I gave preference to that. So, I joined Art and Technique School of Hairdressing and Beauty Culture in Bramton, Canada.

Management was also one of the subjects in the Cosmology course I followed there so that I could fulfil that aspect as well.. This school was specialised more for hairdressing that of what I loved to excel in," explains Shenuka.

This beautician was a good 'sportswoman' while at school. Basket ball was her forte. She had played for under 13, 15, 17 and 19 in the school team for all island and was the Zonal Champs. "Even at Gate Way I played Basket Ball," she recalls.

"I love music, and still sings in the Church choir. I always wanted to go for voice training classes, but never succeeded. And I have a lovely guitar which I have not learnt to play.

Simply have no time for anything else. Even my off days are spent for the 'Janet Ru Sara', workshops and competition we conduct by our Academy with the collaboration of 'Tharunee' Sinhala women weekly of Lake House.

We conduct in Colombo suburb and remote areas like Anuradhapura, Ratnapura and Kandy. There we ask the competitors to dress a model with make up and a hair style. We select five out of each competition and present them with gifts and certificates.

The contestant who wins the first place is awarded with a full flesh beauty and hairdressing course at our Academy.

It is being held during the weekend, so that if she is a resident of a remote village, she can travel only once a week and it eases her to follow the whole course. Other wise sometimes they tend to drop due to the difficulty in travelling," she explains. Apart from that, each course facilitates two destitute girls to follow it free of charge.

Shenuka touched the first client at the Janet beauty salon just after her O/Ls. "I did the Basic course first and then followed the Advance course later. It was fun to learn from your own mum and grandma as they conducted the classes. The training I got through it helped me immensely in Canada. I felt I had a good exposure there as I got the opportunity handle the hair of many different nationals.

The African hair is the most difficult to handle and the British is the easiest. Many students complained that the Asian hair was the biggest trouble maker for them out of all, as many of the Asians came with long hair and the students found it really difficult to hold up it for the hair style.

This is because just by being seeing a hair none can guess what the result going to be. Luckily since I had the practice in handling that sort of hair in Sri Lanka I faced no problem at all.

So, I could mingle my pro-practice with the training there and enjoyed the whole thing very much," she recalls.

 Yes, you must enjoy what you are doing as then only you can complete it well.

"There we were given experience for everything including to manage a salon, order stock, make sure everything is run smoothly, cleanliness and the clients are taken on time," explains Shenuka.

"Patience is a key note in the success in beauty business. Most clients come to a salon to relax as many are with mental stresses and personal problems. So they love to talk with us and even reveal their personal ups and downs in life.

So, we should be able to understand them and always be ready to turn a listening ear to them. Also if we can remember their names (even just after a single visit to the salon) and ask about their family members or an incident which she has uttered the other day, their faces would light up with joy.

Just a beauty therapy done rudely on a client won't give any pleasure or self satisfaction to neither party. Beauty therapy is a remedy that is given for both body and soul. So, a beautician and a hairdresser should act once as a nurse and then as a psychiatrist," stresses the beautician.

Shenuka now lectures at the Janet Academy. Though she is still in her early twenties her practical experience and academicals knowledge in this field has presented her with many students. The young teacher is very happy about it.

However she seems still the pet of her parents and the jovial comrades of her pals. "I have many friends as I have gone to two schools, from church, basket ball teams, mother's and grandma's friends and my own students and clients. I feel really good about it. My pass time is to get together with them and sing," she laughs.

"Ours is a family business. My mother, her sister and three brothers are involved in it, only their eldest brother is away as a chef in Australia. We exclusively conduct the academy for ladies. Out of all the full flesh courses the 'Personal Grooming' crash course which concludes with four lessons is also one among the most popular.

They can finish it with in a month. And one particular lesson (either hairstyles, make up, saree draping, manicure or pedicure) is done per day per week. So even if they miss a lesson they can easily catch it up by coming to the next course," she says.

"In this field how ever much you are qualified you have to keep on innovating your talent by doing new courses, reading magazines and revising what you have learnt as every day there are new things are coming in, and any hairstyle goes out of fashion after a certain time," she says.

"My grand mother earned fame in this country as the best and pioneer in the beauty culture field. She won the International Quality Crown Award in England last year. And my aim is to excel in hairdressing as the best hairdresser in Sri Lanka," she hopes.