The grooming and wellness industry in Pakistan keeps growing with entrants looking to provide a different angle to age old techniques. The media ensures people are constantly aware of shifts in micro-trends and are more receptive towards embracing them for higher prices.
Team Dessange Pakistan - CEO Dessange Pakistan Mr. Farooq Alvi with Dessange stylists, Cecile and Arnaud from France.
InstepReport
The luxury salon chain lands in Pakistan and brings along trainers from France.
Lahore: The grooming and wellness industry in Pakistan keeps growing with entrants looking to provide a different angle to age old techniques. The media ensures people are constantly aware of shifts in micro-trends and are more receptive towards embracing them for higher prices. As the disposable income of our ever growing middle class increases, the market becomes ideal for international salon brands to enter. Pakistan only had the British Toni & Guy up until this week, when the French luxury salon chain Dessange Paris launched in Lahore.
Their newly minted Lahore branch is built on the standards of any of their 400 salons worldwide. Over the course of trainings ahead of their launch, Instep visited for a consultation with their hair experts from France, Cecile (for haircuts) and Arnaud (for hair colouring). They explained that part of the “luxury concept” is to give personalized services for hair care from the kind of shampoo and conditioner used to the mandatory thorough and detailed consultation with the client before their services begin. Cecile & Arnaud are in the process of training the staff that’s come together from Lahore’s most well-known salons namely Toni & Guy, Nabila’s and Nirvana. Dessange Pakistan also has the LSA nominated hair and makeup artist Hannan Siddique on board as Creative Director.
Dessange experts creating hair looks at the launch.
At the launch, Juweriya Zafar, Director Operations at Dessange Pakistan shared that every three months, they hope to bring trainers in from France to maintain standards and keep the staff up to par with international developments. Seeing that Dessange has four salons in the neighbouring country, India, we wondered whether they were interested in the South Asian region or did Zafar and her family have to coax them to open a franchise here. “They were interested in the region but it took us about a year to convince them that Lahore is peaceful and safe with thriving businesses. Additionally, they are very careful about who they give their franchise to maintain their luxury standard. Now that the salon is up and running, they insist that even if there’s an employment turnover they want to train the staff themselves every three months, as opposed to us doing it,” Zafar claims.
She’s confident about Dessange working because she feels an international luxury salon chain is a first for Pakistan and their space stands as one of the biggest in size at 1400 square feet. It may be the biggest but only time will serve as the best judge of its merits. Pakistan already has salon networks like Depilex, Toni & Guy (possibly the first international chain of salons in the country) and N Pro, amongst others but given the salon-steady population of Pakistan (men and women) Dessange definitely does look like a welcome addition.
