Inside the life of a beauty parlour worker in Dhaka
After years of working in Dhaka’s beauty industry, despite financial struggles and the challenges of raising her children while managing work, Onamika Makhin today runs her own salon
Onamika Makhin had just moved to a three-bedroom apartment in Shankar.
"It is a mess; we just moved in a few days ago [from another apartment in the same area]," she said earlier over the phone. But the apartment, approximately 500 sq feet in size, housing Onamika's six-member family, looked well-kept.
She chuckled and pointed at the ceiling fan, "We put that up today [on 9 January] actually."
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The Garo family had returned from a visit to their hometown in Mymensingh earlier in the week, where Onamika's elderly parents live. "My father is bedridden now so my mother can't look after my children," she explained why she decided to bring her children home.
Between two working parents — her husband works as a private car driver and Onamika runs her beauty parlour business in Shankar and attends to house calls — the couple sends their children to the grandparents when the going gets tough.
Her youngest two are both in the third grade. Shubho, her second youngest, has speech impairment, which Onamika believes was a result of an isolated city life, bound inside a small apartment after school.
This is why the couple sends their children to Mymensingh every now and then. But this also means disruptions in their schooling. One of her older children, a ninth grader, is currently staying in their hometown to give Onamika's mother a hand with chores.
By the middle of this year, Onamika's parlour business will turn five years old. For a veteran beauty parlour worker having worked in the capital since 2003 at the age of 14, a business sounded like a success story. "I wouldn't call it that because it was done when our backs were against the wall," said Onamika's husband.
In 2020, Onamika was working at Farzana Shakil's Makeover Salon, one of the most popular beauty parlours in the country, for more than a decade. When the lockdown shut down her source of income, like most other beauty parlour workers in the country, Onamika was helpless.
Hailing from Mymensingh, Tangail and Netrokona, Garo women — primarily of the Mandi tribe — often come to Dhaka and join the beauty parlour sector. Although official statistics do not exist, the majority of the women employed across lakhs of registered beauty parlours in the country are Garo women. "I would say 90 out of every 100 workers are Garo," said Onamika.
According to Nomandi, a non-profit organisation which advocates for ethnic minority rights, its outdated statistics put the number of Garo women in the beauty industry at over 1,000 in the year 2000. "But that has changed by manifolds," said Bloom Pathang, a representative of Nomandi. "The flow of Garo women into this sector increased a lot after 2000."
An early start
Onamika's first family is made up of two parents and an older sister. The daughters were sent off to a Christian missionary school. "I completed schooling till the eighth grade," she said. Later, both sisters travelled to Dhaka with a relative in their village.
Shortly afterwards, Onamika started work at a small parlour in Farmgate. "An extended relative got me that job," she said. "Salary was Tk400 a month and housing was provided." Two facial beds and a sofa inside the parlour were the "housing" where Onamika slept with two other employees. "We took turns with the sofa on alternate nights."
At first, Onamika was to observe and learn the basics of the trade. "Then during our free time, I would practice on my colleagues, let's say eyebrow threading. One time, I really messed up a client's eyebrows. She didn't realise it then, but came back the next day.
"She couldn't recognise me. She started yelling at my colleague standing next to me. Malik [beauty parlour owner] gestured to me to go and hide on the roof," Onamika burst out laughing.
"During our free time, I would practice on my colleagues, let's say eyebrow threading. One time, I really messed up a client's eyebrows. She didn't realise it then, but came back the next day. She couldn't recognise me. She started yelling at my colleague standing next to me. Malik [beauty parlour owner] gestured to me to go and hide on the roof."
Today, she has come a long way. From small parlours across Farmgate and even in Banani-Gulshan, where Onamika said she worked only for a few months, she landed a job at Harmony Spa — one of the better-known parlours in Dhanmondi. "I started as an all-rounder," meaning she was hired as someone who could pluck eyebrows, give pedicures, manicures, haircuts and make-up among other things. Her starting salary was Tk7,000.
In many establishments, beauty parlour salons provide housing inside the parlour; others provide "quarters" like a mess. And some provide rental allowance.
In the capital, according to Onamika, Shankar, Mohammadpur, Kalachhandpur and Badda are the main hubs where beauty parlour workers reside. "There's also a difference in the accommodation provided for married and single employees," she explained, which comes down to size.
Many Garo women also choose to send their children to their hometowns while the couple work different jobs in the capital.
When Onamika first decided to open a parlour in Shankar, she did not tell her husband. "He saw the posters and confronted me. But then he was so supportive, he helped me set it up, do a lot of the woodwork, and decor."
Deposit for the space was Tk3 lakh, negotiated down from Tk5 lakh, recalled Onamika. And her clients also supported her; someone gave her the money for a facial bed, and someone donated a chair. "I still have that chair," said Onamika, flashing perhaps the brightest smile on that chilly winter evening.
Before she opened her own parlour, she started to take on private house calls that same year. She would provide the same service to her clients in the comfort of their homes. After launching her parlour, she continued.
Onamika works every day. She got her older sister involved in the parlour work and employed another extended relative. The approximately 200-square-feet parlour comes with two chairs, one facial bed, one shampoo station and an attached bathroom.
What will your children study? "I cannot say what their interests are. I will try to afford a full education for them. I have to get them enrolled in school again this year."
