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| Zakir Husain, Ikyappadam, Ponnani, Malappuram |
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20 is not the age to get bald, but then who knows what the writing on the skull can bring. That was the experience of Zakir Husain, the successful promoter of hair fixing among Keralites.
It was while working as a young salesman in a company in Delhi that he started thinking about hair fixing. After getting himself a wig at a shop frequented by Malayalees in Delhi, the idea of starting a similar venture on his own became deep rooted in him. In those days getting oneself the ‘fix’ used to cost Rs.50000 to Rs.1 lakh. Zakir dreamt of making the procedure more pocket-friendly and thus taking it to the masses.
Since Gulf Malayalees were the patrons of the business, he migrated to Dubai in 1995 with the idea of starting a venture there. 5th son of the 10 children of Hameed of Ikyappadam, Ponnani, he studied the market and connected aspects before launching ‘Gulf Gate’ in Dubai in 2000. Initially, the Canadian technology based hair fixing did not attract many customers. The first 2 years were easily the dullest period of his business.
But then the company picked up momentum rapidly. Soon branches of ‘Gulf Gate’ sprang up at many cities in the Gulf as well as Kerala. According to him, since the process relies on synthetic hair that is fixed to the head without any surgery, there are no ill-effects to it. And the user can later travel in a motor bike or engage in a swim if he so desires. According to Zakir, the customers of Gulf Gate include megastars of celluloid and TV to doctors and others.
Courtesy:
K.Vinod Chandran,
Mathrubhumi, August 29, 2005
Contributed by: Administrator
