Amita Nagarkatti of Amita’s Place, is moving on to a new phase. While setting up collaborations with beauty and makeover professionals to reach out to more people, the much-loved hairstylist is also looking forward to improve the quality of the local beauty scene. She tells Renu Dhole how

Amita’s Place, the unisex salon in Kothrud delighting men, women, boys and girls with designer, easy-to-maintain haircuts for over 23 years now, is closing down. But that’s not necessarily bad news. While physically the parlour might have ceased to exist, Amita Nagarkatti, the graceful lady behind the enterprise, is now all set to take her brand beyond her neighbourhood. So while clients from places as far as Kondhwa and Wakad used to travel all the way to Amita’s to get their beauty fix, she will now make her expertise more accessible for Puneites by collaborating with select beauty therapists and make-over stylists in different parts of the city.

While the collaborations help her reach out to more people, the ‘poly clinic’ structure, combining the skills of talented people from the beauty and fashion industry, also offers maximum benefit to customers. “My long-term goal always was to pool in resources and skills of people who work in this field and offer clients the combined strengths of respective brands under one roof,” she says.

It’s not been an easy start though, with oneupmanship in the profession proving to be a big obstacle. “I’ve been trying to approach many people for this purpose, but, sadly, this is not an inclusive field. People feel threatened. And you can’t work with someone when the vibe is missing,” Amita avers, emphasising that this is not an attempt at ‘franchising’ her salon.

So she’s kicked off her initiative with women she bonds well with. “Sheetal Kavade and her daughter Nishigandha of Nishigandha Salon & Spa, Prabhat Road, specialise in skin care and facial treatments. They have a 1500 sq ft salon which I’ll be visiting twice a week for a fixed number of hours,” she says. While that’s certainly double whammy for customers in and around Deccan, Aundh shall also have its share of designer enhancement with Misura, a makeover studio in Aundh. “The idea of joining hands with Neha and Pooja Raval of Misura is to give clients a top-to-toe consultation on beauty. While Neha specialises in fashion technology and will look after clothes and accessories, I’ll contribute towards the hair and skin needs of customers,” Amita promises. Interesting proposition, but expensive? We wonder. “Our target customer is the middle and upper middle class woman. Our rates and approach in both the endeavours is to make it reasonable. In fact, this initiative may mean downsizing monetarily for me, but money is not my goal, at the moment,” Amita assures.

The Collaborators
“After studying fashion technology from Manchester, I came back to India with a different vision about fashion. At Misura, my whole effort will be to make women ‘feel beautiful’. It’s a grooming studio where I will be offering consultation, accessories, make clothes after measuring one’s personality and put together a complete look. So when you walk out, you feel like a new person. Getting someone as talented as Amita to join us will further enhance our appeal,” — Neha Raval, Misura, makeover studio

“We have been in this field for 31 years and have a state-of-the-art salon that specialises in make-up and skin care. Getting a hairstylist of Amita’s calibre is exciting for us,” — Sheetal Kavade, Nishigandha Salon & Spa