Retail brand “Jawed Habib” faces its worst crisis

Jawed Habib’s rise to fame is indeed one of India’s favourite stores to narrate. His grand father used to manage the haircare services of Lord Mountbatten and the British. His father was known to handle similar services for the dignitaries of Rashtrapathi Bhavan as well as several top political leaders. A young Jawed took an interest to the craft and went to London to purse a degree in styling. Upon his return to India, he set up 100s of salons, an academy to impart knowledge about hairstyling among various other professional and philanthropic activities. He joined the Bharatiya Janatha Party in 2019. He is also among the only hair stylists in the world to be featured in TIME and Forbes Magazines. He is revered by thousands of hairstylists and has trained as many of them, many of whom run their own Salons or are employed across his 875+ retail outlets which are present in 110 cities across 24 States and 6 countries. However, all his accumulated brand value hit rock bottom for his misdemeanour on a public stage which has not only garnered him as much hate but has also invited the wrath of the National Commission for Women as well as the public at large that there are several legal cases piling on him.

At a recent hairstyling workshop event at Lucknow, Jawed spat on a woman’s head instead of using water for her styling. The audience were shocked, stunned and speechless while the person on whom he commuted the act was beyond words, that she stopped little less than crying on stage. See the video here.

https://twitter.com/MODIfiedVikas/status/1478966565332664320?s=20

While he seem to have done this impromptu on stage, he laughed it off as a joke upon getting down the stage. Meanwhile, hell broke loose, especially as the video spread like wildfire all over the internet. The next day, Jawed took to his Instagram and tendered an unconditional apology but the same has not been accepted at large by the people. With growing cases of many cooks spitting on food which have been shot on cameras clandestinely, the latest act has aded fury to the right wing associates, giving them more food to chew.

#JawedHabib apologises after video of him spitting on woman's head goes viral pic.twitter.com/MNGkMpthtX

— TOIWestUP (@TOIWestUP) January 7, 2022

The Salons branded “Jawed Habib” are sure to take a beating with many past customers vowing never to enter the showrooms as an act of protest. While most of the JH salons are franchised, it is actually the franchisees who will eventually bear the brunt.