Aalim Hakim

Some Lesser Known Facts About Aalim Hakim

• Aalim Hakim is an Indian celebrity hairstylist who is popular for styling the hairstyle of many actors and actresses in Bollywood. He is the founder of Hakim’s Aalim salon chain and Hakim’s Aalim (HA) Hair Academy.

• His father is regarded as India’s first hairstylist who first operated the Salon Madame Jacques in The Taj Hotel in Mumbai and later opened a hairdressing shop at his home, which was often visited by celebrities including Vinod Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Sunil Dutt, Dilip Kumar, Mohammad Ali, and Bruce Lee. His father died at the age of 39.
  

  

  

  

• Aalim Hakim started cutting hair at the age of 9 under the supervision of his mother, after his father’s demise, due to financial problems as the family was left with only Rs 13 in the bank.

  

• While growing up, Aalim was motivated by his father’s vision and often thought of different ways to convert his father’s popularity into a big brand.

• When he was 16 years old, he started a salon in his balcony, where he had only a fan, basin, and salon chair and charged Rs 20 per haircut.

• He used to act in plays during his college days, and his acting was liked by the audience. He also won awards for his acting; however, he was not confident in his acting skills to pursue acting as a career.

  

• When he was studying in the first year of his graduation, he decided to become a hairstylist. A few of his college mates mocked him by calling him a ‘Hajjam;’ however, a few of his friends supported him to pursue his aspirations.

  

• A few of his college mates like Vivek Oberoi, Shreyas Talpade, Sajid Khan, Wajid Khan, and Bosco Martis went on to become very popular. He often used to bring them home to give them a free haircut to hone his skills and gain recognition.

• He later added shampoo as a service and started charging Rs 30 for haircutting with shampoo. He later installed an Air Conditioner (AC) on rent in his salon and increased the prices to double the original charges. In an interview, he revealed that he felt a sense of achieving his target when he was able to purchase the installed AC from the profits he made from his salon.

• His name became popular in his neighbourhood, and Binafer, a girl who used to work at L’Oréal, made arrangements for him to go to Paris, France, to learn under international hairdressers.

  

• He later went to Austria and learned under a hairdresser named Butrum.

• He also trained under many other international barbers which boosted his aspirations to transform his father’s legacy into a popular brand.

• His family members got angry with him when he expanded the area of his home salon as their space was reduced by the salon’s expansion.

• Upon returning to India, he started styling the hair of various celebrities like Rajinikanth, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Mahesh Babu, Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Malhotra, Arjun Kapoor, Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu, Katrina Kaif, KGF fame Yash, and Siddharth Nigam.
  

  

  

  

  

• His initial film projects were hairstyling Chandrachoor Singh for the Maachis film and Manoj Bajpayee for the Satya film.

• His salon is also thronged by popular sportsmen like Zaheer Khan, Virat Kohli, Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammad Siraj, Kane Williamson, MS Dhoni, Shubman Gill, and Yuzvendra Chahal.
  

  

  

  

  

• He went on to work as a hairstylist for famous actors in many films such as Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgn in Khakee, Ajay Devgn and Emraan Hashmi in Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, Rajinikanth in Robot, Ram Charan in RRR, and Ranbir Kapoor in Sanju.
  

  

  

• To set up his brand, he hired a team of hairdressers and trained them personally to set up three salons in Mumbai. He owns the Mumbai outlets. Later, he opened many salons in different parts of India under his franchise and also opened a salon in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
  

  

  

• Hakim’s Aalim salons have Bohemian influences in them, and most of these salons are considered luxury salons.
  

  

  

• He offers a variety of hairdressing services at his outlets including straightening, retexturing treatments, and hair colour services apart from hair cutting and styling.

• He also opened Hakim’s Aalim (HA) Hair Academy in Versova, Mumbai, in the 2010s, 2010s, where he trained more than 1 lakh barbers until 2022.

• He teaches different courses ranging from basic to advanced haircutting at his academy with fees ranging from Rs 12,500 to Rs 1,80,000. ^[2]Hakim’s Aalim

• In an interview, he said that Jaguar and Joewell are his preferred brands of scissors and razors respectively. Matt products and Elnett hairspray are his preferred brands for giving a finish to the hairstyle.

  

• While talking about his work in an interview, he revealed the different brushes he uses during hairstyling which are a paddle brush for blow drying, a wooden round or thermal brush to create the body, a vent brush to create puffs, and a bow brush to create sleek styles.

• He prefers cutting combs for finer cutting and barbering combs for beards, moustaches, sideburns, and the nape.

• While styling hair, he uses a root iron to give off a natural look with a little straightness, a root crimper to add volume at the base, and a blow-dryer with a proper nozzle as well as a diffuser to remove extra moisture.

• In 2017, a maulana issued a fatwa against noted singer Sonu Nigam to shave his hair. Aalim shaved Sonu’s hair and asked the maulana to give him Rs 10 lakhs so that he could donate it to charity. He also said that Sonu Nigam was not against Islam and was only speaking against the loudspeakers. He said,
  

  Sonu Nigam has not said anything against Azaan. He is not against any prayer. Sonu is just talking about loudspeakers and not about any religion. If he (Maulvi) has 10 lakh rupees then he should give it to me, I will donate it to some charity.” ^[3]Business Standard

  

• In an interview, he credited his father, family, and friends as the reason behind his success.

• In April 2023, he appeared on The Kapil Sharma Show as a guest, where he talked about his strategy for designing Prabhas‘ hair in the film Bahubali. He revealed that he made Prabhas play Badminton so that he could check the bounciness of his hair. He also revealed that he added hair extensions to Prabhas’ hair to give off the required bouncy look while riding a horse.