Lights, camera, cut: Meet celebrity hairdresser Aalim Hakim

Brut India

In case you're wondering how much celebrities such as Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni pay for a haircut, hear it from hairdresser Aalim Hakim himself. ✂️

Transcript

00:00Vicky Kroshan's look in War, Ranbir Kapoor's look in Animal and Sanju,

00:04Shahid Kapoor's look in Kabir Singh, Vicky Kaushal's look in Sam Bahadur,

00:07and also Bobby Dul's look in Animal, Rajinikanth sir's look in Jailor,

00:12Pravas's look in Bahubali, which people had really liked.

00:1498% of the Indian films are styled by me, you know, all the actors.

00:21Whether it's South or North, everything, 98%.

00:30My fee is very simple, which everybody knows how much I charge.

00:39It starts from one lakh rupees, that's the minimum.

00:44Since I was born into a hairdressing family, I knew,

00:47I started my job at the age of 16.

00:50So I started learning when I was like, nine year old or 10 year old.

00:54So for me, it was in my blood.

00:57My family was forcing me to become a hairdresser,

00:59like my mom after my father passed away.

01:01My father passed away when I was nine year old.

01:03So there was a lot of pressure at home that who's going to,

01:05will be the breadwinner at home because main boss of the house, he's no more.

01:10And I was nine year old and I had two siblings, two younger sister.

01:13Obviously, in that time, you know, girls were not supposed to go out to work.

01:17It was only the man of the family who will work and make money for the family.

01:21So for me, there was a lot of pressure from my mom,

01:23from my relatives that I have to take the legacy ahead.

01:26But when I went to college, I was very confused.

01:28I was learning hairdressing.

01:29I was learning barbering, but I was very confused.

01:31I went to Mithibai where I saw a lot of, you know, cool crowd,

01:35a lot of things happening around me.

01:37And, you know, then I changed my mind.

01:38I thought I should become an actor.

01:40I only see actors in my college.

01:42And I did a little bit of theater in my college.

01:45So me, Vivek Oberoi, Shreyas Talpade, Bosco Caesar, who's a famous choreographer.

01:50We all were, Sajid Wajid, who was a musician.

01:53We all were in the same batch and we did a lot of stuff in college.

01:58But somehow when I went into FIJC, sorry, FIBCOM,

02:02my, you know, things towards acting started deteriorating.

02:06And then I thought I should take the legacy ahead.

02:08And my father's brand name was Hakeemz.

02:12I added my name after Hakeemz and it became Hakeemz Alim.

02:15College friends, they started coming to me for the haircuts.

02:18They were my guinea pigs earlier.

02:20And that's how I started getting very busy in my work.

02:25So after my college, I used to go back home and work.

02:27But my workplace was at my home,

02:31which was in the balcony of my house with no air conditioning, nothing.

02:35There was only one small fan.

02:38So I collected a little money and bought a second-hand air conditioner.

02:42I remember that time second-hand air conditioner was also for 30,000 rupees.

02:46So my monthly installment was about 2,000 or 3,000 rupees for the AC.

02:50Once I finished that second-hand air conditioning installment,

02:53I felt like I'm a rich guy and I've got a salon,

02:56a barbershop, which is air-conditioned barbershop.

02:59You know, in earlier days, there used to be shops out there, air-conditioned shop.

03:03So I felt very proud in 90s that, you know,

03:07I've got a barbershop, which is air-conditioned.

03:09And then there was no looking back here.

03:11After all these college friends, they started coming to me.

03:16My apartment areas were packed.

03:17Then gradually all these actors started coming to me.

03:20In my college years, yes, I remember in 94-93,

03:25FI became 90.

03:27In 92, I was in FIJC.

03:2893-90, a lot of people used to make fun of me,

03:30especially girls used to make a lot of fun of me.

03:32Hey, look, Hajjam has come to our college.

03:35Are you a barber?

03:36So I felt bad that time a little bit,

03:39but that time I decided, you know,

03:42I'll make this profession into such a cool brand.

03:47Salman Khan, Fardeen Khan, Saif Ali Khan,

03:50Sunil Shetty, Ajay Devgn,

03:51they all became my clients 20 years back,

03:52and they're still my clients.

03:54They are still my clients.

03:55It's been, what, 22-23 years they've been coming to me,

03:58and till now they're not.

04:00So this is the loyalty I can say,

04:03that they have never changed me as their barber.

04:06I'm still their hairdresser,

04:08from Sanjay Dutt, to Ajay Devgn,

04:11to Salman Khan, to Saif Ali Khan.

04:13Every movie of theirs, I only designed it.

04:16There are so many South stars also,

04:19whom I have been styling from ages,

04:21from Prabhas, to Ram Charan, to Junior NTR,

04:24to Allu Arjun, to Mahesh Babu.

04:27You know, they've been coming to me from ages,

04:30and they have not changed.

04:31So Rajinikanth sir, from last 15 years,

04:34all his films, for me,

04:35detailing is very, very important.

04:37From stubble length, whether, you know,

04:39five o'clock shadow is perfect or not.

04:40Even this line, where a lot of cricketers and actors,

04:44try to keep this line very clean.

04:47So they think that the jawline will look very sharp

04:49when they show their profile angles.

04:51So when you do this cut, jawline looks more sharper.

04:54But I always make sure that

04:56even when you're doing a movie,

04:57this should look very natural.

04:58So I always like to create little fading,

05:00little uneven fading.

05:01And I always like to leave little grains on the neck.

05:04So it should look very natural.

05:05So we did that in Kabir Singh for Shahid Kapoor,

05:08where you see his beard,

05:10he doesn't have clean line over here.

05:12You will see a lot of gradation happening over here.

05:14Same goes with animal look also.

05:16With Ranbir Kapoor, you will not see clean line.

05:18You will see gradation happening.

05:22Mahesh sir and Virat, they're very old friends.

05:27And they've been coming to me for the actors

05:29for a very long time.

05:31And since IPL was coming now,

05:32so we decided to do something cool and different.

05:35And Virat always, he always have references,

05:40that we'll try this, we'll try that next time,

05:43we'll try this.

05:44So we keep chatting all the time

05:46and what should the next look.

05:47This time we decided to do something really cool.

05:50We did a slit in his eyebrows

05:52and kept the size a little faded,

05:53a little mark at the back,

05:55where the texture can show.

05:56And yeah, and we did a little color in the air.

05:59So when I posted the picture,

06:01it really broke the internet.

06:02And the amount of shares and likes I got on my post,

06:08that was insane.

06:10And he has an immense fan following.

06:12People follow Virat Kohli all over the world.

06:16And Virat Kohli is a big sensation

06:18when it comes to fashion, aesthetics.

06:20His own aesthetics are so strong

06:22when it comes to fashion.

06:24He's not only one of the best,

06:26but he's the best player in the world.

06:28But also when it comes to style, fashion,

06:31he's number one.

06:32When we talk about Dhoni,

06:34I visualize Mahi in a very different way.

06:40For me, he's not less than any Hollywood actor.

06:42I always visualize him as a star, as a cool guy.

06:45So whenever there's an ad film shoot happening,

06:48I always request him,

06:50let me record you,

06:51or let me do some photo shoot from my phone.

06:54And then I'll post it later whenever I feel like.

06:56And he's very courteous to give me time.

06:59This time he gave me one and a half hours

07:01just to take pictures.

07:02And obviously in that one and a half hours,

07:04we were eating, we were chit-chatting.

07:06But whenever I got time,

07:08I was just clicking his pictures.

07:09And then when I posted,

07:10even that broke the internet.

07:12I've never seen people not liking anything about Mahi.

07:16People just love him.

07:17So I don't know whether I've done a good job or bad job.

07:20Because if I've done a bad job,

07:21also people like it.

07:23Because they actually like Mahi.

07:25So whatever he does, people like it.

07:27So if he shaves his head also,

07:29that will become like a fashion.

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