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Huma Tahir
 “Today, I want to be able to get off from work at 7.30pm, go home, relax and chill out. I want to live my life for living…I want to live my life for life itself,” says accomplished stylist Huma Tahir with passion in her expressive eyes.
It’s something unusual and rare because when you speak to people who have been in the field for as long as Huma has, and have an impressive body of work like she does, you find them charged about their work rather their time away from it.
My interest piqued, I decided to prod some more. She says she’s had enough of working like a dog and then being left with no energy to do other things that make her truly happy. “I want to give personal attention to people who walk in through that door (she points towards the entrance to the salon) …their hair and make-up. I want to have a hair and make-up studio with my own name and run it at my own pace and according to my own vision and rules.”
After 12 years in the fashion and beauty business, Huma Tahir concludes that it has been a great learning experience for her. “When I look back at all that has happened in my life, I don’t have any grudges and anger. I believe in the present, and I also think that this is the right time for me to strike out on my own,” she reflects pensively.
She considers her association and experiences with Mussarrat Misbah of Depilex, Ambreen Rizvi of Colours Salon, Saima Rasheed of Saima’s, Saba Ansari of Sabs Salon, fashion designer Shaiyanne Malik and even her ex as opportunities for professional and personal growth — that she’s “learnt a lot about life and living from all of them.”
In hindsight, Huma has always come across as a very affable but gullible individual who wears her heart on her sleeve. She trusts easily and is honest and genuine which might be a virtue and boon under ordinary circumstances but in the dog-eat-dog world of the local fashion and style industry that she makes a living in, it’s actually considered a bane!
“When I left Saima, there was a lot of misunderstanding between us and I didn’t clear it up. Then my ex started visiting her as we lived in the same apartment block and the industry went absolutely crazy with gossip.” It was then that Huma joined Sabs. “I was going through a low period vis-a-vis my marriage and needed someone to rely on. I was looking for emotional support and Saba helped me out during that emotionally turbulent period. However, while at Sabs I made sure not to do on-location shoots as I did not want to give Saima the impression that I was encroaching on her turf or trying to take work away from her. It was mostly magazine work that came to Sabs.”
On the topic of on-location shoots, it has always been a forte with this talented hair and make-up artiste. “I have done big-budget commercials with directors such as Saqib Malik and Asim Reza. I did the last music video of singer Freiha Pervaiz, the national anthem project for a private channel, and the Mamta campaign for a popular brand of cooking oil.”
For now, Huma is operating from DHA, and busy with what it takes to set up her own workplace. The stylist concedes that the fashion industry has grown very big in the past six years or so. But she is not very happy with some aspects of this progression, “There was a time when fashion/lifestyle magazines didn’t sell their pages and covers for money, and merit and good work was the basic and only criteria for making the grade.”
“Money,” she laments, “has now become the be all and by all for doing work. Hardly anyone now works for the sake of producing good quality work…all they want is money,” she sounds off. “There is no thought process behind the work that is being churned out these days…which I believe is actually a disservice to the industry which is still struggling to survive. I have hardly seen any good quality shoots in magazines in the last two years. It’s all business, not creative work as things have become too commercialised.”
Huma argues out that the electronic media has also played a part in the development of this negative trend. “These really bad beauticians on TV channels keep giving people all the wrong advice,” she screams out of sheer frustration and her inability to do anything about the damaging trend inflicting the profession that she has invested her life and time in, and sworn loyalty to. Her raised voice attracts sudden stares from people around us at the café where she is a regular and agreed to meet me for this interview, but Huma seems beyond the point of caring when talking on the issue.
At the beginning of our conversation she also excused herself from answering staple questions about ongoing and seasonal trends in make-up or cosmetics, saying that she doesn’t want to talk about fashion forecasts, how to put on eyeliner and/or mascara and anything of the sort, preferring instead to talk about hardcore issues facing the style industry that could either make it or break it in the long run. For the record, I told her that I none of the afore-mentioned queries lined up for her.
Coming back to the discussion at hand, Huma strongly feels that there needs to be infusion of fresh blood as in new models, new make-up people, photographers, fashion designers and stylists in the field. “I want to take on new girls who are branded by the industry bigwigs as B-Class models and do shoots with them by transforming their image completely. Nobody works with or promotes new talent, no beautician has the guts to experiment and do something daring…only stylist Nabila has the courage to work with new girls in the field. I want to work with young talent…I want to take upcoming boys and girls in this field and do creative work with them.”
Huma is ardently passionate about bringing in new blood and infusing life into an industry fast going stale. For this, she is making a conscious effort to liaison with like-minded people in both the style and print industries, including high-profile fashion editors, and plans to set up an organisation in order to help, encourage and promote fresh talent.
“Through this organisation we will help talented newcomers who are looking for a break… people who are shunned or succumb to manipulation by a few bigwigs in the style and fashion industry so that the position and hold of the older/senior lot is never challenged by newer talent. If we don’t step in and help the local style industry to prosper and grow, how will it ever progress? Certainly not by mere lip-service or by giving press interviews at a red-carpet event,” she reasons. “Of course we all are here to make a living, but money is not everything all the time.”
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