#ShaadiSeason: Long queues at salons on heavy saaya day

Makeup artists are making the most of this wedding season rush and tackling back to back bookings this wedding season.

Multiple heavy saaya days are upon us, with November 28 and 29 being the busiest. And now, it’s not only the wedding planners and bandwalas who are working overtime for #DilliwaliShaadis, but also the makeup artists and hairstylists. Last year, Covid-19 had slowed down business for many, but this time around, their cash registers are ringing crazy with record number of weddings this season.

Makeup artists in Delhi say that they are booked solid this wedding season and are even booking slots for four brides together to accommodate everyone.

And Delhi-NCR’s brides-to-be have made sure to book appointments for makeup artists and hairstylists well in advance. “When we started making reservations for my wedding, a makeup artist was one of the first few people that we booked. I was very specific about the one I wanted and my parents fixed the date months in advance,” recalls Bandhana Karmakar, an event manager from Rajender Nagar, who is getting married today.

“We have back-to-back bookings most days this season, especially on dates of heavy saaya. We started taking appointments months in advance for today. To maintain order, we are not allowing walk-ins and functioning on appointment basis only,” says Manpreet Kaur, from a beauty parlour in Shalimar Bagh. As last year posed many difficulties for most beauty parlours and salons in the city, many of them are making the most of this wedding season rush.

Kaur adds: “We haven’t increased the cost of our services. If there are any slight increases, they are there as we’re using disposable items and following regular sanitisation as per Covid protocols. But we are also refraining from offering any discounts this time. We want to be careful and cover up old losses. In fact, customers are getting slots with so much difficulty that they are not asking for discounts either!”

“The heavy rush is something that we anticipated,” says Neeti Saini, a makeup artist from Green Park, adding, “We have hired more staff for these days since. Pichle kayi saalon se double booking aayi hai iss saal. Last year sirf bridal packages ki booking thi par iss saal pehle ki tarah brides aur unki family members bhi full party makeup and hairstyling karwa rahe hai.”

Besides one senior makeup artist, there is a team that has been put to work to ensure more bridal makeup requests can be fulfilled. “Humare paas itni bokings hain ki humne four brides ko ek saath bulana padh gaya hai. I do the main work and my team does the rest and I oversee. And today is such a heavy says that I’ll have eight brides coming in to get ready,” says Bhavna Mishra from a salon in Paschim Vihar

Author tweets @anjuri

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