FRENCH CUT: Indira Gandhi

Did you know that the signature streak of grey on Indira Gandhi’s hair that many had tried to imitate with unflattering consequences was natural and rather easy to maintain?

“Her hair was 99 per cent grey. So, except that small part, the rest of it had to be dyed black. She had it done first in France and then I took over,” revealed Habib Ahmed, the 69-year-old patriarch of the Habibs hair empire who was in town on Sunday for the launch of a salon on Elgin Road.

Celebrity hairstylist Jawed Habib’s father would “touch up” Indira Gandhi’s hair “sometimes in two weeks and at times earlier than that”, and it continued till her assassination in 1984.

“It was a typical French creation, short at the neck and longer at the top. It used to last longer on her because she had curly hair,” said Ahmed.

So how did he land the plum job at 1 Safdarjung Road?

“I got a call from her office. We were familiar with the Gandhi family because my father used to be the personal hairstylist of Lord Mountbatten and Jawaharlal Nehru,” he recalled.

Apart from his association with Indira Gandhi, Ahmed cherishes his stint as A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s hairstylist both before and after he became the President.

“Before becoming the President, he used to come to our salon (in New Delhi) in his favourite blue trousers and chappals. Whenever I suggested that he wear his hair short, he would say: ‘No, keep it long’,” smiled the veteran.

Ahmed’s long list of celebrity clients also included the late Maharani Gayatri Devi and actor Rajesh Khanna.

“I had told Maharani Gayatri Devi of my desire to meet Alexandre de Paris, a very famous French hairstylist. Once she went to Paris and called me up, saying I should come and meet Alexandre. He was doing Elizabeth Taylor’s hair then. I saw her from a distance,” he recounted.

The one thing about Rajesh Khanna that Ahmed found striking was that he had “a very good complexion”.

“But I feel that the beard he wears now does not look good on him,” he said.

Although Ahmed hasn’t done any Calcutta celebrity’s hair, his son visits the city regularly to keep the Habibs flag flying in the east.

His hairstyle mantra? “It has to look nice on the face.”