Sham Waran Talks About Successfully Running The Luxury Hair Collection
Our audience loves to read stories of phenomenal women creating a remarkable change in the world. Please tell us about the awe-inspiring work you do.
My business is intimately woven into the narrative of my life’s experiences, and as such, this is the lens that I bring to fuelling my passion for building Sham Waran Luxury Hair Collection. A luxury hair enhancement company that will address the hair care needs of so many people that struggle with hair loss, cancer, and alopecia; amongst many other causes. In addition to this, the journey of being a daughter, wife, and mother has defined the ways in which my labor — and women’s labour in general — is understood. Furthermore, this journey identifies the ways in which women exist and carve out our career paths.
Growing up as the middle child of four girls (elder sister and my younger twin sisters) I often found myself enjoying moments alone, in my room, letting my creativity go wild. I enjoyed sketching, painting and often times challenge myself to discover my capabilities. This was compounded by the reality of wanting to stand out, and eventually, it evolved into satisfying my parents’ wishes by becoming a medical doctor. Over time, I realized that the goal of becoming a doctor wasn’t fulfilling, because it stunted my creativity and passion to express myself completely. I returned to finish my undergraduate degree, and soon after got married in my mid-twenties. Afterward, I had our eldest daughter shortly after. The moment my daughter was born and I held her in my arms I knew there was nothing in this world I wouldn’t do for her and that I would use every morsel of my being to ensure that she — as a racialized female — would be given the opportunity to pursue her full potential.
Motherhood lead me down the path of being firm in my convictions. Whenever I face obstacles in life, I make a point to address the issue with patience, creativity, and an open mind. These principles translate into how I approach all aspects of my life. While on maternity leave with my eldest daughter, I turned to my artistic abilities. I decided I was going to be a freelance makeup artist. I believe that healing is not just a biological process, but also one that can be emotionally and spiritually nurtured. These principles translate into how I approach all aspects of my life. This is how I built the management skills, business network, and industry reputation to fuel the capacity, patience, tact, and hustle I have today. Pregnant with my second child, I gave up everything I knew in Ontario to support my husband’s career and left for Western Canada with my family. After a year of living like this, the onsets of post-partum depression lead me into the scariest moment in my life; like so many women. Luckily, I was blessed to have an amazing support system that rallied together and helped me out of that horrible time. As a coping mechanism, I turned to online make-up tutorials that became a saving grace in a part of the country I had no personal or professional networks. Coming out of that experience I realized that I wanted to be true to the person I am, before everyone else’s expectations of me.
My decade of experience in MUAH as a Tamil, South Asian, female entrepreneur, has allowed me to cross paths with people of all ages who have shared their journey with hair and their insecurities of hair loss. Many have lost hair due to genetics at such a young age while others have lost it after pregnancies and have never recovered from it. Many women have lost hair, at such a young age, due to a number of causes; including pregnancy.
Sadly most mature women will have lost at least 50 % of their hair by the time they are in menopause. I was searching for tools to help individuals feel beautiful, without causing further harm to their natural hair and damaging it permanently. The loss of hair regardless of how it happened is something that strips our identity away and has us constantly trying to rediscover ways of how to accept ourselves, while we learn how to regain the confidence we once had. Ultimately, contributing to my clients improved mental health and wellness. I believe that my life’s journey has to lead me down the path of launching my hair enhancement business and supporting customers worldwide.
What was the idea behind starting Hair Tales? Tell us in detail.
Public awareness and education on hair care and wellness have always been something I have been passionate about. With the support of a small group of women, we created an online campaign titled Hair Tales: A History Unraveled. Hair Tales seeks to have an honest dialogue about what hair means to people. Every stretch of hair tells a unique story, that takes us from the roots of our hair to the very tip of the strand. As we explore the many ways in which racialized and underrepresented communities (i.e. Tamil Community) connects with hair, we hope to ignite a flame that allows people to explore their relationship with hair in the past, present, and future. This online campaign includes a discussion series titled Hair Talks, where we feature professionals, individuals, and various communities (i.e. women, LGBTQ+, men) to discuss their various experiences with hair. Through sharing hair care practices, oils, therapies, and remedies, the campaign hopes to strengthen our relationship with hair and connect communities to our respective her/his, hair stories. Hair Tales is primarily hosted on Instagram @hairtales, viewers can also follow us on twitter and youtube.
What are some of the most sought after services you offer your clients?
Our business offers a wide range of hair enhancement pieces that help women who are dealing with minor to severe hair loss as well as women who struggle with adding volume to their hair. We offer Hair Toppers, Halo Extensions, U-clip Extensions, Ponytails and Clip-in extensions, Tape-in extensions, Custom Wigs, and our most recent products Hair Filler pieces. We also offer in-studio, video, email consults to help our customers choose the right product for them. Our customers are able to purchase a diversity of textures, colors, and lengths via our on-line store: www.shamwaran.com.
There are many companies around the world offering hair enhancement pieces but what they lack is the inclusive product diversity that we provide. Our brand aims to individually tailor the experience of discovering the perfect hair enhancement piece for our customers’ needs, in an efficient and personalized way.
The showcasing feature that sets our company apart from others is that we offer hairpieces in all hair textures ranging from straight to wavy to curly, we have it all. More specifically, within curly hair types, we offer various degrees of curly hair types. Our curly-haired girls can finally wear toppers and any of our other hair pieces while embracing their own hair texture! We feel that this feature addresses issues of access to hair enhancement products that many women of color often experience when looking for curly hair products that aren’t often available in other brands.
Also, all of our pieces- with the exception of our ponytails- are made with the highest quality human Remy Russian and Brazilian hair. We also offer these pieces at reasonably affordable prices where normally a topper with this quality hair and base types (Silk and Monofilament) are sold at an unaffordable price range for customers who are in the middle to the lower-income bracket. We want to reach as many people as possible to help build back their confidence. Many of our customers are women who are losing hair due to menopause; living with Alopecia and cancer survivors growing back their hair post-chemotherapy. Having a business that helps women-identified folks feel beautiful after feeling a sense of loss of their identity is what our industry-unique and impactful.
In the post covid world, have there been any major changes to your work structure, or business?
The pandemic hasn’t shifted my vision for the growth of my business. I was able to use this time to be even more productive and focus more on my online presence and educating my potential customers on my brand and on my products. The most significant change has been our staff team. It went from me alone to a team of five of us which has been very helpful to become efficient in all areas. This way, I can focus on what I do best which is product creation and education. I should mention that we opened our studio for in-person consultations, product testing, and are continuously working on how to better our products and customer experience. All of these efforts have helped sustain, and allow us to pivot our operations during this pandemic. It has been a steep learning curve and we continue to face challenges, but I am confident that with a positive outlook, everything will work out the way it is meant to.
What next do you plan on adding to your premium services?
I have been crowned as the queen of innovation and I am always looking at creating new products that stand out and are useful to my clientele. Being engaging and providing one-on-one support will always be a top priority for our company. We pride ourselves on educating our customers on how to care for their product and expand their knowledge of hair care. We look forward to expanding our business to provide salon services for customers who need support with ongoing hair topper care and styling.
Where can our readers find your inspiring work? How can they connect with you?
I remain active on my Instagram page @sham.waran and my website is www.shamwaran.com.
