Leslieville salon founder cuts, colours and gives back
[attach]6795[/attach]Sarma Malins started her career as an apprentice at a well-known salon when she was forced to choose between cutting and colouring.
“It was so hard for me to decide,” she says. “I just realized it wasn’t the right road for me because I believe if you love doing hair, you love doing everything.”
With six years of industry experience, Malins recently opened her own salon called SM Beauty on Carlaw Avenue near Dundas Street E., where she does cutting, coloring and styling. In addition to working full time on site, she also works creatively on photo-shoots, fashion shows and music videos.
“Later in life I decided that I needed to find something that I loved to do,” she says. “My best friend predicted years and years before that I should get into hair because I always loved making people look good so I went to hair school and the rest was history. I graduated when I was like 30 years old.”
Although most of the shop fits into a black and white colour scheme, it wasn’t on purpose, she says, adding she first noticed it when she was setting up the night before her opening. That same day she had a ministry official come in to register her stylists, who had some doubts about whether or not they’d be ready on time for their launch, she says.
“She came in and she was like, ‘You’re opening tomorrow? Are you serious?’ and I said, ‘Mark my words, I will send you pictures that I will be open’ and I sent her pictures,” she says. “We were here probably until four in the morning with 20 of our friends just getting everything together.”
In 2012 Malins also started a non-profit organization called Photo-Boost, a self-esteem building workshop for teen girls within the Children’s Aid Society who have previously been living on the streets. Along with a photographer and make up artist, they work together with teenagers to direct a feature in their own photo shoot.
“Later on they get to have a disk of all the pictures edited for them and while we’re there each of us talks about what we do, we kind of mentor them,” she says. “I talk about having a salon and all the creative work that I do and my photographer will teach them technicalities with photography, my make up artist will talk to them about skin care … it’s been really well received.”
Every month at the salon, which also offers eyelash and hair extensions and aesthetics, a different artist will be featured with a rotating collection of artwork covering the walls.
“I like to support the arts and it’s nice to have a change of scenery in here and we have the wall space too,” she says.
Throughout their time working at the salon, she hopes her staff learns and becomes better stylists. She encourages them to partake in classes for personal growth, she says.
Although clients walk into SM Beauty, she’d like them to feel like strutting out, says Malins, who counts motivating people and making them feel good about themselves as a major job perk.
“As a stylist it’s great to have people feel good on the outside and we all know that when you sit in your stylist chair, and you talk, it’s almost like being a therapist and it’s really nice to be able to be there for people in that aspect as well,” she says. “We have the best jobs in the world.”