Bandra’s Edwina Scissorhands

Clarabelle Saldanha’s first celebrity clients included Helen and Waheeda Rahman. Forty three years later, she is still rocking Bandra’s hair scene

I lived in a bungalow on St Paul’s Road with my parents and eight siblings. After school and the day’s tuitions were over, you’d find close to 60 children at the home. It was Bandra’s own clubhouse,” remembers Clarabelle Saldanha.

The house may have moved—she now lives in a bungalow on Convent Road, Pali Hill—but the revelry continues. Now, the steady stream of visitors are made up of Saldanha’s clients, most of them high profile. She is Bandra’s original celebrity hairstylist, having perfected the mane of divas for 43 years. Everyone from veterans Helen Khan and Waheeda Rahman to the younger actresses Deepika Padukone and Ananya Pandey have let her work their hair. Bandra old timers will tell you that the Saldanha cottage is as much a salon as a landmark, especially around Christmas, when even those who don’t know her, ask to be let in to see it dressed up. “Over the years, I have managed to draw the neighbourhood residents into a bit of community effort. On Christmas, we all put up the same colour of lights, and one day during the festivities, we shut the street to motorists and have a small party. There are performers and a lot of food. And we share gifts with the lesser privileged children. We always have a fantastic time and my home serves as an open house.”

Ananya Panday has been visiting Saldanha since she was a kid

A neighbourhood is made up as much by its people as its history. And Saldanha says her old friends from the suburb make living here special. RJ and driver of the city’s Blues music festival, Mahindra Blues, Brian Tellis is an old friend. As was restaurateur and famed chef, the late Floyd Cardoz. “We all grew up together. In fact, in 2019, we all found ourselves in the city together suddenly. Floyd was down after a stint in New York. And I told Brian, how is this possible! Unfortunately, a few months later, Floyd passed away,” she says of the co-founder of The Bombay Canteen and O Pedro.

Saldanha studied at the Apostolic Carmel High School on Hill Road, till her businessman father decided she would do a course in hairdressing. “He had seen me around the house, and knew that I had a creative bent of mind,” says the 62-year-old. Her first job was at Mumbai’s most famous Chinese resident, Henry Tham’s salon in Byculla, and later at its Colaba branch. “By that time, my father knew I was getting better at this. So, I was sent off to London, where I trained at Tony and Guy and Vidal Sassoon. After I came back, I continued to work at Tham’s for nine years. Then, it was time to strike out on my own in 1986.” Saldanha and her husband, Clestin, who worked for the Taj group, got a studio apartment near D’Monte Park, while she worked at a salon called Pakeezah, owned by former Miss India and model Naina Balsara. “All my clients from South Mumbai would come all the way to Pakeezah for a cut. I thought why not start my own business? But I didn’t even have a phone. And there’s the story of how I got my first client home: A lady called Dale from Dadar wanted to get her hair straightened—which at that time cost Rs 500. I asked her to come to Pakeezah, and stood outside, waiting for her to come. When she did, I told her I wanted to start my own business. Would she come home with me? She agreed. I straightened her hair at my residence. Unfortunately, she was going back home on a scooter and we couldn’t let her hair get windswept, so I packed it up in my son’s nappy!”

Dimple Kapadia post a haircut

While Bandra continues to be where she made a name for herself, she laments that it has transformed. “It had more bungalows than high rises, and the hotspot was a Santa Cruz club called Take Off. Back then, the biggest hairstylists in town were Nalini and Yasmin. But the hair scene right now is great. We have access to all kinds of products in India itself, and everyone is good at what they do,” she says. 

But building a clientele of famous faces, and holding on to them is never easy. Saldanha puts it down to maintaining your A game and letting word of mouth do the rest. “At one time, I gave haircuts even on Sundays just to get my name out. Since then, I have serviced three generations of some families. Ananya [Pandey] and Shanaya [Kapoor] have been coming to me since they were kids. Helen Khan, Waheeda Rahman and Deepika have been long-time clients. I have loved every second of it.” These days, she educates herself on Instagram with the latest trends, and says that if she hasn’t tried it on herself, you won’t find her trying it on someone else.

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