Keya Beauty Salon: Twenty Nine Years on Upposhor Link Road

Walk into Keya Beauty Salon on a Friday afternoon and you will hear the same sounds the neighbours have heard since 1997: the whirr of a dryer, the tap running over a basin, a stylist explaining to a customer why her hair broke after the last straightening. The salon has been at Dorikhorbona, on Upposhor Link Road near Nogor Bhaban, for twenty nine years. Most of the women who sit in these chairs come from Upposhor and Kazla, some from Shaheb Bazar and Binodpur, and a good number are the daughters of customers who came in the late nineties.

This is a ladies only salon. The front room handles hair and skin, and the back room is kept for bridal work and longer treatments, because a bride takes a morning and the mirror there has better light.

What the chairs are busy with

Bridal season in Rajshahi runs through the winter weddings and again around Eid, and the bridal work is booked well ahead. A bride usually comes in once for a trial so the family can see the look before the wedding morning, then returns for the wedding day itself with the whole party behind her. The bridal makeup service covers the trial, the day of work, and dressing of the dupatta.

The other steady demand is straightening and smoothing, and most of it goes wrong at home before it reaches the salon. Water here is hard, and the humidity from June to September undoes a treatment that was done too strong. Keratin rebonding at Keya starts with a strand test so the stylist can see how the hair reacts before committing the whole head.

Facials at the salon are practical rather than theatrical. Most customers ask for something for dullness, oiliness or the marks that come after a summer of sun. A hydrafacial session is booked by women who want a clean, hydrated finish without the redness that sometimes follows a strong peel, and it fits neatly into a lunch break.

Threading, waxing, hair colour, head massage and the everyday cut and blow dry run all day. Older customers tend to book the morning slot, students come after class, and the last appointments of the evening are usually working women who cannot come earlier.

Visiting

The salon sits on Upposhor Link Road at Dorikhorbona, close to Nogor Vobon More, and is easy to reach from anywhere in the city by rickshaw or CNG.

Keya Beauty Salon (কেয়া বিউটি সেলুন) Dorikhorbona, Upposhor Link Road (near Nogor Bhaban / Nogor Vobon More), Rajshahi 6202, Bangladesh Phone and WhatsApp: 01711-810832 (international: +8801711810832) Hours: daily, 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM Payment: cash and bKash Map coordinates: 24.3760964, 88.6003341

Walk ins are welcome for threading, waxing and a cut. Bridal work and rebonding should be booked ahead by phone, because those chairs need a fixed block of time and the products for them are arranged in advance.

Rates in Rajshahi depend on the service, hair length and thickness, and the date, message 01711-810832 and the salon confirms in writing before the booking.

More about the salon, its services and its location is on the Keya Beauty Salon website.