When I met up with celebrity hairdresser Ravi De Abrew he was wearing his trademark hat. My first impression of him was his friendly and unassuming personality in spite of his many achievements. Every man has a story, yet, Ravi’s story is truly inspiring and loaded with emotion. People often attribute success to themselves, but Ravi is one faithful son who spoke tearfully about his hero, his late father, Owen De Abrew, the famous dance teacher.
Ravi does declare that he was mildly distracted at school, by art. He was very keen to express himself. Yet, as with many teachers, they did not recognize his dormant talents and were only focused on book based education. By age 6 Ravi was a good dancer and learnt to play the piano. His beloved father encouraged him to play cricket, under the coaching of Roy Dias. Ravi soon learnt the importance of teamwork and maintaining a positive attitude.
In the meantime, he realized that within him was an intense desire for style. He spoke about it to his father. Owen supported his son, while his mother did not approve of such a career, as fashion was affiliated to women. This mindset even prevails today, and it must change. Soon, Owen sent young Ravi aged 15, to apprentice under the famous Nayana. Here, Ravi learnt the basics. He trained and worked for 9 years under Nayana. At first his classmates were skeptical about his new career, but today, they bring their wives to Ravi’s salon! He recalls working from 10 am to 10pm and believes in attaining perfection, with every single client. Since then Ravi has worked in many leading salons, before he went to India, where he worked for 6 rewarding years, meeting top filmstars and cropping and styling their hair.
Two such Tamil filmstars were, Vikram and Suriya. Ravi recollects meeting Vikram, not knowing he was an actor. Vikram had just released his mega movie Anniyan.
He had given Ravi a DVD to watch, and it was then that Ravi had realized who his customer was. In the recent past he had Andrea Jermiah and Sanjan Singh as his clients. Ravi is married to an Indian girl, also a hairdresser.
Last week, Ravi was chosen as the brand ambassador for the famous Alfaparf Milano, hair care brand. He also attended a week’s special international technical training in Singapore last week, organized by the brand.
As the Creative Director for Mosh Salons he strongly believes that people should be creative and pursue their careers with passion and always encourages his staff to be original.