Manpower crunches and a lack of skilled Singaporeans may leave the eyebrow threading industry hanging by a thread, but some beauticians are still holding out hope.
Threading under threat
TO MOST people familiar with the eyebrow threading industry, Rupini's is quite a household name. It was founded in 1994, long before threading became so sought-after. Today, the beauty parlour chain is one of the major players in the threading industry, with five outlets across the island and a revenue of millions a year.
At their main branch along Buffalo Road in Little India, there are hardly any signs or posters directing customers to the beauty parlour, which is located on the second floor. The entrance, too, is blocked by the chaos and commotion coming from other shops selling fresh produce, Indian cuisine, and an assortment of brightly-coloured floral garlands. But that does not stop people from swarming to the lavishly decorated beauty parlour upstairs.
Even on the evening before Lunar New Year earlier this year, as most Chinese families met for their annual reunion dinners, the shop was still teeming with Chinese customers – both men and women – who were waiting to get their eyebrows and faces threaded.
In fact, if you did not know any better, you would think everything was going swimmingly. It was not.
Of Rupini's five outlets, the one located at Midpoint Orchard was closed for about one and a half years before reopening earlier this year. The other outlets at Holland Village and Tampines also permanently closed their doors some time this year, though they are said to reopen soon.
On busier periods, like Lunar New Year or Deepavali, it is not uncommon to see the beauty chain's founder Sivarani Rajangam scurry around the outlet at Little India too, attending to customers. Before that, the 52-year-old played more of a back seat role, leaving the actual threading to her employees while she handled the parlour's day-to-day operations.
The reason for the change: a shortage of threaders to meet customers' vast demand for threading.
At their main branch along Buffalo Road in Little India, there are hardly any signs or posters directing customers to the beauty parlour, which is located on the second floor. The entrance, too, is blocked by the chaos and commotion coming from other shops selling fresh produce, Indian cuisine, and an assortment of brightly-coloured floral garlands. But that does not stop people from swarming to the lavishly decorated beauty parlour upstairs.
Even on the evening before Lunar New Year earlier this year, as most Chinese families met for their annual reunion dinners, the shop was still teeming with Chinese customers – both men and women – who were waiting to get their eyebrows and faces threaded.
In fact, if you did not know any better, you would think everything was going swimmingly. It was not.
Of Rupini's five outlets, the one located at Midpoint Orchard was closed for about one and a half years before reopening earlier this year. The other outlets at Holland Village and Tampines also permanently closed their doors some time this year, though they are said to reopen soon.
On busier periods, like Lunar New Year or Deepavali, it is not uncommon to see the beauty chain's founder Sivarani Rajangam scurry around the outlet at Little India too, attending to customers. Before that, the 52-year-old played more of a back seat role, leaving the actual threading to her employees while she handled the parlour's day-to-day operations.
The reason for the change: a shortage of threaders to meet customers' vast demand for threading.
According to some experts, this is one of – if not the biggest – challenge in the threading industry, especially as the Government tightens employment laws for foreign workers and attendance falls for threading courses at local beauty academies. The rising pool of home-based threaders does not help, with some salons perceiving it as a potential threat to the industry.
For Rupini's, even though their revenue hit an all-time high in 2016, making $1.6 million from solely threading, Ms Sivarani said that since then, none of her foreign workers' employment passes were renewed.
From the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) website, employment pass renewals are not guaranteed, and applications will be evaluated against their current eligibility criteria, which is based on workers' monthly salary, education level and work experience. Some employers are unsure of the exact reasons for their rejection. The MOM website does not specify why renewals are rejected either.
But Ms Sivarani believes her renewals were rejected due to the recent clamp down on employment laws for foreign workers here, as well as the service sector's increasing foreign worker levies.
Since most threaders Ms Sivarani employed came from countries like India or Malaysia, this brought staff numbers down by more than twofold, from 50 to 15.
"It's a huge blow for us because we have the demand, just not the manpower," she said. "If the ministry gave us the passes, I'm certain I can reopen all my shops the very next day. But right now, all I can do is do my best to hold the fort down."
For Rupini's, even though their revenue hit an all-time high in 2016, making $1.6 million from solely threading, Ms Sivarani said that since then, none of her foreign workers' employment passes were renewed.
From the Ministry of Manpower's (MOM) website, employment pass renewals are not guaranteed, and applications will be evaluated against their current eligibility criteria, which is based on workers' monthly salary, education level and work experience. Some employers are unsure of the exact reasons for their rejection. The MOM website does not specify why renewals are rejected either.
But Ms Sivarani believes her renewals were rejected due to the recent clamp down on employment laws for foreign workers here, as well as the service sector's increasing foreign worker levies.
Since most threaders Ms Sivarani employed came from countries like India or Malaysia, this brought staff numbers down by more than twofold, from 50 to 15.
"It's a huge blow for us because we have the demand, just not the manpower," she said. "If the ministry gave us the passes, I'm certain I can reopen all my shops the very next day. But right now, all I can do is do my best to hold the fort down."
More trouble brewing
Last February's Budget 2019 announcements might spell bigger trouble for threading shops here too.
Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said in Parliament that in the next two years, Singapore will be clamping down on the foreign worker quota for the services sector.
This is to keep the sector competitive and protect local jobs, he added.
Measures include cutting the proportion of foreign workers a company can hire, or the Dependency Ratio Ceiling (DRC), for the services sector – from the present 40 per cent to 38 per cent on Jan 1 next year, and then to 35 per cent on Jan 1, 2021.
The S Pass quota system for the services sectors, which is a subset of the DRC for semi-skilled foreign workers, will also be reduced from 15 per cent to 13 per cent on Jan 1 next year, and to 10 per cent on Jan 1, 2021.
Meanwhile, the DRC and the S Pass quota system for all other sectors will remain unchanged.
This is worrying for many beauty parlours that, like Rupini's, hire threaders who are mostly from abroad – and for good reason. Most said local threaders are hard to come by.
At Darshini's Beauty & Spa, for instance, a spacious beauty parlour located smack-dab in the middle of Little India, almost all their threaders are from India.
Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said in Parliament that in the next two years, Singapore will be clamping down on the foreign worker quota for the services sector.
This is to keep the sector competitive and protect local jobs, he added.
Measures include cutting the proportion of foreign workers a company can hire, or the Dependency Ratio Ceiling (DRC), for the services sector – from the present 40 per cent to 38 per cent on Jan 1 next year, and then to 35 per cent on Jan 1, 2021.
The S Pass quota system for the services sectors, which is a subset of the DRC for semi-skilled foreign workers, will also be reduced from 15 per cent to 13 per cent on Jan 1 next year, and to 10 per cent on Jan 1, 2021.
Meanwhile, the DRC and the S Pass quota system for all other sectors will remain unchanged.
This is worrying for many beauty parlours that, like Rupini's, hire threaders who are mostly from abroad – and for good reason. Most said local threaders are hard to come by.
At Darshini's Beauty & Spa, for instance, a spacious beauty parlour located smack-dab in the middle of Little India, almost all their threaders are from India.
"Our manpower and labour quota is fine for now. But down the road, I'm not very hopeful about it."
Threaders say many of them trained at vocational schools like the Vandana Luthra Curls and Curves Institute of Beauty and Nutrition, a beauty wellness school based in Haryana, a city in north India, with more than 80 establishments across the country.
The institute provides beauty courses – from hair and make-up, to nutrition and spa therapies – that run anywhere between three days and two years. Threading is one of the many skills students learn on these courses.
Others learnt to thread through more informal ways.
One of Darshini's Beauty & Spa's employees, Ms Palwinder Kaur, picked up the skill when she was just 13 from the girls in her hometown at Haryana.
There, Ms Palwinder, now 33, said threading was a skill almost all the girls had. She, too, learnt it since not knowing to thread meant losing a competitive edge over them.
All of the threaders at the beauty salon were recruited through online classified sites like Gumtree or Facebook, said manager Ms Prema Darshini – whose mother founded and named the shop after – or through a family-owned employment agency, which Ms Prema's mother also runs.
"The employment agency is mainly for maids, but we also get our threaders through it," she said. "With this, our manpower and labour quota is fine for now. But down the road, I'm not very hopeful about it."All of the threaders at the beauty salon were recruited through online classified sites like Gumtree or Facebook, said manager Ms Prema Darshini – whose mother founded and named the shop after – or through a family-owned employment agency, which Ms Prema's mother also runs.
"The employment agency is mainly for maids, but we also get our threaders through it," she said. "With this, our manpower and labour quota is fine for now. But down the road, I'm not very hopeful about it."
This is because under the current employment laws, Ms Prema said she can hire one S Pass holder for every six or seven Singaporeans employed. With the new changes, they would need to hire about 10 Singaporean employees for a single S Pass holder.
Hiring a foreign worker, she said, could then cost $3,000 to $4,000 more.
The 25-year-old added: "But no matter how difficult it is to hire foreign threaders because of the employment passes, local threaders are more difficult to handle. They tend to last for only a month or so, because they don't really have a good attitude. And that's if we can even find them."
The institute provides beauty courses – from hair and make-up, to nutrition and spa therapies – that run anywhere between three days and two years. Threading is one of the many skills students learn on these courses.
Others learnt to thread through more informal ways.
One of Darshini's Beauty & Spa's employees, Ms Palwinder Kaur, picked up the skill when she was just 13 from the girls in her hometown at Haryana.
There, Ms Palwinder, now 33, said threading was a skill almost all the girls had. She, too, learnt it since not knowing to thread meant losing a competitive edge over them.
All of the threaders at the beauty salon were recruited through online classified sites like Gumtree or Facebook, said manager Ms Prema Darshini – whose mother founded and named the shop after – or through a family-owned employment agency, which Ms Prema's mother also runs.
"The employment agency is mainly for maids, but we also get our threaders through it," she said. "With this, our manpower and labour quota is fine for now. But down the road, I'm not very hopeful about it."All of the threaders at the beauty salon were recruited through online classified sites like Gumtree or Facebook, said manager Ms Prema Darshini – whose mother founded and named the shop after – or through a family-owned employment agency, which Ms Prema's mother also runs.
"The employment agency is mainly for maids, but we also get our threaders through it," she said. "With this, our manpower and labour quota is fine for now. But down the road, I'm not very hopeful about it."
This is because under the current employment laws, Ms Prema said she can hire one S Pass holder for every six or seven Singaporeans employed. With the new changes, they would need to hire about 10 Singaporean employees for a single S Pass holder.
Hiring a foreign worker, she said, could then cost $3,000 to $4,000 more.
The 25-year-old added: "But no matter how difficult it is to hire foreign threaders because of the employment passes, local threaders are more difficult to handle. They tend to last for only a month or so, because they don't really have a good attitude. And that's if we can even find them."
At local beauty academies or eyebrow grooming shops that also provide short two- to five-day threading courses, the same picture emerges.
Homegrown beauty salon Beauty Recipe Aesthetics Academy, for example, started providing two-day threading courses in mid-2017. The courses, which are taught by outsourced trainers or staff members who are experts in threading, are given a $200 grant by the SkillsFuture Singapore initiative, where Singaporeans above 25 are given $500 worth of SkillsFuture Credits to upgrade or learn new skills. This means they only have to pay $399 for the class when it usually costs $599.
Homegrown beauty salon Beauty Recipe Aesthetics Academy, for example, started providing two-day threading courses in mid-2017. The courses, which are taught by outsourced trainers or staff members who are experts in threading, are given a $200 grant by the SkillsFuture Singapore initiative, where Singaporeans above 25 are given $500 worth of SkillsFuture Credits to upgrade or learn new skills. This means they only have to pay $399 for the class when it usually costs $599.
Tanuki Photography / Getty Images
Beauty Recipe founder Jessie Ting said: "It wasn't easy applying for the SkillsFuture funding because of the amount of paperwork required, but I thought it's important because threading is such a practical skill."
"It's not difficult to pick up, it's quite fun, and there's a low cost to start doing it. You don't need expensive machines or anything, just a string. Anyone can do it for extra income."
Yet, enrolment for the threading course is poor compared to other courses like their eyelash extension course. There are only about two or three students a month, said Ms Ting. Most are between 30 and 40 years old. Meanwhile, their eyelash extension course attracts a younger and bigger crowd, with about 40 students a month, most of whom are in their 20s or 30s.
Similarly, at SingTrain Academy, one of Singapore's biggest beauty academies, director Wendy Lee noted that sign-ups for threading courses were low even when they were sponsored by organisations like the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC), a non-profit self-help group for the Chinese community.
Students who complete the course, which usually spans about 10 hours, will also obtain a certificate from the International Therapy Examination Council, a globally recognised beauty education organisation based in the UK.
But none of that enticed people, said Ms Lee.
Although she declined to reveal the course's enrolment rate, she said it was nothing compared to the large number of enrolments for the school's bridal make-up course.
Ms Lee, who is in her 60s, believes one reason for this is because some people perceive threading as a blue-collar job.
The course was initially developed with CDAC to help low-income families and structurally unemployed people become self-reliant by learning new skills and seeking employment. "That means the candidates could be former executives, managers, or educators," she said. "This skill does not align with their previous skill set or the role they were targeting, so they may wonder why they should become someone who threads people's eyebrows."
In the end, it was only the rare one or two people who came in with an open mind that learnt and mastered the skill, she said.
One of them, a middle-aged Singaporean woman, eventually became a freelance eyebrow threader, recalled Ms Lee. She would thread the eyebrows of her friends for a small token sum of $5 to $8. Later on, she even rented chairs outside a salon to continue her business.
"Manpower shouldn't be a problem for something like this," added Ms Lee, "because you don't need foreign talent for it, just Singaporeans who are willing to learn."
"It's not difficult to pick up, it's quite fun, and there's a low cost to start doing it. You don't need expensive machines or anything, just a string. Anyone can do it for extra income."
Yet, enrolment for the threading course is poor compared to other courses like their eyelash extension course. There are only about two or three students a month, said Ms Ting. Most are between 30 and 40 years old. Meanwhile, their eyelash extension course attracts a younger and bigger crowd, with about 40 students a month, most of whom are in their 20s or 30s.
Similarly, at SingTrain Academy, one of Singapore's biggest beauty academies, director Wendy Lee noted that sign-ups for threading courses were low even when they were sponsored by organisations like the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC), a non-profit self-help group for the Chinese community.
Students who complete the course, which usually spans about 10 hours, will also obtain a certificate from the International Therapy Examination Council, a globally recognised beauty education organisation based in the UK.
But none of that enticed people, said Ms Lee.
Although she declined to reveal the course's enrolment rate, she said it was nothing compared to the large number of enrolments for the school's bridal make-up course.
Ms Lee, who is in her 60s, believes one reason for this is because some people perceive threading as a blue-collar job.
The course was initially developed with CDAC to help low-income families and structurally unemployed people become self-reliant by learning new skills and seeking employment. "That means the candidates could be former executives, managers, or educators," she said. "This skill does not align with their previous skill set or the role they were targeting, so they may wonder why they should become someone who threads people's eyebrows."
In the end, it was only the rare one or two people who came in with an open mind that learnt and mastered the skill, she said.
One of them, a middle-aged Singaporean woman, eventually became a freelance eyebrow threader, recalled Ms Lee. She would thread the eyebrows of her friends for a small token sum of $5 to $8. Later on, she even rented chairs outside a salon to continue her business.
"Manpower shouldn't be a problem for something like this," added Ms Lee, "because you don't need foreign talent for it, just Singaporeans who are willing to learn."
Home-based threaders
Besides their manpower woes, some threading parlours see the rising pool of home-based threaders as another potential threat.
When Ms Babita Lakhwani traded her job as a beautician at a beauty shop in Peninsula Plaza for one as a freelance and later home-based beautician in 1993, it felt like a breath of fresh air.
She could now rearrange customers' appointments if her schedule was too tight, and plan her other responsibilities around her work, unlike most threaders, who have to sit in the shop all day waiting for customers who might come in at any time. Running a business from the confines of her own home in Simei also meant that she could avoid most of the overhead costs, such as rental or labour costs, that threading shops usually incurred.
Those factors must have appealed to others as well, because two decades on, five more home-based threaders popped up in the same vicinity. Some even used to be her customers, added Ms Babita.
"As home-based threaders, we can take our time with customers and give them full attention. This is unlike threading shops outside where the volume of customers is high, but not always the service quality," said the 47-year-old from one of her apartment's five rooms, which she transformed into a mini beauty salon.
Customers love it too, she added, because it houses the comforts and privacy of home while serving their every beauty need, from hair and facial treatments to waxing and eyebrow threading sessions.
They can make themselves at home in Ms Babita's spacious living room if they are early for their appointment, and banter with her – whether they have been going to her for 20 years, or just one – in a room no different from any facial room you might find at beauty salons outside, with pristine white walls and zen instrumental music playing softly in the background.
While innovative and enterprising, some threading parlours believe people like Ms Babita may exacerbate their current labour issues.
Beauty parlour chain Vanessa Beauty Salon & Henna Artwork Creations, for instance, used to have four outlets around Singapore. Its founder, who only wanted to be known as Ms S. Elizabeth, was forced to close their outlet at Dunlop Street in Little India last year.
When Ms Babita Lakhwani traded her job as a beautician at a beauty shop in Peninsula Plaza for one as a freelance and later home-based beautician in 1993, it felt like a breath of fresh air.
She could now rearrange customers' appointments if her schedule was too tight, and plan her other responsibilities around her work, unlike most threaders, who have to sit in the shop all day waiting for customers who might come in at any time. Running a business from the confines of her own home in Simei also meant that she could avoid most of the overhead costs, such as rental or labour costs, that threading shops usually incurred.
Those factors must have appealed to others as well, because two decades on, five more home-based threaders popped up in the same vicinity. Some even used to be her customers, added Ms Babita.
"As home-based threaders, we can take our time with customers and give them full attention. This is unlike threading shops outside where the volume of customers is high, but not always the service quality," said the 47-year-old from one of her apartment's five rooms, which she transformed into a mini beauty salon.
Customers love it too, she added, because it houses the comforts and privacy of home while serving their every beauty need, from hair and facial treatments to waxing and eyebrow threading sessions.
They can make themselves at home in Ms Babita's spacious living room if they are early for their appointment, and banter with her – whether they have been going to her for 20 years, or just one – in a room no different from any facial room you might find at beauty salons outside, with pristine white walls and zen instrumental music playing softly in the background.
While innovative and enterprising, some threading parlours believe people like Ms Babita may exacerbate their current labour issues.
Beauty parlour chain Vanessa Beauty Salon & Henna Artwork Creations, for instance, used to have four outlets around Singapore. Its founder, who only wanted to be known as Ms S. Elizabeth, was forced to close their outlet at Dunlop Street in Little India last year.
"In total, I think around 60 per cent of my business was affected by this. How to survive like that?"
She believes this was because several of her employees quit and chose to work as freelance or home-based beauticians instead. "They earn more doing that instead of having a fixed salary in my shop," she said. "And since they don't have to charge rental and labour costs, customers might prefer it too because it's cheaper."
This was how she lost customers too, she added.
"Some of my employees would WhatsApp customers behind my back that they can do freelance services for them at a cheaper price instead of going through me," said the 62-year-old. Threading services, for example, would cost customers $3.80 instead of $6, and waxing services $50 instead of $150.
"In total, I think around 60 per cent of my business was affected by this," she said. "How to survive like that?"
Regardless of the challenges, whether real or perceived, some threaders believe the industry still has a fighting chance to turn things around.
At Rupini's, for example, founder Sivarani Rajangam is developing a mobile application that allows both customers and beauticians to arrange beauty appointments, like threading.
This would mean threaders can book slots and work at any of the available beauty parlours, while users who want to book a threading appointment can be matched to anyone from a wide pool of threaders, and not be limited to those from a single shop.
The app will also allow customers to choose their preferred threader, if they have one, and includes a rating system for beauty parlours based on the range and standard of services provided.
On their part, Rupini's will attach their name to the newer and smaller beauty parlours who hop on board their app. They will then teach these shops the skills, pay for their costs, and mentor them. Home-based and freelance threaders, too, can use the app to get customers, although they would have to go down to one of Rupini's outlets to serve customers.
"It's not easy to open an eyebrow threading shop that'll survive and become a big name," said Ms Sivarani. "We aim to be the mothership to all these new shops and home-based threaders. It'll help us with our manpower issues and help them survive."
According to her, the app will be launched some time this year, before the changes to the employment laws are implemented next year.
Although the app might not be the perfect solution to all the challenges the threading industry is facing and will face, Ms Sivarani believes it is still a good start.
Turning the narrative around so that Singaporeans will see threading as more than a blue-collar job might help too, she added. Baking, for instance, may have been seen as a blue-collar job in the past, but it has since evolved into a craft.
"Locals and foreigners both should cultivate this skill and learn to thread, because there's so much potential for it," she said.
"Like baking, threading is an art and skill too. And it will never be a dying trade – it's perfect, and I think it'll last forever."
This was how she lost customers too, she added.
"Some of my employees would WhatsApp customers behind my back that they can do freelance services for them at a cheaper price instead of going through me," said the 62-year-old. Threading services, for example, would cost customers $3.80 instead of $6, and waxing services $50 instead of $150.
"In total, I think around 60 per cent of my business was affected by this," she said. "How to survive like that?"
Regardless of the challenges, whether real or perceived, some threaders believe the industry still has a fighting chance to turn things around.
At Rupini's, for example, founder Sivarani Rajangam is developing a mobile application that allows both customers and beauticians to arrange beauty appointments, like threading.
This would mean threaders can book slots and work at any of the available beauty parlours, while users who want to book a threading appointment can be matched to anyone from a wide pool of threaders, and not be limited to those from a single shop.
The app will also allow customers to choose their preferred threader, if they have one, and includes a rating system for beauty parlours based on the range and standard of services provided.
On their part, Rupini's will attach their name to the newer and smaller beauty parlours who hop on board their app. They will then teach these shops the skills, pay for their costs, and mentor them. Home-based and freelance threaders, too, can use the app to get customers, although they would have to go down to one of Rupini's outlets to serve customers.
"It's not easy to open an eyebrow threading shop that'll survive and become a big name," said Ms Sivarani. "We aim to be the mothership to all these new shops and home-based threaders. It'll help us with our manpower issues and help them survive."
According to her, the app will be launched some time this year, before the changes to the employment laws are implemented next year.
Although the app might not be the perfect solution to all the challenges the threading industry is facing and will face, Ms Sivarani believes it is still a good start.
Turning the narrative around so that Singaporeans will see threading as more than a blue-collar job might help too, she added. Baking, for instance, may have been seen as a blue-collar job in the past, but it has since evolved into a craft.
"Locals and foreigners both should cultivate this skill and learn to thread, because there's so much potential for it," she said.
"Like baking, threading is an art and skill too. And it will never be a dying trade – it's perfect, and I think it'll last forever."
