Did you know that 55% of another person?s opinion of you is based on your appearance? And that your behaviour ? body language, eye contact ? accounts for 38%? Appearance is definitely becoming more and more important. Whether we agree on that way of thinking or not, it is just the way things are: people are becoming more aware of their looks as well as other people?s looks. Conscious of these realities, thanks to her long years of experience as a beauty therapist, Nomita Dwarka has chosen to share her knowledge with others and has been offering her services as a grooming consultant for about ten years now. She started in image consultancy two years ago.

?As a beauty therapist, I have been able to see what people really needed in Mauritius. After ten years in my salon, I felt I had something else to offer. As I had studied grooming at university in London as an option to my beauty therapist degree, I used it to create awareness on how to present oneself at work,? she explains.

As the hotel industry was being promoted at the time, she learnt the ropes in this particular field. ?Mauritius has always wanted to have a high-class clientele in its hotels and has always done everything to achieve this. So, when customers come to Mauritius, they expect the service to be impeccable and the people neat and well-groomed??

Nomita?s training is not merely aimed at making people look smart. ?People should like what they wear and feel comfortable. What they wear, their make-up or accessories have to fit their personality and lifestyle,? she points out. Hence, before starting the proper training, Nomita does a first analysis training to see with whom she will be working and what type of training is required. ?This means that every course is customised.? Each profession has its own dress code and I adapt to these specificities.

Each training session includes a formal part with theory where Nomita explains the importance of appearance at work. ?You do not only vehicle your own image but also that of your company.? She gives advice to the whole staff ? from the gardener to the highest chief executive ? on what would bring them out. This might be purely hygienic advice such as neat hands and feet, clean hair or preventing body odour to more specific ones like make-up or toiletries to be used by men. After the theoretical part, her training involves a more practical side where she actually shows her trainees how to shave or let?s them try out the products her sponsors provide.

<B>Essential follow-up</B>

?The idea is not to tell people they do not look good and that they should completely change the way they are. I try to adapt their preferences and enhance their look to what would benefit them and their company? And generally, both the management and staff are very happy about the results,? she says happily.

But she insists on the follow-up: ?My courses would be useless if they do not follow the advice afterwards. I like to do some spot-checks after the training period to make sure that it has been useful to them.? As her training involves all people in the hierarchy, she makes sure she suggests a range of products from different countries so that everyone can afford something.

Ten years ago, Nomita was asked by a company to present a talk about grooming to their staff. After the session, so many people came to see her and asked her advice that she realised Mauritius really needed such a specialist to help them. So she started in the hotel industry and went even further two years ago when she specialised in image consultancy. Since then, she has been going to different companies and even in the public sector ? which was actually her first job as an image consultant ? to deliver her training. ?I believe that people ? including men ? have really understood the impact their appearance may have on their audience and companies are more and more interested in paying for such courses since they will benefit everyone.?

<B>Inspired by international trends</B>

With her twenty years of experience in the beauty sector, Nomita has been the privileged witness of a change of mindset in society ? especially as far as men are concerned. ?When I first started, the only product men had in the bathroom was ?Brylcreem?; today they have a full range of toiletries and they are sometimes even better equipped than their wives?? she says with a smile. ?I believe this has something to do with the ?peacock? side of males; they always want to be attractive and are ready to do anything to achieve this,? she adds with a touch of humour.

Of course, advising people on what they should wear and how they should behave means that Nomita always has to be up to date. Although the idea is not really to be fashionable, she uses international trends as an inspiration. ?I prefer not to base myself on European trends as their climate is not like the tropical one we have in Mauritius. So their products or the colours they would choose do not necessarily correspond to what we need in Mauritius. I prefer to look at South Africa and India.?

India definitely seems to have inspired her especially for colour combinations. ?Indian people have almost the same skin colour as we have in Mauritius and I believe the bright colours they wear there would perfectly suit Mauritians. We have been too often tempted to follow the European style that doesn?t correspond to our tropical country. We should use brighter colours and ?fusion style? clothes - but this trend is starting to take off now.?

By delivering such training, Nomita not only helps individuals gain more confidence and companies benefit from a more professional image - it could well benefit the country as a whole. If people are fully satisfied with the service they have in Mauritius, its reputation will certainly be the winner. Nomita chose to be a beauty therapist because she wanted to ?beautify the world?? Her own country is definitely the right place to begin!