Shahnaz Husain

Whenever you think of herbal products, what name naturally comes to your mind? The answer is simple: Shahnaz Husain. She is perhaps the first one to use herbal extracts as a cure and an answer to the human need to acquire and preserve beauty. Inspite of being a very successful and busy businesswoman, Shahnaz is deeply associated with her four-legged members of the family and loves to spend time with them.
Shahnaz Husain, better known as Beauty Mogul, is imbued with a burning desire to recapture India’s great herbal heritage. She is a woman obsessed with a passion for beauty and a vision that knows no bounds. Her beauty network poses a colossal threat to the synthetic ridden cosmetic world. Today, herbs are not a fad but an international trend. The Shahnaz Husain Herbal range was created as an answer to a human need, the innate desire dormant in every woman to acquire perfection, and to maintain it.
Crusading India’s ancient herbal heritage, Shahnaz believes that skin and hair should be maintained with the aid of herbal products. Today, Shahnaz Husain Herbal is the largest chain of its kind, which crusades the natural concept with ancient herbal remedies. It is constantly incorporating the latest advances in skin science, making it acceptable in the Western world also.
Shahnaz comes from a family of legal luminaries. She is the daughter of Chief Justice NU Beg, and niece of Chief Justice MH Beg, Chief Justice of India. She has represented India at the New York Beauty Congress, Monte Carlo Beauty Congress CIDESCO and CIDESCO World Congress. She was also the chairman of ITES International Beauty Congress in 1981 and vice-president of Independent Professional Therapists International (PTI) in 1982.
She has been conferred with various prestigious awards such as Flying Falcon Award by IETC, London, ‘Woman of the Year – Udyog Rattan Award’ and ‘Best Woman Entrepreneur,’ besides ‘President’s Gold Medal for Export Excellence’ and ‘Barbara Cartland Venus Award.’ These are just a few of the awards she has received, the list is endless.
Today, Shahnaz Herbal has achieved a global presence, with a dynamic woman to propel it…who has dedicated her life towards making others beautiful. It is little known fact that Shahnaz is an animal lover since childhood. At one point of time, she had squirrels too and used to love them. She also loved feeding all the dogs around the place she stayed. But, Shahnaz fondly remembers her dog Jenny. “A memorable experience in my life is ‘when Jenny came home.’ When I was a child, I loved Jenny, a Fox Terrier, who used to come to the same park, where we played, with her owner Mr. Little. On one such occasion, we found out that her owner was leaving for London and was looking for a good home for Jenny. We offered to take Jenny to our home as we loved her – Mr. Little was too happy to give Jenny to us. But tragedy struck on — once when Jenny was travelling with my father via train, he managed to run away from him at a station which was 2-3 stations away from home and got lost. We were all frantic with worry. My dad was also heart broken and did not have courage to face us as we used to pester him where Jenny was? After almost six weeks, while my father went for his morning walk, he found Jenny close to our home. Jenny had managed to find his way back to us but due to exhaustion and the panic he might have gone through, he couldn’t survive. That was really sad! After Jenny, we never kept a Fox Terrier but I would definitely like to keep one,” told Shahnaz.
Inspite of her jetsetting lifestyle, Shahnaz still finds time for her cuddly four-legged friends. Currently, she shares her life with ‘Coffee,’ who’s a darling little Pug. “I definitely make it a point and take time out to spend quality time with Coffee. I see to his food, nutrition and training needs and whenever I am at home, Coffee is always with me,” she said with a twinkle in her eyes. Shahnaz advocates that if one has a pet, it is one’s responsibility to take complete care of the little one as he/she is completely dependent on you. “They give us selfless love. The companionship they provide is incomparable. They understand you and accept you as you are. I find this quality in them very beautiful. As such, it becomes our moral responsibility to nurture them because they deserve the best!!!,” she added.
“My children are extremely fond of dogs, especially my son Samir, who insists on keeping 4-5 dogs at home but since we have a beauty parlour at our residence and some people might be afraid of dogs, we have to restrict ourselves,” told Shahnaz.
Samir is an ardent dog lover and ‘Dogs & Pups’ had a tête-à-tête with him on his love for pets. “I have always loved pets and have grown up with them. I think they are completely awesome because they just love you unconditionally, without demanding anything in return,” told Samir.
“My first memory is of a Samoyed named Dinky, then of an American Spitz named Snoopy and a Dalmatian named Pongo (of 101 Dalmatians fame). I have always loved Alsatians, Dobermans and Rotweillers. As a child, our domestic help and Dinky used to come to pick me up. One day, our help forgot to come but Dinky was there, just proving their amazing sense of timing,” he reminisced.
Currently, Samir shares his life with a Pitbull Hitler, who is very possessive about him, so much so that he does not like even if his wife Raabiya comes close to him. “Hitler really understands me and our communication is just amazing. Hitler is also very good at understanding an individual… even better than me! I sometimes now judge a person by Hitler’s recommendation!” he laughed. Samir further added “It’s a tough task in the evenings to manage my dog and the family. Raabiya is scared of Hitler and she sits at a safe distance from Hitler while travelling in car and also while walking too, so much so that – once we were approached by a person, who with concern asked – Is the woman following you in CBI? I had to reassure him and tell him that she was my wife and only because of my dog she was keeping her distance!!!” Samir’s daughter Husna, however, loves to play with him.
“Hitler loves his massages and looks forward to getting them. He looks simply adorable at that time. He also loves his treats. I really love to play and mentally stimulate him. Hitler loves tug of war. He also loves chews and can finish them in a matter of minutes. Hitler loves fruits too. He loves to drive in my Pajero, where a guard sits at the back with him,” told Samir.
“My dream is to have my house full of 4-5 pets all the time. But since, we have a parlour at our place, so we have kept our pets at our farmhouse in Haryana,” he told. With a twinkle in his eyes, he added, “Here after 6.30 p.m., when the parlour shuts, I am free with my pets!!!”
“Currently our lives are enriched by Dachshund, Basset Hound, Pug, Pitbull and Great Dane. My mom likes small dogs but I like the big ones,” said Samir. “As a child, I once took my Great Dane to the market and somehow forgot their strength. While stepping into a shop, I chained my Dane to an empty rack outside, expecting him to sit and wait for me patiently. Suddenly, there was a lot of commotion outside and the next thing I saw was my Dane sprinting away and behind him was the rack which was making loud noise. It took me a while before I caught hold of the situation and calmed my darling Dane’s nerves. One must never underestimate the strength that a Dane possesses!” told Samir.
Samir is very passionate about the issue of Pitbull mauling in the US and feels that most of the time, it is the people who are at fault who train the dogs for wrong activities.
“I have always been involved in taking care of my pets, including their health and nutrition. I really feel about issues like how people treat animals. We should have some measures where we can keep a control and save animals from any kind of cruelties or miseries,” he added.
“A lot of people take puppies because they look cute and don’t realise that this lil’ puppy will grow up. So, I strongly feel that before anybody makes a decision to keep a dog, they should carefully evaluate if they can take care of him. Another thing what I feel is that one must never gift dogs – if somebody wants one, they can carefully make the decision and get one,” concluded Samir.
So, here’s a family where love and compassion for dogs probably is in their genes.