Jawed Habib hair & beauty CEO defends hair-spitting act; 'meant for humor, unintentional'

Amid uproar over the controversial hair-spitting incident by celebrity hairstylist Jawed Habib, his company's CEO, Venkata Raveendra Ravi on Thursday came out in defence of the hairdresser, saying that the act was only meant to create "humour" during a long seminar. He told Republic that Jawed Habib often resorts to such 'jocular' acts in order to maintain the concentration of the people attending the seminars. 

"Jawed Habib is one of the famous hairstylists in the country. Many people from the industry come here for months of courses or day-long workshops. These seminars are attended by at least 100-800 people and last for 4-8 hours. People tend to get bored due to the long duration, so in order to maintain the concentration of the people, he creates humour," Ravi said. 

Jawed Habib has received massive backlash for spitting on a woman’s head during a seminar in Madhya Pradesh. The woman, a hairstylist herself, felt humiliated and filed a complaint against him. The hairstylist was not only booked but was also summoned by the National Commission for Women (NCW) after a video of the disgusting act went viral. 

'It was not intentional'

Stating that Jawed Habib was a teacher before becoming an entrepreneur, Venkata Ravi said, the spitting had nothing to do with his profession and was solely meant to poke laughter among the people. 

"He did not do anything intentionally He personally apologised to everyone as it was a mistake from his side," the CEO said. "Jawed Habib is a member of the BJP. The party has not taken any step against him either, as it was not intentional. We realised it was wrong," he added. Venkata Ravi said Jawed Habib believes in education and respects women.

Reacting to the protests and vandalisation by Hindu organisations and BJP members at his salons and franchises, he said, "It is a democratic country and people have the right to protest. But it is sad to see that the people who invested in our brand and opened franchises with us are having to deal with the loss. At least 20,000 people are employed under our brand."

After facing backlash, Habib issued an apology saying, "Sorry...I mean it". He stated in the video, "Some sessions are too long, and we need to do such things to make sessions hilarious. Still, if somebody is hurt, please accept my apologies".

Habib had joined the BJP in 2019 ahead of the Lok Sabha polls under BJP's celebrity outreach programme - 'Sampark se Samarthan'.