In an Exclusive conversation with Priyanka Parshurami, Seema Jerajani, Founder, SVJ Academy sheds light on competition, creativity and evolving as a hairdresser.
For a hairdresser with more than four decades in the industry, continuing to compete may seem like an unusual pursuit. For Seema V. Jerajani, it is part of staying relevant.
The Founder of SVJ Academy recently won the High Fashion Hair category at the 2026 International Beauty Industry Awards. But beyond the recognition, the achievement reflects a creative practice that Jerajani has continued to develop through competition, research and education.
Here’s a quick expert from Seema’s interview on what keeps her competing, how competition shapes her creative process and why established hairdressers should continue challenging themselves.
A Global Win, Four Decades In
For Seema, an International hairdresser, winning at an international level is significant precisely because she continues to challenge herself after four decades in the profession.
Her winning High Fashion Hair creation began with an idea that moved beyond hair as the only material. She envisioned incorporating different fabrics and threads that could resemble hair, experimenting with weaving techniques to bring the elements together into a tapestry.
The research process led her to explore different colour combinations and multiple textures. These elements were then translated into a high-fashion hairstyle designed to combine technical execution with visual impact by this ace hairdresser.
The process reflects the kind of experimentation that Jerajani associates with Editorial and Avant Garde hairstyling, where concepts, textures, colours and silhouettes can be explored with fewer conventional boundaries.
Competition as Continuous Upskilling
For Jerajani, competitions are not simply about participation or collecting titles.
They provide an opportunity to update skills, explore new techniques and challenge herself creatively each year. Editorial and Avant Garde categories, in particular, give her the freedom to experiment with ideas that may not find the same space in everyday professional hairdressing.
This creative freedom is one of the reasons competition remains relevant to her even after an established career.
Why Established Hairdressers Should Compete
Jerajani believes the perception that competitions are primarily for emerging artists does not reflect what happens on international platforms.
She points to international championships, particularly in Editorial and Avant Garde categories, where many competitors are senior artists.
For established hairdressers, competition can provide a structured environment to continue testing their creative and technical capabilities rather than relying solely on experience.
The Discipline Behind the Competition
The competitive process also demands discipline.
Jerajani is clear that no artist can win every competition. Her own competition journey, however, has seen her finish as a winner, finalist or semi-finalist whenever she has participated.
For her, the result is only one part of the process.
Preparing for a competition requires her to sharpen her thought process, research, explore new ideas and refine her technical skills. Each challenge becomes an opportunity to move beyond what she created previously.
The objective, therefore, is not simply to outperform another competitor but to discover what she can create beyond her own existing boundaries.
Learning Without Losing Individuality
Staying relevant as a hairdresser also requires continuous learning, according to Jerajani.
She studies with international educators, regularly updates her skills and continues researching alongside her teaching work. However, she does not approach education as a process of simply reproducing what she learns.
Instead, she interprets new knowledge through her own methodology, “Concept to Collection,” and incorporates it into her signature artistry.
This approach allows her to bring new techniques and international influences into her work while retaining an individual creative language.
A Different Way to Look at Competition
For young hairdressers, the pressure to win can sometimes become a reason to avoid competitions. Jerajani believes that this misses the larger value of the experience.
Competition, in her view, should be treated as part of an artist’s development rather than as a test that is measured only by a trophy.
Every competition can reveal where an artist needs to improve, encourage further upskilling and build confidence. It also teaches humility, because every new challenge reinforces that there is still more to learn.
For Jerajani, the most important comparison is ultimately with one’s previous work: becoming a better hairdresser than the person who entered the last competition.
That mindset may explain why competition continues to hold a place in her career after four decades. The titles matter, but the larger pursuit is evolution — creatively, technically and personally.
