From a modest drawing-room beginning to the celebrity chair, international beauty destinations and her own haircare collection, Mona’s journey is one of ambition, reinvention and an almost relentless desire to keep learning.

There was a time when seeing her own work featured on a magazine stand at Boat Basin could make Mona stop and take it all in. In those days, she would walk through the market and see photographs of her work alongside the latest magazines – a moment that brought a kind of happiness she says was difficult to put into words. One particular magazine cover would prove to be a turning point, opening the door to television and setting her on a path that would eventually lead her into the worlds of celebrities, fashion and international beauty.

What makes that memory even more remarkable is how modest her beginnings were. Within two years, that small beginning had grown into a professional salon at Shahbaz Commercial. A decade later came Clifton, followed by KDA. Along the way came television, fashion weeks, work in New York and Dubai, and a growing list of prominent personalities who trusted her with their looks.

Yet, listening to Mona today, perhaps the most striking thing is not how much she has achieved. It is how little she seems to think she has finished learning.

“I still can’t believe how two decades have passed,” she says. “It feels like yesterday when I started my drawing-room salon with Rs. 5,000, with just a few lights and without even a chair.”

That first SHE magazine cover remains one of the milestones she remembers most fondly. At a time when magazines were a major window into the fashion and beauty world, seeing her work displayed publicly was deeply personal.

“We used to go to the market where hawkers had magazines hanging up, especially around Boat Basin. We would see so many pictures of our work, and the happiness was indescribable.”

The cover led to another defining moment when Atiqa Odho’s company contacted her to work on Let’s Makeup. It was Mona’s first television show, but it soon turned into a nationwide competition featuring leading makeup artists. Through public voting, she won Best Makeup Artist as well as Best Bold Look.

“That was when I realised that my work could stand alongside the leading artists of the time,” she recalls.

The recognition continued. Mona worked at Karachi Fashion Week and took her expertise to New York and Dubai. But perhaps the most glamorous part of her career has been the opportunity to work with personalities whose faces and styles are already familiar to millions.

Ask Mona about celebrities, however, and her answer takes an unexpected turn.

“Why do we think celebrities are only people who are famous, have a lot of followers or are very beautiful?” she asks. “For a child, a mother can be a celebrity. For a son, a father can be a role model. For me, every client who sits in my chair is a celebrity.”

It is a revealing answer. For Mona, celebrity status is less important than the relationship between the stylist and the person sitting in the chair. She particularly enjoys working with clients who understand her work and give her the creative freedom to do what she does best.

“Our philosophy is that we don’t simply work for the client; we give them an experience.”

There are, nevertheless, some celebrity collaborations that have left a lasting impression. Atiqa Odho is one of them, particularly because of the evolution of her hairstyles over the years.

“Atiqa Apa has always been a star for me, both because of her work and the way her look keeps evolving. Her first layered look is still very famous and is still on her page. Her latest bob is also very memorable. I have enjoyed every look of hers, especially the haircuts and hair colours.”

Then there was Mahira Khan, at a much earlier stage in her career, long before she became the international star audiences know today.

“When I did Mahira Khan’s makeup around 15 years ago, before she became a movie star, I noticed her beautiful skin, her lip colour and her striking eyes. I remember thinking, ‘How do I do makeup for this girl?’ I really enjoyed creating her look.”

For someone who has spent nearly two decades at the top of her profession, one might expect experience to eventually replace curiosity. With Mona, the opposite seems to have happened.

Her passion for learning actually predates her career in beauty. She was a teacher before entering the industry. The teacher in her, she says, never disappeared.

“My motivation comes from the fact that I was a teacher before entering this career,” she explains. “I still want to be a student, and that takes me to every corner of the world.”

Her search for knowledge has taken her to Lebanon, England, Spain, Paris and United States, among other destinations. She recently completed a makeup course from New York Makeup Academy and is preparing to take part in New York Fashion Week this September.

For Mona, international travel is not simply about discovering trends. It changes the standard against which she judges her own work.

“When you travel the world, your perspective changes. The lens through which you see things changes. When you expose yourself to a higher standard, your own level rises.”

Every time she returns from abroad, she brings back a new benchmark. And then she tries to reach it.

“The day you stop learning is the day you stop moving forward. Sometimes, all it takes is seeing something new at a course to spark an idea that can become a game changer back home.”

It is perhaps this attitude that eventually led her beyond styling hair for clients and towards creating a haircare collection of her own.

The idea did not begin with a product on a shelf. It began with a question she heard repeatedly in her salon.

A client would finish a colour, haircut, keratin treatment or hair-straightening service, look in the mirror and love the result – and then ask Mona the inevitable question: How will I maintain this?

Finding the right answer proved much more complicated than it sounded.

Some clients had oily scalps, others dry scalps. Some had damaged hair, while others had colour-treated, keratin-treated, straight, wavy or curly hair. Different concerns often meant different combinations of shampoos, masks, leave-in products and treatments.

“We used to use a combination of scalp products, hair masks and leave-in products,” Mona explains. “With all that confusion, I was looking for a solution.”

That search became The Art of Hair by Mona J.

The collection comprises a shampoo, hair mask and mist, developed with the ambition of simplifying the haircare routine while addressing different hair and scalp concerns.

But creating something worthy of carrying her name was never going to be a quick exercise.

The development process took more than two years of research, testing, trial and error. Mona says different formulations were assessed across different hair types and concerns, including keratin-treated, colour-treated, textured, wavy and curly hair. Ingredients were sourced internationally, and formulations were repeatedly refined.

For someone who had spent years building her professional reputation, there was one principle she simply would not negotiate.

“Compromise is not in my dictionary,” she says. “Either it is or it isn’t. There is no grey area.”

That philosophy is perhaps the clearest explanation for why the development took as long as it did. Mona had taken years to build her name. She was not prepared to attach it to anything that did not meet her standards.

At the heart of the collection is a philosophy expressed in three words: Repair. Reset. Restore.

For Mona, the condition of hair can be affected by much more than chemical treatments or colour. Even exposure to the sun can cause damage.

“So, first of all, hair that has been damaged for any reason needs to be repaired,” she explains. “That repair takes time. Once the hair is repaired, it can gradually be reset to the hair you were born with – to your natural texture.”

But restoring hair is only part of the journey. Maintaining it becomes the next challenge.

“Repairing damaged hair from scratch, bringing it back to its natural state, and then maintaining it that way is a challenge. That’s why we summed up the entire journey of your hair in these three words.”

In many ways, The Art of Hair feels like a natural extension of the career that came before it. Mona has spent years listening to clients, understanding their concerns and trying to find better ways of solving them.

“I realised that there were so many people who couldn’t reach me, even though they loved my work. So I thought, why not create something that everyone can access and that can help people with their hair concerns?”

That thinking ultimately brought her expertise beyond the salon chair and into people’s homes.

Yet after nearly two decades in an industry that revolves around appearance, Mona’s understanding of beauty has moved far beyond hair and makeup.

“Beauty is not defined by age, hair, makeup or clothes,” she says. “It comes from how a person feels about themselves, how comfortable they are in their own skin and what light they are emitting from within.”

It sounds simple, but Mona is quick to acknowledge that being comfortable in your own skin is much easier to say than to achieve. For her, it requires growth, ambition and the courage to pursue what is possible rather than living according to someone else’s expectations.

Perhaps that is why her own story feels so closely connected to the philosophy she now brings to haircare. She has spent her career refusing to remain in one place – moving from a drawing room to a professional salon, from local recognition to celebrity clientele, from Karachi to international beauty capitals, and now from the salon chair to her own collection.

The transformation has been constant.

And so has the learning.

For Mona, success appears less like a destination and more like a moving target – something that keeps changing every time she discovers a new technique, encounters a new idea or finds another reason to raise her own standards.

Her message to women, therefore, goes beyond beauty trends or hairstyles.

“Keep evolving. Keep shining. Never let anybody dim your light.”

It is a fitting message from a woman whose own career has been built on doing exactly that.