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Quick fix: Carmel’s Lounge at Nakheel Metro Station targets women on the go. Image Credit: Zarina Fernandes/XPRESS

Dubai: The Dubai Metro now has a beauty salon.

Carmel’s Beauty Lounge at Nakheel Metro Station, the first Metro salon in Dubai, offers everything from a hair wash and blow dry to head and shoulder massage.

Targeting working women who want a quick makeover between office and home, the salon provides budget packages that are attracting even non-Metro passengers from New Dubai areas.

“Fifty per cent of our clients are Metro users who come from as far The Gardens, Jumeirah Lake Towers and Dubai Marina, even Deira. The rest include women working in Dubai Media City and Internet City, besides residents of Emirates Living and other New Dubai areas,” said Venetia Fernandes, an Indian expat who launched the salon in April.

She said she always wanted to open a ladies salon, but couldn’t quite find the right location. “Dubai has salons in every nook and corner offering the same services. So when this opportunity to open a salon in Dubai Metro’s retail space came up, I just grabbed it.

“It saves customers the extra commute time and is very convenient,” she said. “We also offer attractive packages which you don’t see this side of town.”

Fernandes said having a salon at a Metro station meant extra care. “The security here is very tight and rules very stringent. So we have to be very careful. There’s a head count of our staff taken everyday and we need to get ‘permission to work’ permits for any maintenance works, so we don’t compromise with safety of the Dubai Metro. In fact, it took us a good nine months to set up the salon with the highest safety standards.”

Located on the ground floor of the Metro station on the Emirates Golf Course side, the salon is open from 10am to 11pm Saturdays to Thursdays and 1 to 9pm on Fridays.