Filipino Hairstylist in Greek Setting

Filipino Hairstylist in Greek Setting
By: Yoko Ramos-Vingno

Hair & Scissors beauty salon is owned and managed by a Filipino hairstylist, Draude ‘Dojie’ Garcia. Located in Athens hoi polloi district of Ambelokipi, Dojie’s shop sits just right in the middle where thousands of Filipinos working in Greece live. Ambelokipi is about 10 minutes away from the center of Athens at Syntagma Square where the Greek parliament is located.
The number of Filipinos in Greece is estimated to be about 15, 000, of which 10,000 are believed to be residing in Athens and half of that figure, the Filipinos themselves say they reside at Ambelokipi.
Athens is the Greek capital and Athena is its virgin goddess. In Greek mythology, it is written that the Athenians built the Parthenon atop the Acropolis to honor and please her. Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom, strength, civilization, war, strategy, crafts, justice and skill. The Greeks, particularly the Athenians, pray to Athena to give them not only wisdom but also ask her for almost everything.
Our Filipino expat like the Athenians is an ardent believer of sort. Dojie is a religious man and is a devotee of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. When he learned in one of his voyages as a seaman that his patron saint is nestled in Tinos, an island of Greece, he literally took it as a sign from heaven that he should permanently settle in Greece. All his life Dojie had been pondering where he would permanently set anchor to start a life in a place where his spiritual needs would also be served. Setting foot on Greek soil he found the answer to his prayers. He felt Greece is the place where his Mother of Perpetual Help wanted him to be. Greece was now Dojie’s home. He never looked back.
Starting a new life in Athens is of course another story, which for Dojie proved to be practically a struggle for existence. Faced with an entirely new culture and a language that he could not speak and understand, Dojie somehow started from somewhere in order to survive. These early struggles made him stronger. His belief and devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help and his unrelenting determination to succeed in life in order to be able to provide for the family he left behind in the Philippines kept him going.
An experienced waiter, Dojie took all the waitering jobs he could get hold of. He saved what he earned and could even send some of it to his mother in the Philippines.
But for Dojie, life in Greece was not all about waitering. For him it was much more about the realization of a dream than plain survival. He knew what he wanted in life and so he pursued it. He enrolled in a cosmetology class which he passed and got himself a Greek certificate to practice the profession. He bade waitering goodbye and was now off in haste to pursue his new vocation as a hair stylist.
He went from house to house doing home service from blow drying of hairs to haircuts and hairstyling.
It was in 2007 that Dojie founded his Hair & Scissors salon (where I first met him) when he was only a couple of month’s new to the business. My husband who is the current Philippine Consul General in the embassy needed a haircut then so we were brought to Hair & Scissors Place. Then, he told us of his plans to expand and to offer other services such as massage. He said he needed to be very hands on with this business so that his clientele will be assured that they are getting their money’s worth through hundred percent personal service. Dojie proudly tells me of his loyal patrons who are satisfied with his work that meets the Greeks’ high standards in hair styling.
Three years later, I met Dojie again during the Independence Day festivities with fellow Filipinos at the Zappeio Park. He was in the company of former celebrity star Tina Paner. Enthusiastically he told me about his new ‘sideline’ with Globe Asiatique (GA). He was manning Globe Asiatique’s booth which was teeming with Filipinos lining up to have their photos taken with Tina Paner. There he proudly told me about the realization of his plan to expand his business, a plan that he told me three years earlier. Dojie has built another shop at the district of Pangrati in Athens.
And more good news he gave me. He sold houses for Globe Asiatique worth 12M despite being with the company for 9 months only. He has 10 sales coordinators in Greece. He has 2 in Thessaloniki and another 2 in Crete and the rest are in Athens. GA, he says, trained him to be more focused on work. Over a short span of time with GA, Dojie became computer literate. He devised his program for the whole year for Globe Asiatique in Greece to increase further his sales. GA’s compensation is not as rewarding compared to what he is getting from his salon but he likes though the travel perks that goes with being an agent for GA.
Dojie, a tall guy sporting a long hair, is still single. He is well informed and likes to talk politics. He has no time for the affairs of the heart at the moment, he tells me. He has not forgotten that he has a family back home in the Philippines. The hard work that he puts into his work is not only for himself and his mother but also for his nieces and nephews that are still studying in Manila to whom he sends monthly allowances.
Dojie’s life in Greece indeed has undergone a transformation that has enhanced his self esteem. In Greece he is his own boss who lives a good Athenian life.