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Sunday, September 19, 2004
Ang Maanyag
Big hair, spraynet, rebonded, waved, crimped…this one’s been through the hair-raising ride and survived, nay, flourished. Jenara Regis Newman now knows what being maanyag is.
Maanyag: beauty within radiating out. That’s Fe Valera Magale, who not only does hair beautifully, but also heartens people in need with her prayers and sound advice.
Born in Mandaue, Fe, as a child, enjoyed helping in a neighboring beauty parlor and loved doing her older sisters’ makeup and hair. But her father wanted all his eleven children to have a college education and, being a dutiful daughter, she took up pre-nursing, finished that, but got sick.
She was sent to a sister in Manila to recover. The sister suggested that she enroll in cosmetology and permanent hair waving at the Aguinaldo Institute and Beauty Clinic. Before she even finished her course, she was asked to assist in teaching and was pirated by Manlapat, hearing of which her father asked her to come home.
Back in school, she opened a small parlor to help pay for her studies. Her Manila experience attracted many customers, and soon, she could no longer enjoy weekends with friends. After a year, she called it quits, went to Davao partly to be away from her boyfriend, and there worked in Liding’s Beauty Parlor while studying at the University of Mindanao.
She was also a part-time Philippine Airlines employee. An opportunity to become a flight stewardess came her way, and, after passing the interview, she flew to Cebu and went to Opon to pray to the Birhen sa Regla for guidance. She found out she would be happier being a beautician. She went back to Davao to finish AB studies.
She returned to Cebu to work in Blue Haven. While there, Britta Quisumbing asked her to go with her to Laguna. On this trip she met Imelda Marcos who was so pleased with the way she did her hair that she was asked to join the First Lady’s staff. Before she could get into this glitzy circle, her boyfriend Ruben Magale flew to Manila to marry her.
Back in Cebu, she was scheduled to run a beauty parlor at the Cebu Girls Center, so she could teach the girls cosmetology and hair culture. The parlor was named Maanyag, but after a year, the center decided to stop the training and after three more years, it was closed. The Magales bought a property across Cebu Doctors Hospital to transfer Maanyag there. In 1981, they opened a second branch uptown.
When Ayala opened, they consolidated both parlors and concentrated on the Ayala outlet. This month, they opened a therapeutic spa and beauty parlor, a dream of Fe’s for the past seven years, in their Arcbishop Reyes outlet which they had converted into a pension house. Her US-based sister Rubi Valera brought with her VIP machines and Encellite for anti-aging technology.
Fe’s passion for creating beauty has certainly gone a long way. It has not only brought her to foreign lands where she continues to study new techniques, but, more importantly, it has provided her with the wherewithal to give to charity.
(September 19, 2004 issue)
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