Translated by: Tamara Barakat

Farouk Shami was born in 1942 in the village of  Beit Ur Al-Tahta, near Ramallah. He completed his high school education at the Friends School in Ramallah, before travelling to the USA in 1965 to pursue an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Physics. Later on, he decided to attend a cosmetology school. In order to fund his studies, he delivered books and cleaned dishes in his university’s restaurants.

In 1968, Shami returned to Ramallah and opened a hairdressing salon for women. He also took advantage of his Chemistry education to produce his own line of hair shampoos and creams. However, the difficult conditions created by the Israeli occupation forced him to relocate his salon to the USA and start his business there.

This small business project was the starting point for the “Farouk Systems, Inc.” whose capital nowadays amounts to more than a billion dollars. This large company supports the American economy and provides job opportunities to thousands of people.

One of the most significant things to happen Shami was that he developed an allergy to the ammonia used in hair coloring products and became unable to pursue the career he loves. This led him to start thinking about developing an alternative to this harmful substance.

In a press release, Shami explains, “I started to think about the effect of the sun on hair color. The sunlight reflects various colors, and so, it lightens the color of hair in different shades. This inspired me to think about laser. I began to conduct research and studies on laser until I was able to identify the light necessary to lighten hair color.”

Shami has twenty-three internationally registered patents, under the name of the “Farouk Systems” products, and his products are sold in 138 countries. He was the first to use silk and ceramic in hair styling products. Farouk Systems Inc. produces a variety of hair care products, including CHI and Biosilk, with a production capacity of a million products per day. Consequently, his company ranked first, for the seventh consecutive year, in terms of sales among products used in the leading international beauty salons.

Recently, Shami has established a new of branch of his company in Palestine, in order to employ as many Palestinian youth as possible. He says, “I returned to Palestine to invest my wealth there. I have started with employing a hundred workers and this number is going to grow into a thousand in the upcoming period.”

He has also organized a conference as an initiative to collect donations from Palestinians in the diaspora in order to invest in Palestine.  The conference resulted in launching an investment group with a preliminary capital of over $100 million, donated by local and expatriate businesspeople.

Shami is also deeply invested in charity projects in Palestine, such as building a school in his village of Beit Ur, paving streets, and supporting health projects in Palestinian cities.