Farah Dhukai
Farah Dhukai
Early Life
Farah Dhukai was born to parents of Indian descent. For several generations, her family reside in East Africa; her mother's family is from Tanzania and her father's family is from Uganda. She, however, was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. [1]
During her summer of 2000, entering ninth grade, Farah became more of a girl's girl. After developing a stronger bond with her older sister, she started borrowing a lot of her clothes and using her makeup. She also grew her hair out a lot longer at this point, as well. [2]
Education
By the time she graduated Secondary school, she still wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her life. One of her male friends told her to try going to a makeup art school. She took his advice and enrolled in a 3-month program at the School of Makeup Art in downtown Toronto. [2]
In February 2007, after getting her father to agree, Farah Dhukai moved to New York City. Living with her friend in Manhattan, she enrolled in the Aveda Institute's cosmetology science program.
In November 2007, she graduated from the program with an honor's diploma in the makeup industry.
Career
One month after graduating, her grandmother passed away.
This impacted her immensely, as she would quit many jobs after working for only four hours.
This continued for a period of two years.
However, things changed three years later.
YouTube (Makeup Videos)
As her channel grew, she started receiving messages of inspiration from her audience, telling her that she changed her life. This helped move her to continue making Videos on a consistent basis. [2]
Instagram (Hiatus from YouTube)
In August 2016, Farah Dhukai left Youtube and started posting more often on her Instagram account. At the time, she felt like she was not getting as many views as she once did. Reflecting on that time period, she said she cared too much about her abnormally low numbers and, as a result, felt like people did not like her videos anymore. [21]
As a result, she took to Instagram because those videos were getting a lot more engagement.
However, she received no money from the platform whatsoever.
Farsali
In late 2015, Farah Dhukai started a website called Farsali. Her goal was to create a platform that bridged the gap between makeup and skincare. [24]
Personal Life
Dhukai is married to Sal Ali; they have been married since October 2, 2011.
[2] They met through a mutual friend.
She is a self-proclaimed introvert.
[21] During her high school years, she found that she did not like to socialize and go to parties as much as her friends did.
[2] She also finds it rather difficult to be self-expressive and needs time to reflect on many things.
She is the youngest of three children; she is 10 years younger than her sister and 7 years younger than her brother.
[2] She was particularly close with her brother growing up: they played hockey together and would often play mean tricks on her.
For a large part of her childhood, her older brother convinced her that she was a product of an unplanned pregnancy, due to her age difference.
He told her a story about how he once had another sister named Farah, but their parents sold her with a car because she was extremely naughty.
He added that he found her when he was forced to clean the new car they bought.
He allegedly washed her off and showed her to their parents; they decided to keep her and name her Farah.
After hearing this story, Dhukai was afraid that she was going to be sold if she acted poorly.
As early as 3 years old, she has been obsessed with Mario Brothers; she loved playing the Luigi character. [2]
Before turning 5 years old, she, her mother, and her grandmother went to visit her aunt in Mombasa, Kenya. She recalls having an wonderful time there, visiting her relatives and playing with stray cats. She picked up one of the cats and took it to her aunt's house. Her aunt ended up keeping the cat and took care of it, even after Farah left Kenya; they named him Dimuri. [2]
In the summer before entering the fourth grade, she went to the hospital for nasal surgery because she had trouble breathing through her nose.
Her surgery was a success and she eventually got interviewed by a local newspaper for it.
Growing up, she used to watch wrestling with her brother.
That's when she developed an infatuation for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. She had posters all over her bedroom walls, bought his merchandise, and even had plans to marry him when was of legal age. [2]
Reflecting on her younger years, she considers herself a tom boy. For her eighth grade prom, she wore a Vince Carter basketball jersey. [2]
She met her best friend, Amit, when she was in high school; they are still best friends to this day.