Tamil Nadu Woman Launches First Transgender-run Aesthetic Clinic In India

The concepts of ‘male body’ and ‘female body’ are shaped by societal norms. Within this framework, transgender woman Solu is actively reclaiming and redefining the body for transgender people. She has established the first transgender-led aesthetic clinic in Madurai, a unique service not available in any other Indian city.

Solu, who was born as Solairaj in Sattur, Virudhunagar district, recognized her gender identity during her school years. Despite resistance from her family, she completed a four-year physiotherapy course at a private college in Coimbatore, with the support of her mother.

In 2017, Solu was invited to work at the Regional Resource Center of Chellampatti Panchayat Union in Madurai. Over the past six years, she has specialized in providing care to children with special needs, helping hundreds of them build self-confidence through her dedicated training. As she continued her journey, Solu became increasingly focused on the need to reclaim and enhance transgender bodies, freeing them from the constraints of family, duty, tradition, and culture. To pursue this goal, she completed a diploma in aesthetic medicine in Chennai.

Solu’s journey has been challenging. Using her savings and additional loans, she opened a physiotherapy and aesthetic clinic in June near the Cinipriya Theater in Madurai, naming it Ralax after her mother, using a shortened form of her mother’s name, Ramalakshmi. This clinic is the first transgender-run physiotherapy and aesthetic clinic in India.

Every day, after her school work, Solu opens her clinic at 4 PM, offering various aesthetic treatments such as laser hair removal, skin whitening, hair fall treatment, acne treatment, and tattoo removal at affordable rates. She provides a 50 per cent discount for transgender individuals and persons with disabilities. While other clinics might charge between Rs 4,000 to 5,000 for these treatments, Solu offers them for Rs 1,000 to 2,000. She is not only rescuing the bodies of transgender individuals who have been marginalized and neglected by society due to their perceived lower status, but she is also transforming these bodies into powerful weapons in the fight against a patriarchal system.