Sisters build solid careers with hair salons

Scroll down for more

ART

Sisters build solid careers with hair salons


In a 20-x-8 foot lime-green shipping container, “art” takes shape.

Zunic Saarg stands in the cramped space doing a young girl’s hair. Next to them: The girl’s mother and three siblings who are also having their hair done by Saarg.

Originally from Ghana, Saarg has been a hairdresser in the township outside Makhanda for four years. She made the journey to the Eastern Cape because of business, which she said was better here.

“I knew if I learned this job I could do it better."

“If you don’t have money to go to school you have to learn a job,” Saarg said about why she got into the hair business. “I knew if I learned this job I could do it better.”

At her salon — Vida’a Hair Salon catering solely to women — she mostly does cornrows and bonding. Bonding is applying hair extensions with an adhesive “bond” to natural hair. These are the popular styles for the country and it’s what Anelisa Jonono is getting done today.

“Some of us don’t have enough hair, (so) these styles make us look pretty,” Jonono said. “(Cornrows) save time in the morning. You don’t have to spend more time, it makes everything easy. As women we like to look attractive. Cornrows make everyone look pretty. Everyone, even little ones, look pretty.”

There’s a second shop here that’s also called Vida’s Hair Salon. This one is owned by Vida Nyalko; both men and women can have their hair done there.

“This is my future...This is my education because there is no money for me to go to school.

“Our job is our happiness. Clients make you feel more comfortable,” Nyalko said.

She affirms that cornrows are one of the most popular styles in the area.

“I don’t know but majority here have that one,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s cheap or if it works for them.”

Nyalko is also from Ghana and came to Makhanda in 2010 because in South Africa there was more opportunity for her.

“This is my future,” she said. “This is my education because there is no money for me to go to school. If you didn’t choose hair you would learn to sew dresses. My mother put me in the salon to learn. It’s better for me and I am qualified.”

These two township salons share a name because both were opened by Nyalko. Se and Saarg are sisters. Saarg worked for Nyalko for three years before she branched out on her own and Nyalko opened the other salon in the shipping container for her in May 2017.

"If you get your freedom, there’s no one to treat you poorly.”

At Saarg’s salon, it costs Jonono 200 rand, equivalent to just over 16 U.S. dollars, to get her hair done. Previously she would have to go into town, where it would cost her 350 rand plus taxi fare. Jonono can get her hair done a second time with the money she saves by going to a salon in the township, plus the location is more convenient and closer to where she lives.

“Even though I’m 41, I want to be looking like I’m a 16-year-old,” she said.

Nyalko originally rented the building where her salon is, but was able to buy outright around two or three years ago.

Her favorite part about owning her own business and the building: “I’m not under someone who’s not decent. If you get your freedom, there’s no one to treat you poorly.”