Phillip Kakaza
If there is one African city that keeps abreast of the latest fashion trends, it is Johannesburg. And it’s not only clothes that count, but hairstyles too.
The busy streets of Johannesburg have become catwalks. A stroll downtown or in Soweto is like a trip down a Parisian boulevard, with clothes and hairdos on display. They range from Jamaican-style dreadlocks, Nike “swooshes” and kinky braids, to styles named after music stars – like Maxwell’s Afro and Shabba Ranks’s turf.
South Africans spend hours in queues in township salons and pavement barber shops for the look with a difference, and it doesn’t come cheap. A cut starts at R10 and prices increase rapidly depending on the style you want.
The average black woman spends R400 on her braids, but men are more fortunate. Gents’ haircuts last for four months while women can spend up to R80 a month on products to keep their hair in shape.
In the 1950s, migrant workers in Johannesburg set up shop on the pavements at weekends to do each other’s hair. German and French cuts were copied from magazines. Women stretched their hair with hot irons for a different look. Hairdressing became a business which helped supplement workers’ low incomes.
Today, according to economist S’busiso Mthethwa, hairdressers make up more than half of the informal sector in Johannesburg. Hairdressing also allows for rapid movement from the informal sector to the formal sector, so that people who started out on street corners can often aspire to working from a “salon”, even if it is only a shack.
Baxolile Solani, whose “salon” is a gazebo on a pavement in Joubert Park, started his career three years ago in his backyard, with a pair of scissors and a packet of razor blades. He now works with an electric clipper connected to a generator. “This is quicker and safe. Many barbers use implements which they do not sterilise, and this can cause diseases,” he says. Solani says some customers complain of catching lice from dirty clippers. Clients on the pavements also risk catching diseases transmitted by blood, like HIV and hepatitis.
Jabu Stone, a dreadlock specialist, owns two satellite salons, called Locks and Braids, and has been in the business for eight years.
The former electrical engineering student took a bridging course in chemical engineering and later invented his moulding cream. “The moulding cream has no chemicals,” he says. “It’s hair cream that protects natural hair from ultra-violet sun rays and helps to moisturise it.”
Stone’s salons in Yeoville and Hillbrow are always packed with customers. His clientele ranges from artists to television and radio personalities like Shado Twala, Gerry Rantseli and Sello Maake ka Ncube. Some of President Nelson Mandela’s grandchildren have their dreadlock treatments done at his salon.
Stone plans to expand to other regions in the country. He already supplies salons in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban with his hair products.
“Everyone wants to be African these days. It’s the renaissance era and darkies have discovered their hair,” says Ntombi Punako (17). “You can do whatever you want with black hair compared to brunettes and blondes.”