18 Aug 2022

Recent years have seen the emergence of children’s hair salons in different parts of the country.

 Childrens hair salons were in the past common  in urban areas and attracted mostly children from the privileged families. 

The rising number of childrens hair salons is attributed to parents’ busy schedule, who do not have enough time to do their children’s hair.

Some hair dressers want to hear nothing about doing children’s hairs, while others like Ms Kefilwe Mbulawa saw it  as an opportunity. 

The 33 year-old owner of Kids Hair Garage in Serowe is one of those that saw children hair care as a target market. 

Mbulawa said she has always had shown passion for business skills from tender age. She said she used to sell sweets at school, something that influenced her to choose A business skiLls course at GIPS. 

When she completed her studies in 2012 she knew that she was cut for business as she started her ice pop business from her home. 

Years later the Business Skills graduate  realised that there was no saloon for young ones in Serowe and did not look back but approached the Youth Development Fund (YDF) for funding in 2018 and seeing the zeal in her her proposal was approved and she started operating in 2019. 

YDF funded her at a tune of P98 000, an amount that did not cover all the expenses thus she had to pop out some money to cover other needs.

She used proceeds from the ice pop  business, to augment the YDF funds. 

She continued with her business until she ventured into children’s hair business. Her hair salon  is colourful, packed with a wide variety of styling car chairs meant to  cheer the little ones.

 It has entertainment screens which would be a special experience for the child. She said her business does best when schools re open and when going for long holidays 

Ms Mbulawa says COVID-19 took a toll on her business because her regular customers were hit hard by the pandemic as parents resorted to cutting their children’s hair. 

In marketing her business Ms Mbulawa said she used Facebook (kid’s hair garage) and WhatsApp and once in a while they print flyers and give to the public.

In a quest to create employment, Ms Mbulawa has employed four hairdressers. She said it was a mammoth task to find people suitable workers because children are not manageable and require patience. Most hairdressers cannot stand their twisting of heads, continuous shifting on the chair, and at times tantrums and unnecessary shrieks.   

Despite the specialised hair salon, Ms Mbulawa said some parents complained that the prices were too high and explained that more work and energy was invested as far as children were involved.

 “You spend a lot of time plaiting a child, a hairstyle that an elder could have done in two hours, would take you six hours on a child.”

While she started her business at a rented place she was relieved when she was offered a space at the Serowe Youth Hub, brand child of YDF this year June. 

Her plan is to settle the loan to enable her to open another branch since she is not paying rent. She said she hopes to spread her wings to Palapye, Francistown and more places. ends