WINDHOEK- “It is better to do hair than to steal or sell our bodies to make a living”. These were the words of 27 year-old Veronica Batista, a hair stylist who operates in an informal salon just behind Pick n Pay, Katutura. Batista shares the salon with two other stylists in the square structure that is made of zinc, wooden poles and sacks.
“We also want our salon to look like other established salons but thieves often steal our zinc and poles so we cannot even keep our equipment here when we close for business,” Batista says whilst braiding a client that she is trying hard to impress.
She believes impressing customers is a strategy for them to keep coming back to the salon. “We are very cheap and we live up to the expectations of our customers,” Batista says while admitting that operations in the area has seen an explosion of illegal small businesses.
Batista and her co-stylists are not the only ones operating in the area and she says.
“This business is just good enough to sustain our families. We hardly make enough to save in the long term because customers do not come to have their hair braided every day.”
She further stated that the proliferation of these informal salons has made it difficult to operate and to make a profit is even harder because stylists often have to scramble for customers.
“Last year we made good profit but now we are too many and business is not really doing well. In addition, Batista says customers sometimes mock the structures in which these stylists operate.
“The majority of our customers are the Ovaherero women. The only problem is they make a mockery of our salon and refer to it as ‘wind salon’. They often remark “matuii kombepo salon” which translates “we are going to the wind salon”, she says laughing.
She explains briefly that the salons in the area were christened ‘wind salon’ because they are open structures without doors, hence customers and stylists are not protected from the wind and other harsh weather elements.
Despite challenges, Batista says she will not give up. “This is our job, we work hard and even if a day goes by without braiding customers’ hair, we are never discouraged to come back here. This is what we do, “ she says proudly, while receiving compliments from a potential customer on how ‘good she is braiding her customer’.
“We want the municipality to build us a market like Single Quarters and Soweto Market. I am sure we can afford the rental fees. If that is done it would boost our business as we would also wash and relax our customers’ hair like other established salons,” she says.