Stephen Mutabaruka, a.k.a Steven Brown, had his earliest association with hair salons while he was a young boy, growing up in the City of Kigali. 

"Since childhood I liked to go to salons just to listen to the music played there. Every evening after school, I went to the nearest salon to enjoy listening to the free music,” he recollects.

After sometime he also started to observe how the barbers and hair dressers did their thing –something that fascinated his curious young mind a lot. "Soon I fell in love with salon work (hair dressing and barbing)”, he adds.

One day he approached a friend who owned and operated a small salon in his neighborhood and poured out his heart to him.

"I told him how badly I wanted to learn to be a barber and hair dresser, and he invited me to join him. That is how it started.”

Although he was happy to learn the job, deep down, and secretly, Mutabaruka knew that his main aim of working in the salon was because of the music –something he loved over and above anything else.

To hone the skills he had acquired at the friend’s salon, he enrolled for a hair dressing course at the Adelias School, in Nyarugenge, graduating with a certificate in 2012.

Soon after joining the school, he went to Keza Salon, located at the UTC tower, and begged the owner for a training opportunity. All he wanted at the time was to simply sit in a corner of the salon and observe how other more experienced hands went about the job.

Luckily his wish was swiftly granted, and come evenings after school, he would rush to the salon to learn through passive observation.

With time, he started getting some hands-on-experience and working on clients.

"After only seven months of being at the salon, I was put on salary as an employee,” he recollects with pride.

"The reason I was given the job quickly is because my boss realized that customers liked me so much. When people came into the salon, especially ladies, they always came straight to me, even at the time when I was still learning the job. Of course I would smile and then direct them to the experienced hair dressers, and tell them that I was still a learner.”

The other reason was his exceptional people skills: "I had good working relations with both customers and fellow workers,” he says proudly, adding that in this business, inter personal skills are a must. In all, he contends that it was a good time at his previous workplace, Keza Salon:

"The owner, Claire, treated me so nicely that I called her ‘mama’ while she called me her son. She always told me of my potential as a hair dresser and generally guided me as a parent. It’s from Keza salon that I learnt more about doing women’s hair because it’s what I had always wanted to specialize in.”

One morning, Mutabaruka received a call from a gentleman who introduced himself as the owner of Soft Salon, located at Posta, in Downtown Kigali.

"He told me that he had heard so much about me and that he wanted me to work in his salon,” he explains, hastening to add that he wasn’t sacked from Keza Salon. "I just ventured out to see how things were done in other salons.” After negotiating terms of work, he moved.

On women vs. men’s hair

"The difference between men’s and women’s hair is that no man goes to an occasion and people ask where he cut his hair from, however good the barber was,” Mutabaruka starts.

"When it comes to women’s hair it’s the opposite, because as long as a woman has an outstanding hair style, other women will be forced to ask where she did it from.”

On a good day, he can work on up to 25 clients, while on a really bad day he could end up with just six. He adds that while some of his clients come with specific hair styles in mind, the majority ask him to look at them and decide which is the best hairstyle to suit.

"As a professional hair dresser, one must take a stand even when a client comes with a particular hair style in mind. Women are always open to advise and they like someone who tells them the truth.”

Fridays and Saturdays are the busiest days for him, while the busiest times are at mid day, and in the evenings from 5:00-9:00 pm.

And by all indications he is a satisfied man on the job: "It’s a good place because I get my pay on time, and what I earn is more than what I used to get at my previous job. All I can say is that so far so good. I do this job to the best of my ability because it has always been my passion,” he concludes.

On music

As an up-and-coming musician, Mutabaruka goes by the stage name, Steven Brown. Like he explained already, music was the real reason he actually set out visiting salons as a young boy.

"After some time, I begun to get deeper into the music by differentiating between the different musicians and music styles I would hear.”

One day, Sandara Miraj, a local singer invited him to appear in the video of her song, Poa poa. "When the video came out and I saw it, I loved music even more,” he explains. And from that time on, he started secretly plotting his own music career.

"I remember I didn’t even know the basics of how the music industry worked, but this did not stop me from trying.”

He got an opportunity to appear in another music video, and then another. After his third appearance in a music video, the young man vowed to record his own song. That night he didn’t sleep as he tried to write down some lyrics.

The following day he went to Infinity Studio in Nyamirambo where he met producer Fazo, who produced his first song, Urabaruta (you are better than them), about a beautiful girl.

"After recording it, I took the song to friends and they liked it. This motivated me to record my second song, Uri perfect (you are perfect).”

"When recording, my motivation is to convince people that I have a good singing voice. I want to do an African unique style that can lift someone onto the dance floor.”

Musical idols

Jose Chameleone from Uganda is his biggest influence: "The message in his songs is always loud and clear, and the songs are uplifting even when you are down.”

He also likes Weasel and Radio, and Davido, Ti Maya and Wiz Kid from Nigeria.

Word to fans

"Being new in the game, I still need all the support I can get from fans and well-wishers. What I can promise is to always put out something better than the previous one.”