It is 10.00 in the morning at Harmony, a salon in Top Tower Hotel in Kacyiru and already clients are streaming in for haircuts or hairdos. Inside the salon, Charles Domangala, a Congolese hair specialist is in final stages of administering hair treatment to a young female client – one of the affluent people that come to the fancy salon for distinguished services.

It takes her more money to have her hair done there but she pays anyway for a number of reasons, but mainly the classy feeling about the salon.

Outside in the parking lot is a number of cars belonging to the well to do clients. Since early morning, the salon has been giving services to ambassadors, ministers and other high class people able to afford a hair cut that starts from Rwf5000.

Inside the salon, in a comfortable chair sits a well dressed woman who works as the salon receptionist. She is one of the 15 people the salon employs, seven of whom are women waiting to treat clients to either a head wash or massage - one of the new trending customer care techniques that have for some reasons contributed to clients going to saloons regularly.

Before 2007, you would come to a lightly equipped salon and sit down for only a shave. There was no head wash or massage. Likewise, it was not so common to find men working in female salons as it is today. And many of the men in female salons were Congolese, which is still the case today.

Competition on the rise

When saloons started mushrooming, the owners had to devise ways of retaining clientele and that is when some saloon owners decided to come up with new ideas.

First, the salons have made it a point to employ qualified workers. Back in the day, you perhaps only needed talent. Today, your qualifications are a requirement if you are to work in a saloon that is used by VIP clients. 

Domangala is South African-trained and all his fellow workers carry at least a certificate in hair dressing.

The competition also saw an influx of various specialists from the neighbouring countries, use of more sophisticated equipment, and new customer care techniques, and the most common being washing and giving light massage to men after shaving.

"People don’t come to the salon just because they need a hair style alone. If you have stress, as they massage you, it goes away. And this is very important.”

"And some clients are busy and they come for a shave intending to go back to work, so that is why we wash their heads so that they go back to work looking fresh,” says the hair specialist.

For him, a salon is more than just a place for a haircut or hair treatment. It is a place of offloading stress and gets a refreshed mind. For this reason, he says that head wash and massage are very paramount practices that have an edge over all the other services offered in a salon.

At Essentials, an elegant salon at MTN centre in Nyarutarama, a female employee tells me that women are more capable of administering customer care,

"Women are more capable of doing such work,” She says, "You know the man to man look is not the same as man to woman look. Men can easily feel comfortable to deal with women and the same case happens with the women.” She explains.

At Oasis Salon in Giporoso, Anita Niyigena one of the female workers says that she welcomes customers with a smile, talks to them while washing their heads to ensure that they are comfortable.

Specy Mukanjishi, a lawyer with MRD attorneys says that it is just natural that men will handle ladies in a special way, so for her hair work, she would prefer a man doing the job.

"If I entered a salon and I found a man and a woman working, I would go for the man. I don’t say that women are not good at customer care but naturally, a man will render more care to a woman than a fellow woman. A man gives you what you are looking for but a fellow woman will not be equally concerned.”

The same notion applies to some men too. Emmanuel Nabanganyimana, a resident of Nyarugenge admits that he cannot go a salon if he given a head wash from a fellow man. He says the touch of a woman is different from that of a fellow man.

Whereas this is not the case for Cedric Mugisha, a resident of Nyarutarama who does not care if it is a man or woman doing the work as long as it gets done.

Challenges of the work

Being a type of work that involves being close with the opposite sex, it is bound to be associated with some challenges. People in this kind of work admit that challenges can arise. Stereotypes.

Anita Uwimana (not real names) who works at Essentials said females who wash and massage men after the latter have been shaved are often stereotyped as ladies who ruin families by taking away husbands from their wives. 

She however added that the stereotype was a fallacy that ruins their reputation. In return, it discourages young girls who wish to pursue such a profession.

Clients who want more

One female worker at Essentials (anonymous) says that it happens to her at times that male clients can start to ask for love. They ask for phone numbers with other motives.

"Before he can talk about love, you can read his actions and see it coming. The eyes speak. They portray what he wants to speak in advance.”

Like an experienced worker, she finds ways of getting them off her back without humiliating them.  And one of the ways is mere use of facial expression.

"Sometimes I just communicate with just facial expression to signal to them that they are going off-track. I remind them what they came for,” she says.

 If someone asks for her phone contact, she uses the same technique of reading actions and expressions to know if the man needs the contact without hidden motives.

"If I see from the eyes and talk that he is not seeking something, I consider giving him my number. However, I always think about it carefully so that I won’t regret the decision.”

Cases of refusal to be touched by opposite sex

There are some cases where salons experience such scenarios where certain people refuse to permit an opposite sex to touch them. According to the manager of Essentials salon, though such cases are rare, they surface. For instance with female Muslim clients who can’t allow a man who is not their husband to touch them due to their religious doctrines.

Benefits of the system

Against many odds, the system has yielded dividends to the people in salon business. It has seen salons being flooded by clients.

At some salons, a worker is able to render a number of services. At Essentials, it is surprising that a woman can plait, treat, paint, wash, massage, work at the counter and even shave!

The same applies to Jeophat Ekuzwe, a barber in salon Espoir in Kanombe who has also attained skills in pedicure, manicure and treating women’s hair. This ability to multi task is as a result of the system which has seen even women learn to shave in order to be able to extend services to clients when needed.

Tipping

Many of them say that they receive tips from the people that they worked on. Domangala says it happens often that he is tipped by his clients who are mostly women. Many salon workers accept that they are tipped. The manager of Essentials Salon (anonymous) says it is okay for her workers to receive tips.

Loyalty and relations

At Essentials, my anonymous interviewee said some of her clients have chosen to stick with her.

"When they come, they want me to give them the service other than others. And it is okay with me. It happens that both men and women can stick to you because you have given them good service. They are comfortable with you. Just the as it happens in restaurants or other places, so it does here,” she said.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw