From office to the salon, meet the hair genius
By: Judith Mutua
Posted on Tuesday, June 9, 2020
For the past five years, Jayne Awino Okoth has been doing what she has a passion for that is running her own hair saloon business. What started as a childhood game, plaiting her friends’ hair, has turned out to be big business for her as she travels far and wide.
Speaking at Switch TV’s ‘Icons’ hosted by Mary Mwikali, Jayne said that successful businesses thrive because of great ideas combined with someone who is brave enough to try.
Married with three kids, Jayne has been in the beauty industry for close to two decades, nurturing and perfecting her talent in the most prestigious salons in Kenya.
So far, her business has been good and she is always training her staff to match her expertise and retain her customers. “I am happy that I stuck to my passion and it is now paying off. I have also created employment for more people.” Okoth said.
An expert at a tender age
Okoth’s passion grew stronger and stronger as days and years went by, and with practice and interest she became an expert at a tender age. After completing high school, her parents would not hear anything to do with her interests in enrolling at a beauty college. They wanted her to go for “a serious profession like accounting.”
And in respect and for peace to prevail, she trained as an accountant and was later employed. But her heart was however not at peace and decided to persevere for some time to make money to support her young family.
She still made her friends’ hair during the weekends and whenever she had time. Her friends would then refer her to their other friends.
“That is when I decided to quit my accounting job and concentrate on hair dressing. It was very hard at the beginning because I was not making enough money,” said Okoth.
Lady luck struck when one of her friends introduced her to the owner of Farouk’s Salon, one of the biggest salons in Nairobi.
“This was a very big step in my career, I was excited about it but also nervous because I did not have any professional training,” says Okoth.
She was only familiar with an African kinky hair but now she had to work on Asian hair and Caucasians as well. She took the challenge positively and she learnt everything she could in the profession and applied it whenever she had a client. With time she acquired a number of clients.
Still, Okoth wanted more; she dreamed of her own business premises where she would be her own boss and run the business to the best of her abilities. After 12 years of faithful and sincere dedication at Farouk’s, Awino finally called it a day and said goodbye.
Okoth took a step of faith by starting Rapunzel Hair Affair Salon in Westlands, Nairobi. Thanks to the knowledge she had gathered and the Indian friends she had made, she could get hair from them and use it for micro-weaving her other clients.
After much thoughts, research and consultations she realized that all the human hair worn by women in Kenya is imported. She therefore decided to import the hair but manufacture it in the country.
She was able to polish her weaving skills by signing up for advance weaving technique courses with leading trainers in the United States, United Arab Emirates, Germany, Ghana and Zanzibar.
These skills have helped her to acquire big clients, some of who were her previous clients from Farouk’s. She was able to travel to the US and later work with the American singer Beyoncé’s hair and her make-up team which further expanded her network and expertise.
She also uses some of the human hair to make wigs, which she gives for free to cancer survivors and patients to restore their dignity after losing their hair during chemotherapy sessions.
