Empowering women one hairstyle a time
Tjil speaks to hairstylist who has ambitions of changing the hair game.
Self-taught hairstylist Anna-Liisa Hamunyela and owner of popular hair brand Hazel Creations, will be having a skills transfer training series. The stylist says she noticed that the industry is saturated with people who are doing the same thing and no one is focusing on skills development or products that can be exported. The free programme is for Namibian women between the ages of 18 to 60 who already have the basic knowledge of braiding, and they must be unemployed.
“I want to train women to do hair properly, including braids and wigs that can be exported at the end of the day. Underprivileged rural woman are the primary target for the project because most of them don't have the opportunity to attend advanced skills hair courses,” she says.
The objective of the project is to provide local women with a means to earn an income and develop their skills and put them in a position to produce and manufacture high-end hair products that meet international standards for export. Hamunyela says she is aware of a lot of women who currently charge as low as N$70 for hairstyles that take a lot of time and they accept the money as they have to make ends meet.
Hamunyela recalls starting to braid hair from a tender age. After failing to get a job after graduating at Unam, she started braiding to make ends meet whilst job hunting. She kept herself updated with the lasted hair treads by watching YouTube videos until her clientele grew. She eventually got a job but she left it to be in the hair business full-time. The passionate stylist decided to grow her brand outside Namibia and made a name for herself in South Africa and parts of Europe. One of her international clients includes personality Khanyi Mbau.
“As a student, I used to go to a place in the informal settlement that doesn't even have a street name because there was a lady that did quality work so well and she charged N$80. I felt guilty for giving her so little but I couldn't do much as I had nothing more to pay her. When my brand and production grew I went back for her, advanced her skills by training her and today she works for me and earns way much more then what she was. I want to do that for so many other women in Namibia,” she said.
Hamunyela will be personally going to all the women in the different towns to teach them. So far; she has received over 100 applications from women all over Namibia and she urges more to apply. The end goal is to create an industry that can compete against goods produced by industry leaders such as China, Africa and the rest of the world.
Interested candidates should email a copy of their ID and contact number to [email protected] or to whatsapp |
+26481 390 3404.
“I want to train women to do hair properly, including braids and wigs that can be exported at the end of the day. Underprivileged rural woman are the primary target for the project because most of them don't have the opportunity to attend advanced skills hair courses,” she says.
The objective of the project is to provide local women with a means to earn an income and develop their skills and put them in a position to produce and manufacture high-end hair products that meet international standards for export. Hamunyela says she is aware of a lot of women who currently charge as low as N$70 for hairstyles that take a lot of time and they accept the money as they have to make ends meet.
Hamunyela recalls starting to braid hair from a tender age. After failing to get a job after graduating at Unam, she started braiding to make ends meet whilst job hunting. She kept herself updated with the lasted hair treads by watching YouTube videos until her clientele grew. She eventually got a job but she left it to be in the hair business full-time. The passionate stylist decided to grow her brand outside Namibia and made a name for herself in South Africa and parts of Europe. One of her international clients includes personality Khanyi Mbau.
“As a student, I used to go to a place in the informal settlement that doesn't even have a street name because there was a lady that did quality work so well and she charged N$80. I felt guilty for giving her so little but I couldn't do much as I had nothing more to pay her. When my brand and production grew I went back for her, advanced her skills by training her and today she works for me and earns way much more then what she was. I want to do that for so many other women in Namibia,” she said.
Hamunyela will be personally going to all the women in the different towns to teach them. So far; she has received over 100 applications from women all over Namibia and she urges more to apply. The end goal is to create an industry that can compete against goods produced by industry leaders such as China, Africa and the rest of the world.
Interested candidates should email a copy of their ID and contact number to [email protected] or to whatsapp |
+26481 390 3404.
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