By Taye Obateru, Ejura Adama & Hauwa Bala, Jos
In days of old, the business of making women beautiful was considered an exclusive female preserve in the belief that only a woman knows how best to make another woman look good. Hence, things like fashion designing, hair dressing and making, manicure and pedicure and other related tasks were seen as no-go-areas for males.

In fact, any male found in such businesses was seen as eccentric, gay or an unserious person. But not anymore! Over the years, men have gradually established themselves in the business of making women beautiful and are now the preferred choice of many ladies for their beauty routines.

Be it sewing ladies clothes, styling their hair, tattooing, hair braiding, and many others, men are there in various parts of Nigeria making money from making women beautiful. Many of them are smiling to the banks as their salons have become crowd pullers because of their dexterity in the trade.

They are not just adept at their trade, they have become ingenious by introducing various innovations to the business. Some of them doing business in the Plateau State capital shared their experiences with Saturday Vanguard:

Joey and a female customer and aides

Joey James fondly called Joey by his numerous customers,said it started from a love affair. “It started like a play when I was an undergraduate at the University of Calabar. My girl back then liked fixing nails but found it difficult to use her left hand to place the nails on her right fingers, so most times I helped her.

At a point, I began to derive fun from it and it eventually became a hobby for me. I became interested in getting some sort of formal training in hair making and I moved round town to find where I could be trained. Initially the owner of the salon where I intended to acquire knowledge did not want me around.

He was looking at the fact that I was schooling and did not take me seriously.  He probably suspected that I had a different mission and would always send me away but I persisted and he got tired of sending me away. So I began going there times without number to ensure I learnt something.

Soon, he started enjoyed having me around as I was rendering good services to his clients and overtime, I was introducing my innovations into his business which he liked. However, when I finished my education in Calabar and started working in Lagos, I was still shuttling between work and a salon there.”

The Dairy Science graduate who worked with several organizations including serving as a Plant Manager in one of the Dangote conglomerates had to resign to pursue his passion. But before setting up his salon, he conducted a year-long research in Jos to find out what appeals to people in terms of beauty enhancement.

Joey eventually established a salon known as Joey Galleria in Jos and it is a success story despite challenges. He explains: “There are a lot of challenges in this business especially to attain this level. In fact ,you become a challenge to other people.

At first I started with a small cubicle at Indomie Complex along Tafawa Balewa Street (in Jos) but as time progressed, I came to this present complex at Kashim Ibrahim Road. When I got here ,I thought of diversifying into different sections like tattoo, laboratory analysis of hair which has informed the different hair enhancement therapy done here.

One of the basic challenges I face is betrayal from workers and people around. Notwithstanding, being a dedicated and innovative person I don’t lack ideas because when I see people doing a job that might be wrong, I come up with ideas to perfect the work.

As a matter of fact, I overlook the challenges because the business is profitable and I get a lot of patronage. My clients are mostly ladies because they prefer men making their hair and it is believed that a man knows how a woman should look.

“But with the female stylist, there is feeling of jealousy and inferiority complex which causes a lot of female stylists to offer substandard service. Overtime, I have learnt to give my clients the best despite all the challenges because to me challenge is a process that gives me access to success.

To stay in business, I attend courses in South Africa on hair making, hair therapy, make -up and other related fields of the trade. I also travelled to Dubai to learn tattoo making. However, in wanting to know everything about something and not something about everything, I go extra mile to know everything about the business.”

However, it is not all a pleasant tale as some people especially fellow men see a man in a business considered best suited for women a renegade of sort. “I face a lot of discrimination because some people think that when a man goes into hair making, then he is gay or will eventually become gay as time goes on.

People that say such are jobless critics who are only interested in blackmailing and criticizing you since they don’t possess the skill you have. I have learnt to deal with that though”, he said.

He also recalled unique experiences of being in the business of making women beautiful. According to him, “Of all the experiences I have faced, the  most unique was when a client walked up to me in the market in the midst of people saying ,‘I have stopped coming to your place because I learnt you are gay and you refused to tell me.’

The second was when two of my female clients invited me over to her house for home service. She tried to seduce me at a point and when I was not concurring, she tried to forcefully have sex with me but when a man is under pressure, you don’t have an erection. Somehow I got out of the situation.”

He described the business as profitable and something more young males should consider venturing into especially with the high unemployment rate in the country. “My advice to youths, especially the men folk who possess the hair making skills is to sit down and learn more.

We have a lot of men gallivanting around the country, carrying files from one company to another looking for job when they can easily set up a salon. In fact, most of the people working with me are graduates of various higher institutions who came here to learn hair making and other fields.

I don’t think it should be a woman’s job because as a man if you are not into hair making directly then you are involved indirectly because you pay money for your wives or girlfriends to make their hair”, Joey concluded.

Also literarily in women’s world is another young man who prefers to be simply known as Akan and has carved a niche for himself in fixing nails for his female customers. He told Saturday Vanguard that he was driven into this business because of his passion for the job. So he enrolled as an apprentice in one Mr. Tony’s salon in Calabar.

“I decided to learn from him because I was fascinated with the expertise he exuded in fixing nails.” He went through tutelage and became an expert in his own right following which he moved to Jos. According to Akan, while the business is profitable, like every other trade, it is not without its challenges.

“I face a lot of challenges in carrying out this business, like people calling me gay whereas I have a girlfriend. Another challenge is that some ladies would want to take advantage of you, wanting you to have an affair with them so that you can render them free services. It is just like paying in kind instead of cash.

So one needs to be self disciplined to carry out the job effectively, else you will fail. Even my dad believes I am in a woman’s business. My consolation is that the business is profitable. In a day I make up to ten thousand naira and above if there is patronage.

In terms of discrimination, however, I don’t think I face any because my clients believe that I am a professional at what I do. In fact, if not for the crisis that made some of my clients to leave town, on a normal day I am busy from morning to night to the extent that I don’t have time for food.”

He also has advice for fellow men: “My advice to men that possess one skill or the other in beauty enhancement is that they should not be scared of exploring, as this can go a long way in helping you to discover you talent. Above all, you need self control because some of my friends do ask if don’t get tempted being around women all the time.

Most of all, you need to be patient and courteous to your customers even in the face of provocation else you cannot cope”. He recalled how he was once slapped by a customer who had earlier booked for his service when she came and found him attending to another.

“She slapped me because I was attending to another customer. The bone of contention was that she called me at the early hours of the morning to tell me that she was coming but when she arrived I was attending to some other person. She asked me leave the other girl’s nails and fix hers and when I insisted on finishing the one I had started, she slapped me. So, one needs a lot of patience.”

In the case of Sunday Gyang his own specialty is hair braiding. He is so good that his female customers prefer to come back another day if he is not around or is too busy to attend to them. “Most of my clients will rather not make their hair if I am not around than go elsewhere”, Sunday who works at Lucy’s Perfect Braids along Busa Buji Street in Jos told Saturday Vanguard.

However, he said the business is seasonal as patronage reaches a peak only from August to December. His consolation though is that at the period of patronage the business is profitable because he makes as from ten thousand naira to fifteen thousand naira in a day and he is also into nail fixing. This has enabled him cater for his needs and he is making a living out of the two skills.

“I was motivated to get into this business by watching a very close friend of mine, who was sustaining himself with earnings he makes from hair braiding. So I decided to get into it professionally because at first it was a hobby for me having acquired the skill from my aunt at the age of fifteen.

Sometimes I face discrimination especially when ladies see for the first time. But I am not restricted to braiding hair only; I also fix nails, cut hair and do pedicure. My advice to men with hair making skills is that they should not be scared of displaying it because they will benefit from it”, he said.

Some of the female customers of the men said they prefer them to women beauticians or stylists because they are move committed and careful. “I found that when my male hair dresser fixes my hair, it lasts longer than when my female hair dresser fixes it. My nails are also done better by my male customers than the females. Moreover, you don’t find the pettiness you find with women with men”, a woman, Madam Justina said.

No matter what one feels about the issue, what is evident is that the men who have found themselves in the business of making women beautiful are enjoying what they are doing and are smiling to the banks, notwithstanding some of the challenges they enumerated. To them, it can only get better.