The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
AFTER spending 35 years working as a hairdresser and having seen his livelihood rotating around the business, Mr Martin Changana (52), has started counting losses after a huge drop in clients in the past two weeks.
The threat of the coronavirus (Covid-19) has already taken a toll on his job as he now spends days without attending to any client, something that was never the case before the outbreak of the disease. Mr Changana, a qualified hairdresser who graduated from Bulawayo Polytechnic said he has invested a lot in his job that has been providing a steady revenue to meet his family needs. He managed to take all his children to school from the money he got from the business.
“If you look around the salon you can see that there are empty chairs, there are no clients that have come as of today. We have been coming here to sit and watch these empty chairs for the past two weeks and it’s getting worse by the day as more and more people are staying away from crowded places. They are scared,” he said.
Mr Changana said low business has weighed down on many of his colleagues’ way of living. He said what was complicating matters was that most of them operate on rent-a-chair basis where they pay rentals each month to the owner of the salon and with the gradual decline of business, many could fail to pay.
“Already I was owing a little from the previous month and now I must ensure that I pay my rentals and where will this money come from as there are no clients. It’s a disaster for us in this industry. Again, I cannot continue paying rent to a business that is not giving me any returns,” he said.
Mr Changana said proceeds from hairdressing have enabled him over the years to acquire two houses and a residential stand.
He said many shun the profession saying it does not pay but he has proved his critics wrong by acquiring the properties.
“I will not change this profession until death. I was one of the first people in the city to buy a vehicle from Japan when the cars started to be popular with the proceeds from hairdressing. Most people in the city know me via this business,” he said.
Mr Changana said there were serious risks associated with the job as it is impossible to maintain the recommended social distancing by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
“We work with hair so obviously we work while we are standing close to the client and we cannot be totally far from the client. We also do not have any protective clothing that we are supplied with. We have had to source our own in the past few days.
We breathe the same air with the client as we provide individual service to a client and we have no clue if the client has a history of having travelled to countries that have recorded high numbers,” he said.
Mr Changana said before the outbreak of coronavirus, he was seeing an average of 10 clients a day and pocketing an average of $400 each day.
“Today I came in at 12pm just to see if I can get a few clients and earn a few dollars, I can no longer come as early as I used to. It is useless now. We spend the day chatting with colleagues now because there is nothing to do really,” he lamented.
The seasoned hairdresser said he was also sympathising with the owner of the building who relies on them to pay utility bills.
“It affects everyone,” he said.
He is not alone in this predicament.
Other hairdressers concurred that business has drastically gone down due to fears of coronavirus.
“Business is very low because people fear this virus, now we can go home without getting a single client coming in to get beauty treatment and we go home empty handed,” said Ms Vimbai Musarurwa who works at a city salon.
She said the decline in numbers was a threat to the industry.
A nail technician in Bulawayo said she has resorted to work only after prior arrangement and bookings.
“People are scared, they are not willing to risk infection by coming to get a manicure. The hustle to ensure that you are sanitising everything from chairs, tables, nail polishes is just too much. The fear also is ensuring a safe distance between the client and you so it is an uphill task to be honest yet we need the money too,” said Ms Ntokozo Mlambo.
