Ntanga finds his niche in hairdressing

Starting your own business seems to be the key to making ends meet for many in rural areas, and this became apparent to Ntangadzeni “Ntanga” Masutha from the Mapate village, who opened his own hair salon.

For Ntanga, owning and running a salon proved to be an exceptional challenge, since he knew nothing about hairdressing before he started. He had neither planned nor intended to venture into this type of business to begin with. Pure boredom, he tells, is what led him to become a hairdresser.

“I decided to go visit a friend from the same village, who operates a hair salon in Louis Trichardt, just to while time away,” he said. “I observed him and some of his employees as they worked, and it was amazing how they fashioned people’s hair into extraordinary hairdos, like the ones we normally see in glossy magazines.”

His curiosity was tickled, so he bought a small hair chemical kit and rushed home to give his mother a hairdo. “My “teacher” saw the hairdo I did on my mother, corrected me here and there, and that’s how I seriously started providing hairdressing services to people in Louis Trichardt, alongside Nkhiphitheni “Khiphi” Nkhumeleni. He taught me a lot more about the hairdressing business, and I was so grateful for his kindness.”

After some years working with Khiphi, Ntanga wanted to grow as a hairdresser and decided to start his own business, Vhutali Hair Salon. “The business is currently flourishing,” he said. “Every business has its ups and downs, and low and high moments, but I am able to handle it all with ease. With the kind of work I am doing, I am able to support my two wives and four children. If a man can wake up each morning and manage to bring something home, then life gets to be good.”

Vhushaka Mukhari, a client at Vhutali Hair Salon, said she had to travel approximately 60km to get to Elim for Ntanga to do her hair. “If it weren’t for quality, I don’t think I would take the trouble to travel so far,” she said. “But this gentleman really knows his story. His is a good story worth telling.”

News - Date: 14 November 2020

Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

Email: [email protected]