Pursuing the job of braiding hair in traditional African styles, Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Ha (nickname Ha Nguyen, living in Ho Chi Minh City) said she has earned an income of about 30-35 million VND/month. At its peak, her income can reach nearly 70 million VND.
Hair braiding is both a passion and an income-generating job for Ms. Ha (Photo: Binh Minh).
It is known that the price for each braided hairstyle ranges from 500,000 VND to 4 million VND, depending on the difficulty of the hairstyle and the customer’s requirements.
To make a complete cornrow hairstyle (traditional African hair braiding style), Ms. Ha must first check the quality of the customer’s hair, including the thickness, thinness, length, and shortness of the hair. From there, she will advise on hairstyles that suit the customer’s hair nature and intended use.
“There are many hairstyles that are only suitable for taking photos and cannot participate in vigorous activities, so before making a hair appointment, I always learn about the customer’s needs to have reasonable suggestions,” Ms. Ha share.
Ms. Ha jokingly said that this is a profession for people “suffering from OCD” (perfect obsessive-compulsive). Because besides having skillful hands, a hair braider must be meticulous and focus on every detail.
Ms. Ha uses a specialized gel to apply to the hair strands, helping them stick and not fray during the process. In addition, clips, combs, hair ties… are indispensable items (Photo: Binh Minh)
“The most difficult and most important part is the parting process. For a beautiful cornrow, the lines must be very straight. If even one strand is misaligned, I will have to start over from the beginning,” said Ms. Ha.
Because of this meticulousness, Ms. Ha usually takes at least 2 hours to complete a set of cornrows. There are even more difficult hairstyles that take Ms. Ha more than ten hours.
In 2016, Ms. Ha worked as a brocade business trader at fairs. On one occasion, she sat down to weave wool bracelets and suddenly thought of a way to attach the wool strands to her hair as a highlight.
After a while, as social networks gradually developed, Ms. Ha learned about the cornrow hairstyle. At that time, this hairstyle was still unfamiliar in Vietnam, so she learned more from clips on the Internet, then practiced on her friends’ hair.
Customers are delighted when their hairstyle is completed (Photo: Binh Minh)
“In the early days of my career, I often braided hair for free for friends or those who bought my brocade products. Friends in Ho Chi Minh City are people who like to try new things, so when they see strange hairstyles, they also ask each other. then came to me. From then on, I started to have more customers and completely switched to this profession,” Ms. Ha recalled.
According to Ms. Ha, this hairstyle is not only suitable for artists and people working in performing arts, but is also popular with young people with strong personalities who want to have an impressive appearance.
For her, customer satisfaction after having their hair done is what makes her happiest and is the motivation for her to try to improve her skills every day.
As a long-time regular customer of Ms. Ha’s hair salon, Mr. Nguyen Minh Thien (33 years old, choreographer) does not remember when he started coming here. Every time he needs to perform or take photos, he visits Ms. Ha’s shop to get different hairstyles.
“The hairstyles that Ms. Ha made for me helped me feel cooler, more handsome and more confident when performing on stage,” Mr. Thien said.
Cornrow is a traditional African braided hairstyle, considered a symbol of pride for the people here. The characteristic of this hairstyle is that each strand of hair is braided evenly on both sides, close to the scalp and forming a straight, curved or spiral parting.