Men warming up to beauty treatment

Robin Muchetu, Senior Leisure Reporter
ISSUES to do with beauty have traditionally been a preserve for women but a new rising trend has seen many men being conscious of how they look to the extent of getting manicures, pedicures and facials in a bid to look good.

Despite the new trend that is likely going to give more business to salons, there have been calls for the beauty parlours and salons to form an association that will be responsible for regulating prices and taking challenges to the right offices for possible redress.

Beauty parlours have also started catering for their male clientele to suite their varying needs and competition is stiff as they say! Waves and Ripples beauty salon that opened its doors to the public in February this year has men in mind too. The manageress and co-owner of the salon, Raviro Sibanda, said there was an overwhelming response from the males in the city.

“We are impressed by the men who walk in requesting that they need facials to be done. Some have come in for manicures and pedicures and it is quite overwhelming considering that women are the ones who have been more interested in their looks than men,” she said.

Sibanda said more men were now interested in how they look in the ever changing world of fashion and beauty and a home “do” with a nail cutter and a file was no longer enough leading to the men flocking to beauty palours for a proper manicure and pedicure.

A professional beauty therapist at Waves and Ripples Chido Marange said she has a tough time encouraging some men to take up their personal appearance just like what women do. Children on the other hand are also catered for at Waves and Ripples with the manageress saying they need their own services different from adults.

“Children are also part of our clientele, we have special chairs suitable for them when they are washing their hair or getting it plaited, the conventional chairs are not comfortable for them so we designed what is good for them,” she said.

The cozy and colourful environment of the palour also makes it very relaxing for children who are usually very jumpy and problematic when their hair is being handled. The owner of the salon, Godsave Sibanda said one of the major challenges was that they had not come across an association for hair salons so far.

“We do not belong to any association, we would like to belong to one so that we have a platform to discuss issues affecting us and put them through to the right people. This is only possible when we have an association,” said Mr Sibanda.

He said having an association would regulate prices of services too as some salons charge an arm and a leg for services that can easily go for much less. A barber at the palour said road side salons were killing their business as they were mushrooming throughout the city. He further said using a reputable salon was better as one is ensured of getting top notch services in a healthy and legal set up.

Asked on how workers at the beauty palour handle the negative perceptions society has about hair dressers, Sinqobile Nkomo said people would always judge but they have managed to soldier on.

“People have a tendency to bad mouth hair dressers but we do not let such things pull us down, we have a passion for our job and we know we are not what people say we are so we just press forward,” she said.

The manageress said her employees dedicate time in the morning to share the Word of God and also deal with personal problems as a team and that has kept them going.