I Cut Men’s Hair Like Eating Favorite Meal–Female Barber

There’s no gainsaying that those days when women are seen as mere housewives are gone. Also gone are the days when women sit back and wait for their husbands for allowances or “pocket money”.

To commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day which has been themed “Choose to Challenge,” THE WHISTLER spoke to a single mother who 11 years ago chose an unconventional career path for women and has been an inspiration to other women that they can also thrive in “a man’s world”.

Charity Clement, an Abuja-based female barber, told our correspondent in a chat that she moved from being discriminated against by male clients to being envied by male colleagues after she carved a niche for herself.

She likened her love for her barbing profession to eating her favorite meal.

The single mother, who is the founder of H-razor cutz, told THE WHISTLER that she is unapologetically in love with her 11-year-old skill as a barber and is not willing to dump it anytime soon.

“I don’t think I am going to throw that skill away, it’s eleven years now already. I will be doing it for twenty years. it’s sounds fun for me I enjoy it. It’s like eating your favourite dish. it’s very interesting when you’re cutting their hair and you get to tell them please can you put your head this way and the most beautiful part is when you give them a good a haircut, they introduce you like ‘this is my barber’. It’s very fun.”

In order not to allow anything come between her and her passion, Charity told our correspondent that she had put up a policy to enable her manage the advances she gets from male clients.

“I have a policy, never date my client because you’re dealing with men and then when you sleep with one, the next one comes and maybe they’re friends and they would be like ‘Mehn that girl is so good, why don’t you just try her’.”

Charity who once worked in the midst of about 19 barbers at Luxor salon and spa , Wuse 2 Abuja said it wasn’t an easy task getting to this present stage of her business.

According to Charity, her male competitors had thought they could intimidate, but when they saw her determination to succeed, they become envious.

“The jealousy was high and it was a problem but trust me every day we move,” she told our correspondent.

Asked her wish on this year’s International Women’s Day, Charity said urged the federal government to do more to support the girl child.

“Young girls should be encouraged, the government should support them. I understand that most girls just want to have it like that. They don’t want to take it one step at a time, but the government should support those that are interested in working.”

On her advice to fellow women who are sacred of unconventional career paths, she said “since I got into this profession, I’ve never been hungry, I’ve never ran out of ideas, I’ve never been stranded never. There’s no place I get to and I won’t get a job, I’ve never really looked for a job. I want to thank God for giving me that idea. I like to work, I like to challenge myself, shoot myself to the limit to see how far I can go and how much endurance I can also put in.”