From banker to hair stylist
A Nairobi banker has found a home in the female dominated beauty industry as a hair stylist after an unlikely career-switch gamble paid off.
32-year-old Rex Kimani who ditched his accounting profession after only three months said the bold move has proven to be his tipping point both economically and psychologically.
Kimani who works at Hair Art Salon and Executive Barber, a high-end salon within the CBD, said he earns four times the amount he got as a banker but admitted it hasn’t been all rosy.
“Having been around for a while, I have seen a paradigm shift in the society, at first even my mother was skeptical of my career change thinking I was wasting my potential but now she is my customer whenever she visits the city,” said Kimani.
He drives two vehicles, a two-seater Toyota Curren sport car and a Nissan Bluebird both bought from his earnings as a hair stylist.
Kimani believes his close to a decade experience in the beauty industry has cemented his position among the most sort-after hairstylist in the city and unlike his previous career he is not paranoid of job security.
“With my mastery of this craft, I have been offered of up to Sh 400,000 to switch my operation base and declined. God forbid but if am rendered jobless today believe me by tomorrow I will be working somewhere, tell me who can confidently say that in the current job market?” posed a cocky Kimani.
Kimani noticed his passion for beauty enhancement as he worked as a part-time model to supplement his salary as an accountant at a city bank.
“It was during the before-set grooming that I realized I would constantly notice flaws in the works of the beauticians and felt I could do better, guess that is when the passion really took a life of its own,” remembered Kimani.
“I wake up at five o’clock go to the gym for fitness given that am usually on my feet almost the whole day, then I have breakfast before getting to the office by 7 am to attend to early clients headed to work,” said Kimani who resides in Roysambu, Kasaraniof his daily routine.
He sees an average of five clients per day.