Nairobi News

For years now, John Mungai- widely renowned on social media as Jony Hairdesigner, 23, has been making waves as a celebrity and commercial makeup artist and hair designer.

One of his recent most famous works was the iconic hairstyle he designed for Kenyan actress Catherine Kamau, alias Kate Actress, when she attended the East African movie premier of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever 2 held in Kenya.

A former makeup and hairstylist on K24, Kameme TV, and Maisha Magic East’s Selina cast, Jony has been racking up celebrity clients by the pack and has been loving the response and praise his work has been getting.

Among his other renowned clients include Size 8- before the recent infamous incident in which she and gospel singers Betty Bayo and Lady Bee among others in the gospel fraternity booked his services and then shunned him for allegedly being gay for dressing up as a female while creating social media content-, actress Jacky Vike popularly known as Awinja Nyamwalo, Ugandan socialite Zari Hassan and comedian Mammito.

Speaking to Nairobi News in an exclusive interview, Jony opened up on who he is outside social media and why he enjoys dressing up as female when creating content.

“It was nice working with Kate. She’s so nice, so welcoming and she’s so supportive. Working with her was such an amazing experience. None of the ladies I mentioned before have ever had any problem with me dressing up as a female. On my normal days, I don’t dress up, I’m just a casual person. When I dress up, it’s just for the videos, when I go to events or go somewhere that I would prefer to dress up. When I go to style them, I’m just so basic, and even if I go dressed up and made up, that’s none of their business because I have shown up, I’ve delivered on my job, I got there in good time so for them to like say something about it, I don’t think it should be their place to do that,” explained Jony.

On a normal day when he is not styling or making social media content, Jony is a lecturer at a college located in Nairobi’s Central Business District where he teaches hair design and makeup. He lectures for two hours a day in the mornings and then proceeds to either meet with his clients or head to his studio.

“It’s been two years since I started dressing up as a female. I like- or prefer- dressing up and making content dressed like that because that is where the money is in the stylist, content creator, and influencer world. There are brands which opted to work with me, especially for dressing up as female. I do have brands that are working with me. I’ve worked with Mac Cosmetics, Maybelline and they all love the personality and the character that I created when I dress up as a female.”

“In dressing up, I think I especially love the recognition and the appreciation that I get from it, people knowing that I can be another person and that I can have another personality and also entertaining them because that is what they are looking for. Someone to entertain them and make them feel happy, to influence them that they can be beautiful in their own bodies, you know,” added Jony.

He further revealed his family was okay with his female alter ego because he is making good money with that personality and they benefitted from that money in one way or another. Jony intimated that they were also okay with his female personality also as long as he did not rub it in people’s face about his dressing up and what he liked doing about it.

When asked earlier if he identified as a member of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual , Transgender, Queer plus (LGBTQ+) community, he said he was currently not in the head space to talk about it. This came after he went on social media to wonder why some people (read Size 8) thought he was gay as he narrated their infamous incident.

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