He quit engineering to be a hairdresser

Simon Mburu quit engineering for hair dressing [PHOTO: JOHN

Nairobi; Kenya: Simon Mburu spent two years at the Kiambu Institute of Science and Technology where he was studying civil engineering before he decided he did not want to become an engine room artificer for the rest of his life.
His parents could not understand why he was unwilling to follow in the footsteps of his siblings who had all studied up to university level.

To convince himself beyond any reasonable doubt that he had made the right decision, Mburu approached a relative who was a senior manager and informed him of the move.
"When he realised that I had an unbridled passion to work in the beauty industry, he told me to move on and enrol for the relevant courses. I needed no further encouragement," Mburu says.
He joined Buruburu Unity College in Nairobi where he studied hair dressing, beauty therapy, cosmetology and salon management for eight months. Mburu had all along dreamed of owning a salon but without capital, he had to seek employment at one of the numerous hair salons in Nairobi.
His luck came while on a tour of Lake Nakuru National Park. He decided to go for a haircut at a salon. After the hair cut, he asked the owner for a job. "He asked me to leave my contacts so that he could get in touch with me if a position fell vacant."
Mburu did not have to wait long before he received a call and was offered a job at a salary of Sh6,500 a month. That was in 2004. When the owner of the business realised the young man was building a healthy client base, both agreed that instead of the monthly salary, Mburu could take 40 per cent for whatever money he made.
When the owner sold the shop, the new boss retained him.
"When my second boss decided to sell the business after a few years, I offered to buy it. I took a loan from Equity Bank, which enabled me to buy the business and new equipment. It cost me about Sh750,000 to start my new business," says Mburu, the owner of Samad Unisex Salon in Nakuru.
Mburu, a father of two, also occasionally marks exams at the National and Industrial Training Authority. He says he was once requested by the Norwegian Refugee Council to help draw up a syllabus on hair dressing.