Diogo defies odds to grow her black hair salon

For many black women, a change of hairstyle usually requires booking off an entire day and spending it at the hair salon moving from chair to chair and listening to random conversations while waiting for your turn on the stylist chair.

Calling ahead and booking becomes a futile exercise as you end up waiting for hours for your stylist to finish working on the client ahead of you. In some cases, you also have to wait while they go on a quick lunch break or risk having pieces of food dropped on your head while they try to multitask.

It was years of having to endure such experiences that led to the birth of Hyde Park-based Nubian Crown Hair Studio by owner Tshireletso Yvonne Diogo. It was established in 2018 with the aim of offering a true appointment based salon with great service.

“We pride ourselves in being a true appointment based salon, when you come in at 2pm, we make sure that you are seated and we start at that time.”

“We honour appointments, not only will a client know upfront what time we will start but they’ll know exactly how long it’s going to be. So if we say 4 hours for box braids, we honour that,” she said.

Diogo is co-founder & MD of Nubian Crown Hair Studio and founder of Microlocs South Africa. Born in Naledi, Soweto, she holds a BCom in marketing management from Unisa, and a graduate of the Gordon Institute of Business Science' Programme for management development.

“Through a strategic partnership with L'Oreal South Africa and Design Essentials South Africa, I was supported as a small business owner with salon management training, science of hair, healthy hair care and styling programmes for myself as a salon owner and team of stylists.”

The 42-year-old businesswoman and mother of two is serious about offering a great service and customer satisfaction.

“It frequented a couple of hair salons in Joburg and what I found was they were two extremes. The was one based in town, the pricing was fantastic, the quality was fantastic but there was the issue of safety; and then there was another one in Randburg, very good but I remember paying R1,500 for a treatment for three people. I was like no, this can’t be it.

So that’s actually what inspired Nubia, I was looking for value for money, safe location and a decent price point; something that wouldn’t necessarily break the bank but at the same time deliver quality.”

Like most businesses, Nubia went through a rough patch during the 2020 national lockdown due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

“Lockdown was very scary for us because we were two years in. Year one, we did not break-even at all, so I was using my personal funds to settle the monthly expenses. I didn’t have permanent staff; I used freelancers and literally had one stylist. In 2019, the volume of clients started picking up then 2020 happened and it was really scary because landlords still wanted their rent,” she said.

“That was one of the toughest moments in the four and a half years that we’ve been running.”

Luckily for Diogo, the downward spiral came to a halt when lockdown ended and customers returned.

“What we saw post covid when salons were opened; I was surprised because the ground work we did in those first two years where we were not profitable had yielded results, we were actually building a reputation.”

“Everybody came back, our clients came back and we were getting new clients through referrals. And we’ve been taking off since then. At the moment we have a team of 12 permanent staff.”

Although she would like to open more branches, Diogo finding the right location and the right price remains a hurdle. Landlords doubt the profitability and longevity of ethnic salons.

“We’d love to expand but it’s not easy for an ethnic salon to be in the prime places. The landlords are unfriendly. I actually had such a terrible experience with one of the centres; I was told that because I’m running an ethnic salon my deposit would have to be R120,000 with a lock-in of five years,” she said.

However she does not let such stumbling blocks get in her way. The salon owner is determined to make a memorable footprint in the industry and is willing to go where others fear to tread in the ethnic hair market.

Nubian Crown Hair Studio, in partnership with L'Oréal Professionals recently launched ammonia-free DIA Light and DIA Richesse safe colour which is suitable for afros and dreadlocks.

“We are not scared to try out new things for as long as they are not going to compromise the structure of our hair. Whether you want to cover grey hair or do an ombre, we can actually do that on afro hair.”

“As a client you don’t have to such stick to cornrows, we’ve got a variety of hairstyles. We import our fibre. We also style and condition wigs, that’s about 5% of our business.”

Diogo believes that the secret to success for entrepreneurs is to build a strong team.

“It’s important to build a strong team. So that you can break away, include family time in your schedule. It has to be a conscious effort.”

She also believes in wearing multiple hats and getting involved in all aspects of the business.