A female barber, Lydia Williams, has explained why she opted to barb with knife instead of clippers.
In an interview with The PUNCH, the 27-year-old female barber, stated that she was motivated to go into the profession after she prayed about it.
“My mother called me and my sister one day and said since we were done with secondary school, she would like us to learn handiwork. So, I decided to pray about it for some days. On one of those days I went to have a haircut and it struck me that female barbers are rare. Then the Holy Spirit told me to be a female barber,” she said.
She explained that working in a male dominated environment, she has to be 10 times good as her male counterparts.
According to her, that is the only way to clear the doubts of her clients.
“All glory to God, it’s getting better than when I started. It hasn’t been easy. It takes more work, and more time for a woman. If male barbers are sometimes doubted by clients, you can then imagine what the situation is for a female barber. As a female barber one has to be very skillful and be 10 times better than the male counterparts to be able to convince customers; and being skillful comes through practice and research. This is the only way to clear the clients’ doubt”.
Also while addressing the question on why she opted to using a knife instead of clipper she said, she uses knife because she wanted to stand out among her counterparts.
“Yes, it was for real. I wanted to do something that would make me different or stand out, so I prayed and started my research, and a thought came to me that since we use clippers and blade, then a knife should be able to cut hair as well. So, I tried using a knife and it came out nice, to the glory of God.
“At first, it was something I decided to do on my own, but lately, I have been getting requests from clients who want to experience how it feels to have a haircut with a knife. Maybe it will become one of the wonders of the world or an experiences that foreign tourists to Nigeria can look forward to.”
