THEY charge between $20 and $30 dollars for a haircut.
If you need to trim your beards, pay extra. And during busy days, especially on weekends, they get close to 20 clients. This means they make $400. With dollars at times exchanging for N700, it means these guys rake in N280,000 in a day.
If they were still back in Nigeria where they started their career, these Nigerian barbers in Houston, Texas cannot charge more than N2000 for a haircut.
Well, before you term them rich, the bills they pay in Houston is also huge. A single-room apartment in Southwest Houston or the Bissonnet area is not less than $500 in a month. They also get to pay huge sums for gas, electricity, insurance and so on.
One of these barbers, who started his trade in Surulere, Lagos, told Naija Times that he never planned to be a barber in America.
“I was doing other things when I came here but when COVID-19 came and everywhere was locked up, I had to start barbing to survive and it has been helpful. I hope to get a barber who will run the shop for me while I do some other business,” he said.
What these guys charge is not the most expensive as there are shops where up to $50 is paid for a haircut.
Interestingly, there is a barbing training school in Houston where as little as $7 is charged for a haircut. But it is so far from many in the Houston Nigerian community that they will rather not burn their gas going there.
Unlike in Nigeria, most barber shops in Houston are by appointment. Some allow walk-in customers but the priority are given to those on appointments. The Nigerian barbers are booked ahead on phone. Of course, they don’t turn back walk-in customers.
Naija Times
