The journey of a passionate hairstylist - Michael Owusu Ansah’s story
Michael Owusu Ansah’s father was a postmaster stationed at Ejisu in the Ashanti Region.
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At the time of the consummation of the matrimony, this Ghana Post staff was over 20 years older than the mother of Michael. As would be natural, even though the traditional marriage tying both couples might have started in heaven, by the time the fifth child was born to Michael’s father, the union had dissolved.
Michael’s mother packed bag and baggage, including all the five children, and relocated to her hometown, Kwahu Tafo. Michael was under the age of six when this rapture tore the family.
Michael received primary and junior high school (JHS) education from the local school ran by the local assembly. Though intelligent, he was never the best student on account of frequent absenteeism. By the time he entered JHS, he had added Tuesdays to the regular weekends.
For the four days he had to attend school, Michael had to spend the entire afternoon procuring palm branches from which he obtained the raw material for weaving baskets and traditional fish traps. On weekends, he wove them and made sure they were ready for the market on Tuesdays, the market day for Kotuso. He traded his wares for fresh fish. He brought these fish home to his mother. She smoked them, and Michael and his sisters sold them to the neighbours.
The braids weaver
Michael’s mother was a vastly talented hair weaver who braided the hair of most of the ladies in Tafo. The vast compound of her family house improvised as a salon. She was also a smart woman who taught her children this trade regardless of the gender of the child.
Whenever her children returned from school to find her skilful fingers in action, they had to immediately change and come over to assist her. Lunch might be ready but she never stopped to serve it. So in order to get this afternoon meal served in time, one had to assist the overburdened woman; and the meal was served as soon as that hair was finished. This way, Michael’s mother passed her trade to her children.
Dropping out of school
After JHS, Michael tried his luck in a local senior high school (SHS) that specialised in technical courses. However, by the second term, the boy had to truncate this education and drop out of school on account of failure to pay for tuition and other expenses.
In search of gold
Michael left for Accra after packing his little wardrobe into a polyethene bag. He was going to the city to try his luck after dropping out of school. With the high expectations he held of the city of Accra, the realities were going to play out so differently that Michael, till this day, dreads the capital of our nation.
The uncle he was hoping to put up with did not disallow him but the latter’s wife did. When the uncle failed to protest, the boy walked back to the bus terminal at Abeka Lapaz. Michael was lucky to meet a classmate in the intense motor traffic of the days before the George Walker Bush’s motorway was constructed. He soon learnt to sell the then household chewing gum PK, handkerchiefs and whenever the weather demanded, cool water.
Training
By 2002, Michael had made enough fortune to be able to put himself through a trade apprenticeship. It was, therefore, not surprising that he chose the family trade. When a year went full circle, the young man returned home for Easter. The Rural Enterprises Programme (REP) officials had come to Kwahu Tafo to assist microentrepreneurs and mentor others with such potentials. Michael jumped into the month-long programme.
Six months after returning to Accra to continue with his apprenticeship, Michael met a fellow trainee who informed him that the REP officers were hunting for him. When he met them, a vocational trades’ competition was only 24 hours away. He partook, won and was among the three national best chosen to represent Ghana in South Africa.
In South Africa, he was going to make his country very proud too. He topped the continent.
A new chapter
The REP hired Michael and opened a state-of-the-art salon for him in Tamale. It was to be the training centre for the northern sector. However two years later, the relationship between Michael and the local Ghanaian officers of REP turned sour and Michael returned to Nkawkaw.
Life once again became unkind to Michael. However after many attempts, the municipality of Nkawkaw was going to get to know him and his handiwork, and in time he opened salons. When he associated with the Ghana Hairdressers’ Association, he founded the youth wing of the league, naming it BABES.
Michael’s business is duly registered as Transformation. That business is actually a school that trains students in beauty and cosmetics selection. Registered with the local Ghana Education Service (GES), Transformation runs courses in beauty therapy, cosmetology, nail therapy, makeup art and physiotherapy. Michael believes that beauty business and cosmetics selection, like pharmacy and its practice, must be reserved to professionals because, as he puts it, cosmetics selection and malpractice can and have actually cost lives. His training institute, he believes, would churn out some of the true professionals who maintain high standards in the country.
