Saima Ndengu is putting the shine back into the black hair market.
Beauty incumbents are leaning into the opportunity, expanding offerings of haircare products targeting customers with natural hair.
Desiree Gases
Local Profile
NNs Hair Collection is the brainchild of two friends who aspired to make a change in the hair industry after realising there was a gap in the hair market in Namibia. NN’s Hair Collection was started on 23 January 2019. A few months into the business, one of the partners could not continue anymore. As a result, NNs Hair Collection is now 100% owned by 23-year-old Saima Ndengu.
Hair has been a true marker of resilience and pride in the Black community and women like Ndengu have taken it into their own hands by creating products and centred around Black / natural hair. At NN’s they offer various products as well as services like Posa hair products made with natural ingredients (shampoo, conditioner, leave in conditioner, hair and scalp oil), virgin Brazilian hair, a variety of locks and braids, they do wig making, wig washing, blowing, treatment and colouring.
Asked what had inspired her to start this business, Ndengu said: “I have always wanted to be my own boss and NN’S Collection was going to allow me to be the boss of me for life as well as my business. I was inspired by the need to fill the gap in the market but at the same time providing affordable yet quality hair products.
“Business is going much better than expected. We are doing quite well with managing suppliers and meeting customer demands, additionally we have introduced new natural hair products (Posa hair products) which were not part of our initial plan but it was a natural diversification that we ventured into.”
Some of the challenges Ndengu faced with owning her own business were product delivery being delayed due a shortage of transportation, and fluctuations of shipping fees. Despite all the challenges, NN’s Collection also had some big achievements like the introduction of their natural hair product line, managing to register NN’s collection as a business with the help of Lunar Consultant and having the honour to give a young talented influencer to showcase their products.
Over time NN’s Collection aims to have branches all over the country, to be the greatest wholesale distributor and to give back to society.
Careers asked Ndengu what advice she would give to young people who aspire to open a business one day. “Never believe that the market is saturated, what is yours is yours. And if you think of something (business idea), don’t be afraid to try and always do a market analysis before just starting up a business.”
Local Profile
NNs Hair Collection is the brainchild of two friends who aspired to make a change in the hair industry after realising there was a gap in the hair market in Namibia. NN’s Hair Collection was started on 23 January 2019. A few months into the business, one of the partners could not continue anymore. As a result, NNs Hair Collection is now 100% owned by 23-year-old Saima Ndengu.
Hair has been a true marker of resilience and pride in the Black community and women like Ndengu have taken it into their own hands by creating products and centred around Black / natural hair. At NN’s they offer various products as well as services like Posa hair products made with natural ingredients (shampoo, conditioner, leave in conditioner, hair and scalp oil), virgin Brazilian hair, a variety of locks and braids, they do wig making, wig washing, blowing, treatment and colouring.
Asked what had inspired her to start this business, Ndengu said: “I have always wanted to be my own boss and NN’S Collection was going to allow me to be the boss of me for life as well as my business. I was inspired by the need to fill the gap in the market but at the same time providing affordable yet quality hair products.
“Business is going much better than expected. We are doing quite well with managing suppliers and meeting customer demands, additionally we have introduced new natural hair products (Posa hair products) which were not part of our initial plan but it was a natural diversification that we ventured into.”
Some of the challenges Ndengu faced with owning her own business were product delivery being delayed due a shortage of transportation, and fluctuations of shipping fees. Despite all the challenges, NN’s Collection also had some big achievements like the introduction of their natural hair product line, managing to register NN’s collection as a business with the help of Lunar Consultant and having the honour to give a young talented influencer to showcase their products.
Over time NN’s Collection aims to have branches all over the country, to be the greatest wholesale distributor and to give back to society.
Careers asked Ndengu what advice she would give to young people who aspire to open a business one day. “Never believe that the market is saturated, what is yours is yours. And if you think of something (business idea), don’t be afraid to try and always do a market analysis before just starting up a business.”
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