NAIROBI, KENYA – Four-inch heels click steadily across the floor, supporting swaying hips that are hugged by an impeccable suit. The woman approaching flicks strands of her long mane back into place with her French-manicured nails. The scent of a French designer fragrance leaves a trail of where she has been. The clicks come to an end as she struts into her corner office and sits down in her leather seat behind a mahogany table laden with pictures of loved ones and trays filled with files waiting to be attended to.
The woman, Anne, 40, who declined to give her last name for personal reasons, is the ambassador of a new league of Kenyan women – a rising crop of well-educated and sophisticated corporate leaders here. In addition to reflecting the rise of Kenya’s middle class, they also reflect the country’s booming cosmetic and beauty industries.
Anne is a civil service professional. She has a successful career and a happy home. But she says her self-confidence plummeted after the birth of her third child.
“My belly bulged, and it was hanging,” she says. “I did look bad.”
Her friends and family taunted her about it. She says her mother once told her not to put her big breasts near her baby or the child would suffocate. She says the first thing her friends would tell her when she’d see them would be that she had gained a lot of weight.
She says these comments drove her to the gym, but her impatience and inconsistency when it came to exercising made it difficult for her to lose weight. But then an unusual encounter while shopping for a car in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, led her to a new weight-loss solution.
Anne says she struck up a conversation with a man at the car dealership who recommended aesthetic plastic surgery to her. He said he had undergone several procedures himself.
She says he also told her he could introduce her to someone who could “do her thighs.” Anne says his comment embarrassed her, but she soon found herself knocking on the door of the doctor he recommended, Dr. Stanley Khainga.
Khainga is one of only seven certified plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgeons in Kenya, Anne says. She says she was concerned she had gone berserk to consider surgery to improve her appearance, but Khainga counseled and reassured her.
“He was so kind, a buddy and a friend,” she says. “He put me at ease.”
Anne underwent four aesthetic procedures between 2008 and 2010 – two tummy tucks in her upper and lower abdomen, a face-lift and a breast reduction. The surgeries have totaled more than 1 million shillings, $11,000 USD. She says she is interested in a fifth procedure to get rid of her love handles.
Cosmetic surgeons here say they see hundreds of clients each year, with tummy tucks, breast reductions and lip thinning among the most popular procedures. Surgeons and their clients say professional women are turning to cosmetic surgery more frequently to boost their self-image and stay competitive in the workplace as they age. With more higher education and career opportunities available for Kenyan women, many can now afford to do so. Some say there is also pressure to keep up with Western standards, while others say African women are merely evolving their own look. Weaves are another popular option here. But with poverty levels high, not everyone can participate in the trends.
Beauty industry trends began increasing in popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, says Christine Nguku, a media professional.
“In East Africa, the trend was set by the Ugandan first lady, Janet Museveni,” Nguku says. “She wore nice suits and had cropped natural hair, as opposed to the convention[al] headgear that most first ladies wore at the time. And many ladies begun to see a new sense of style that worked.”
Medical professionals say that official statistics on cosmetic surgery – or plastic or aesthetic surgery, as the surgeons here prefer to use – and other beauty trends in Kenya don’t exist yet.
“The average plastic surgeon will get five requests a week,” says Dr. Audi Tanga, a cosmetic surgeon. “I get about two to three requests for a procedure a week.”
Dr. Loise Kahoro, another cosmetic surgeon, says Kenyan women seek surgery to better their self-esteem and, with better education and jobs than in the past, can now afford to do so.
“Women are educated and have more money – their own money,” Kahoro says. “And those who have conditions that affect them to the point of lowering their self-worth now can rectify their condition and boost their self-worth.”
Sue, who declined to give her last name for personal reasons, is in her 40s and is a mother of one. She says that after years of emotional abuse from her husband, she had a tummy tuck and a breast lift in 2007 to boost her self-esteem. She paid 500,000 shillings, $5,500 USD, for the surgery in Kenya, which was cheaper than it cost in the United Kingdom, where she used to live.
“When I came home, it was cheaper to have it done here,” she says.
Nguku says that most women who take advantage of the beauty industry here are in their mid-30s to early 40s.
“Women at this age tend to be more conscious that they are aging,” Nguku says. “They are extra sensitive on taking care of their skin, hands, nails and legs. They are the bigger spenders.”
Nguku says they can afford it and feel they need it to stay competitive.
“They have their retirement set up,” she says. “They own private business outside of employment. They need that extra look and edge over younger counterparts in business to be taken seriously by their clientele.”
Dr. Pius Mutie, a sociologist, says that the growth in the number of women undergoing aesthetic surgery also has to do with attaining Western standards of beauty. Mutie says it reflects a fusion of both Western and Kenyan standards of beauty, as beauty has been defined in various ways here.
“Western beauty is popularized – tall, lean bodies,” Mutie says. “And there have also been attempts to blend it with what people consider as ‘African beauty’ – nice legs, hips. While face lift surgery may still be uncommon, educated and urbanized Kenyan women have always embraced long hair, skin lighteners, lip stick, dieting to have a lean body.”
Anne says that because many Kenyans associate getting cosmetic surgery with trying to “look Caucasian,” she doesn’t tell anyone she has had surgery. She and Sue both say they tell people they lost weight thanks to diet and exercise.
But Nguku says women aren’t striving to look Caucasian when they engage in the beauty and fashion industries. Nguku says that the African woman’s style has simply evolved into a more sophisticated look, thanks to increased exposure to global fashion through travel, the media and the Internet.
“Women now have more information on how to put on makeup and piece their outfits together,” she says.
But she says that doesn’t mean they are neglecting their culture, but rather are evolving it.
“You’ll see women keeping their hair natural, kinky with a style, a natural afro that is styled,” she says. “The usual African print is not just fabric put together as 20 years ago. Right now there are designs and a lot of accessorizing.”
Nguku says that African women are now even seeing more of themselves in the media and draw inspiration from that, too. She says that most new fashion trends are conceptualized in Africa and exhibited in Europe, creating a perception that it is European when it is actually African.
“There is more appreciation of the African woman’s body,” she says. “A big rounded woman is now accepted in the fashion industry. It is now understood that big and rounded figures aren’t so much about weight in most African women. It is our bone structure.”
Hair is another way that women seek to boost their image in Kenya.
Joyce Owiti, a weavologist, or a hair weave specialist, works at Ashley’s, a popular salon retail chain in Nairobi. She says she earns 40,000 shillings, $440 USD, a month in commission.
“Women value their hair,” she says. “When a woman’s hair is messy, the first thing she would do is get their hair done.”
She says she deals with a wide variety of clients, most who prefer weaving their hair because it is easy to manage. But she says weaves differ in quality.
“The best weaves are pure Brazilian hair weaves,” she says.
She says she must be careful because these weaves, which are from Brazil but are packaged in the United States and the United Kingdom, are not cheap.
“The weave alone costs 45,000 shillings [$500 USD],” she says. “And the clients give you restrictions when making their hair with these weaves because it cost them money. I can be sued if I ruin the weave.”
Owiti says that this kind of weave is common among top media personalities, radio show hosts, TV show hosts and top executives.
She says less expensive weaves that retail for a third of the cost of Brazilian weaves are also available. She says some women even prefer this weave because they say it looks more Caucasian.
“With this more affordable type of weave, those who like to keep it long tend to have Caucasian boyfriends,” she says. “I think they do it to try to stand out.”
But even the cheaper weave is out of the question for the majority of Kenyan women here, as half of the population lives at or below the national poverty line, according to the latest statistics from the World Bank.
Violet Odalo, a mother of three who says she is in her mid-30s, is a domestic worker. She earns about 1,000 shillings, $11 USD, a week, which she says is barely enough to support her children.
“I wish I could afford to make my hair regularly,” she says as she touches her head, which is wrapped in a scarf.
But she says her children are her priority.
“The money I get goes straight to rent and feeding my children,” she says. “I can’t afford to buy clothes and make my hair all the time. It all depends on the money I make.”
