Designer’s mission to raise value of African hair

AN MDANTSANE fashionista is making hairstory!

While R2-million can buy you a house in East London’s most affluent suburb, self-proclaimed fashion “disaster” Vuyo Bene wants you to spend the same amount on a dungaree he has created out of human hair.

The eccentric designer turns heads wherever he goes. His weird hairdos and clothes turn heads. While many admire his creativity others cringe, calling him a devil worshipper.

The 27-year-old dreadlock stylist, who was one of the season 12 Idol SA’s wooden mic contenders, had to take some heat from social media when he took to Facebook on Monday selling his hairy dungaree on the What’s Happening in East London group.

Many slammed him for the price, saying he was desperate for money.

Speaking to the Daily Dispatch, Bene said he bought dreadlocked hair from his clients and other people who sell their hair which he used to make his items.

He said it was not about money, but rather to increase the value of African hair.

“I work around women and I often find that they are stuck to Western culture, especially their weaves. I want them and everyone else to start appreciating and embracing their own hair and seeing what actually can be done with African hair.

“Making the dungaree took me three months. I missed out a lot of money from my hairstyling business because I had to stay away from everyone and everything and be in a quiet setting,” said Bene.

Bene used to watch his grandmother and aunts sewing at their Mdantsane home and when he was in Grade 6, he started making his own clothes, which people would laugh at because they were “abnormal”.

Would you buy underwear made from another person’s hair?

Well, Bene’s hair obsession got him making shoes, headgear with different themes such as Madiba Bridge, Ntloko ka Hintsa and Zuma Must Fall, and even underwear – all these cost nothing less than R20 000.

Bene said he was creating South African history and negativity was not going to get in his way.

“With people saying I am a devil or a devil worshipper, I just tell them that they are lucky to have seen the devil in human form because no one has before,” he said.

Sales have been at zero, but Bene says he will be travelling the world to showcase his work, with confirmed paid-for trips to the Netherlands, Paris and Australia. —