Kadavu’s only beauty salon
Selau does what she loves best
OPERATING the only hair salon in all of Kadavu has given Kinisimere Selau almost celebrity status. The lady from Nabau Village, Nadroga, has become the most popular lass in the south island ever since she established the beauty parlor in Vunisea seven years ago.
Located at the bottom of the Biyana Bayview Guest House, Ms Selau has her work cut out for her – teasing, cutting and cajoling the locks of the many who walk through her door.
“I started as a hairdresser at ShangriLa’s Fijian Resort in Nadroga from 1988 to 2004 and moved on to the Outrigger Fiji Beach Resort from 2005 to 2009,”she said.
“From there I moved on to Sonaisali Island Resort in Malolo from 2010 to 2011.”
Ms Selau said she resigned from
Sonaisali and moved to Vunisea to look after her four children.
While she was there, she decided to make use of her talent and experience and opened the hair salon for her tauvu (traditional rivals).
Ms Selau said she was able to set up and open the beauty parlour with the help of her in-laws who owned the guest house. “I have been at it since 2014. “Business on the island does not operate as well or run as smoothly like the ones in Suva.
“Sometimes I open the salon only two or three days a week, it all depends on the number of customers I get.
“Sometimes things are up and I open for four days, and when my daughter Bulou Viri Nanovo is around, she helps me in cutting the male customers hair.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms Selau said “business was a bit slack” because of movement restrictions on the island and also because of the curfew.
“But things are slowly picking up again and I hope it will be better in the future.”
Ms Selau said one of the biggest issues was transport and the distance she had to travel sometimes.
“The women from Ono, another island in Kadavu, sometimes call and ask me to go there because it is far from Vunisea.
“So I travel there by boat and cut the ladies hair and they transport me back to Vunisea.”
Ms Selau said rather than keeping things to herself, she liked to share new perming, cutting or coloring skills with her hairdresser friends, especially the ones in the Western Division.
She said having access to the internet allowed her to learn about the different creams or gels and new and innovative ways of cutting hair.
Ms Selau said because of electricity issues at the Vunisea Government Station, there were certain times when the power was on and times when it was off.
“This is why the male customers have to be in the salon when the power is on because they are the ones that need the electric clipper.
“The women can come in at anytime because I don’t use a lot of electric machines when cutting their hair.
Ms Selau said her mobile phone was filled with all types of numbers.
“Some villagers can’t connect to Vodafone and some only to Digicel, so I have to make sure that my phone is on 24/7.”