From Ghana To Japan || African Hair Stylist Shares Her Story || 11 Years In Japan

And one thing that um hits me so hard was that one day i was on the road with the water, a pound of water, on my head in my uniform and those men that i supplied them with the clothes they are in a big office. They are managers, some of them see me in their car and they are like hetero. Why did you allow your mom to waste all this money to go to college and then you come and do this you know? Sometimes you have to hide, but then i i said to myself: this is who i want to be yeah. Why would i want to hide my face for my dreams? Um, my name is ethel. I come from ghana in west africa. I came to japan 11 years ago, 2010 uh. I went to college, i did fashion in college and after college you have to save the government for one year. This is compulsory yeah, so everyone in ghana, once you go to college, you have to work with the government for everybody wow for one year. It'S like um. I don't know how to say it, but you work so that when you want a job you go, they know that you have a working experience. So it's part of your working experience. Okay, so you went to college in ghana and you studied fashion yeah. Why fashion? Oh, i studied fashion because you know when you are in school as a young teen and you have a fashion everybody's, like fashion fashion fashion fashion, was all over, so i decided to learn fashion in school. Okay, so is it that you wanted to be a fashion designer? Yes, yes, that was my dream. Okay, that was, i would say that was my dream, because now my dream of change. Yes, thank you all right, so you went and you studied fashion. You wanted to be a fashion designer, but then you said you moved on to being a teacher. How did that come about? Okay, because i did fashion in the when you are trying to do your national service. You don't choose what you want to do. The national service posts you to whatever that you want to go, they want to like they they would be like. Oh you sandy, you have to go here, you stand, you have to be this dude, so sometimes people become engineering, they end up going to another field. So they don't even look at what you did they just post you anyhow, that's how it is okay, so you got posted as a teacher yeah, i i was posted to a village from 10 hours, jenny from where i reside in ghana, 10 hours to the place As a teacher okay, what subject did you did you teach? I was teaching fashion? Oh, you were teaching fashion yeah. What i mean both the links it connected right. I was teaching fashion okay. So what from there? How did the braiding get started? Okay, thank you for this question. The burden uh, it all started one day there was this particular lady that has a shop beside the school. So any time that i close, i close from school. I walk through the road and i see her and she was a very, very, very good. Breeder, like a work, was on point neat, so i always stay there and look at her and look at the people that she works with, and i admire a strength, a courage doing that and i said no because i studied fashion. I want to learn how to grade as a stylist and add it to the fashion, because you know fashion comprises of the hair. The body fashion is all about part of the body, the things that goes around the world. Everything is fashion. So i wanted to learn how to grade to to be part of my what i've learned already and that's how i ended up becoming a breeder okay. So you would just pass the shop and check it out and a lot of persons said that when an african does your hair raise your hair? That'S when it's neat, so you were getting the good, real, authentic thing in ghana. That'S what you were seeing yeah and what happened from that. So what happened is that i just went to this lady. I said mom, i admire you from afar. I want to be like you i'll, probably be better than you. So i want you to teach me how to pray and she's like it's, not a problem. I can do that, but you have to pay me a lot because it's kind of like a negotiation. You know me trying to be better, so she wants to take a lot of money, but i didn't look at the money that she wanted to take. All that i needed was the knowledge and the skills, so i gave it the money that she requested and she asked me to come the next day. I came, she wasn't there. I came the following day. She wasn't there, but i met the apprentice. The people that worked for her - and so i asked where the woman is, they said. Oh, she is sick, she's not coming nowadays. I said no, i don't want my money to go in vain and i don't want my passion to go in vain. So what i did was that i took all the apprentice in the shop and i asked them to teach me how to pray, and so they asked me for a mannequin. I said i have it already. I was prepared, so i brought it and they started teaching me how to break and that's how it started wow, and what i admire about that ethel is that you saw something that you wanted and you went after it. You actually went into the salon and requested that they teach you how to do it. Yes, so wow, that's that's so nice yeah. So what what so? What happened is that they started teaching me and i went there for just a week and i started doing it on my own on my mannequin. So after teaching i'll go home, take my food, i wouldn't sleep and i'll start learning. There was nothing like youtube. We didn't have access to the internet yeah. There was nothing the smartphone it wasn't like. Now that we have the iphones. There was nothing like iphone yeah. So in my mind, i picture everything in my mind and what they've taught me and that's how i implement on the mannequin okay, and how long did it take? Would you say to get better? Oh, i would say when i was determined to do it, no matter what i was determined so within a week. I knew how to do the berries, but i didn't know how to braid tight from the root. Yes, so, a month later, after the national service, i was done a month later a year, so i met them a month for me to leave the national service. So i went back to tema where i came from and then i started showing people uh men's clothes and started selling. He went back to fashion, i wasn't selling in a shop. Let me tell you one thing i was selling on my head. I put the clothes on my head in my hand in a plastic bag going to companies and showing my work pieces for them to buy yes, so i was doing all that then i was looking for a job. There is no job because in ghana you have to know not in gun africa. You have to know somebody so for you to be introduced to a job yeah, because there are thousands of people graduates looking for a job so who is going to hire you? Those managers have their siblings, have their friends. Friends, daughters have people that they are waiting on a waiting list. So i this that's, how i decided to sew and move to companies to sell my artwork yeah. That'S like in jamaica. We say you have to have links. Yes, connections. Yeah. You have to have some sort of connection yeah, so you were walking around with everything that you had. So what are some of the things that you sowed? I i saw men's clothes a lot, and so with the woman you know you can't sew a woman's clothes and go out and sell it has to be loose. So what i did was that when i go to the men, the women that i meet there, i take measurement of them. Those who want me to make the rest for them. I take measurements, then i go home, do it then i bring it to them. Okay, i see that's what i did so when um, when i was looking for the job, i couldn't find a job, and i was doing that. I decided that i don't want to waste my dreams of becoming a hair stylist. So then i went to the shop on the roadside. It was a marketplace. Big show a big market. There are so many shops. Then this particular shop captured my heart. I went there, i told them. I want to learn how to breathe. I want to be a profession, i want to get a certificate. I want to do this and they said. Okay, we can help you, but then you become the last apprentice. Yes and the last apprentice. Your job is to wash clean is to fetch water and we will send you everything that we want to do you go out and do it. You run errands for us and i'm like okay, i can do that and they said you have to wear a uniform and then when they mention the uniform i was like hey. I have been to college and this is a marketplace. People know me, you understand. So me being in a uniform people, wouldn't understand, but then the owner of the shop was like without uniform, i'm not going to let you come to the show, but because i wanted something i want to achieve a better dream. I i went for it. I said i'll do it, so they asked me to the money, the everything there are, some things that they would need from you like you going to school. You know pay for fees and everything that's what they did. I paid for everything, and i started in my uniform and one thing that um hits me so hard was that one day i was on the road with the water, a pound of water, on my head in my uniform and those men that i supply them with The clothes they are in a big office, they are managers, some of them see me in their car and they are like hetero. Why did you allow your mom to waste all this money to go to college, and then you come and do this? You know? Sometimes you have to hide, but then i i said to myself: this is who i want to be yeah. Why would i want to hide my face for my dreams? It wouldn't work like that. I have to do it and i remember this particular guy. Who knows me, she also, she was also in a salon, a different song beside opposite and she was telling the other people that this girl has gone to college she's, a graduate look at hey and people started. Looking at me, you know you being fresh. You'Ve been a newcomer in the shop and people that know you trying to tell other people about you where you've been and what you are doing here that it never discouraged me. Never, it is a marketplace you, you know, jamaica, yeah, you go to the market. There are so many sure cars are going people that know you sees you and they are like what is she doing there? Because the mindset of people is that, when those what how they say, illiterate people that are less privileged are the people that go to the shop to learn how to pray, because they don't have the money to go to school right. So they ended up being in the shop as sewing or being a shop as a reader, and so people looking at me like you've, been in college. What are you doing here, but girl i never gave up? I was doing it because i knew what i wanted to achieve right, and so you never gave up and from that you transitioned from ghana and learning how to breed in ghana to now being one of the top stylists in in tokyo, japan. So how did that? Transition take place. Okay. What happened is that i never dreamt of coming to japan. Somebody would say: oh, she was she wanted to learn how to play, because she wanted to travel that wasn't in my mind, but um god opened doors and i traveled i moved to japan and even when i moved to japan, i'm telling you the truth, because i Was in the shop for just a month, so imagine some people go to school for three years, yeah to learn and still it's difficult. You can't even learn what you want when they're for so being just one month in a shop you travel to japan. It wasn't easy, but i remember when i came to japan 2010 my mother went to work, i'm left in the house alone and one day i just wake up from my bed. My mother said you have to go to japanese school to learn how to speak. Japan, japanese, so i went to this japanese school and on my way home, i went to a shop in the shop this mannequin, but the money can never have head. It'S just the hair, no head, okay, you know how they mold it. You know some people buy. The head - and they put it on like yeah, wait, but it's not awake so then when i went there i saw all that - and i said why don't i purchase one of this and one lady that i was in the school with was like, but at the Eat her small head, it's just the hair, i said, doesn't matter, i can stuff it with cloth yeah, because i want to uh better the skills that i've the only month the skills i've learned. I want to better one day, and so i bought it. I came home the next day when my mother went to work. I just wake up. I started praying. I said god today not today today, no matter how difficult it is, i want you to help me to be able to do this hair wow. You get it to be able to do it, and that is how it started. Amazing, i just wake up one day i took the hair, i started breathing i started breathing i started breathing. I started breathing within three hours. It was perfect wow. I said god. Thank you for this. I just went out and bought the hair braiding hair that i want to test on somebody, but i'm able to achieve that three hours and i call this lady. She came, and i said, what's that, do you want she said great? I said. Okay, i want to do brace with some cornrow like a mohawk, but this is something i've never done on somebody before and then i said: let's do it then we started girl. I was so happy for the outcome. When i finished what i did, she looked in the mirror and the word she said was wow and i was happy for the fact that she said wow and the husband came to pick her up. Yes, they have gone, never recognize her she's, like oh, my god, who did this hair for you. She said my friend that i go to school with. Who is she? She is that good and she said i'm even surprised because she told me she can't do it and then she wanted to test on my head and the husband was like ethel. Can i open the shop for you? What in japan? The way you did my wife's hair, it's surprise and i said thank you and then she went out and everybody that she said who did your hair? They should give my number. That is how i started selling myself. I see so it was really from just you doing your friends here from the japanese school yeah and then you did it so well. So after practice i put my heart and everything to do that, and god just opened the door. Yes, that's how it happened, and i want to say this. I remember one day: there's a lady from ghana and somebody from the base wanted somebody to do a daughter's hair and they were two children and the lady said i have somebody who just came from ghana. I wanted to do one of your daughter, then you can give the other daughter to the person. Will always do it for you, and so when she told me i was scared, but then i said inside of me: you can do it. You can do all things. Why don't you do it? So i told the lady, you know, i'm scared. This is american. I'Ve, never braided your hair. She said ethel, you can do it. So this lady brought the daughter to me. We sat down and i started bleeding and the other braid that i was braiding. The daughter's hair was doing because i wasn't there by then the lady that introduced me to her said ethel. You have to be fat because the person is done. I was doing micro braids on that girl, but the lady was doing big, brace, which i didn't know about because she said she was almost done. I punished i'm like what am i doing. I'M saying the lady, the mother of the child, said don't worry. I have all the time i'll wait for you to finish and then i i put effort, i did it and today i am telling you that i look at the job that i did and i started crying wow because i saw that god gave me the strength And i put my effort and you know what happened: the the sister came back with the hair braiding and then i finished her sister saying she said mom. Why didn't you? Let me wait and let her do my hair. The girl that was on the chest stood up and said wow, my god. This is so pretty, and so the money that i charge. I was new in japan. I didn't know how people were charged. I tried so less, and so, when i feel into her she said what you did for my hats. You did so good, so i will pay you double of what you've done amazing and she gave me that money, and so when they went back home to on base they coulda everybody that saw them stop them. Who did your hair and they were giving prizes that i never charged them because they wanted me to have that level off you? You understand what i mean. Yes, if i chat them hundred bucks, they were telling people she was charging me. She chat. 200. yeah. You were like, oh my god, this amazing job, who is she a friend she put it on facebook and friends in the state, were trying to connect with her? Who did this amazing hair on your head, amazing, and that was the biggest breakthrough, because then people all over the base head of ethel ethel ethel ethel, and that was it amazing that was pretty much just by word of mouth um. That'S how it started to to get around. Yes, that was my journey and i want to say something to our ladies um. Being at all today. Wasn'T an easy job me being in japan, you being independent. Imagine you can work all the hours so the few hours. I work i have a child child in ghana that i have to take care of. I have my life that i have to take care of. I have my dreams, so what i do is that i go to this japanese company. I work at night then, within the day i travel to people's house to breed all my life in japan. I'Ve been traveling to breed at people's houses. Some people treated me so bad others. Other people treated me good. When the bad time came. I cried sometimes. I come out from people's house and start crying. I look in the mirror and ask myself: why is it that they treat me so bad? You understand what i mean, but then i said it to myself that i'm not going to give up, no matter how somebody treats me, i am never going to give up. I would still push on to meet my dreams. I'Ll still do what i have to do and that keep me motivated. I went, i started going little by little, people would temple on you, but you fall. You fall, you rise again and you move forward. You shouldn't give up because everybody will say negative, but i'm thinking about you just move forward, because you have a dream ahead of you that you want to achieve absolutely, and that is what happened. I remember when uh six years later i went to ghana, i got pregnant again. I came to japan, look at you being fragmented, fresh you're, going through without a man. Um you're waking up every 5 30 with your pregnancy traveling, two and half hours, sometimes three hours to people's house to break and some people after i breathe. They will tell me that i'm sorry, i don't have money. I should have told you and i'll give you the money later and the moment i leave they never pay me. They keep my money. If it was somebody else, they would be like i'm not doing this job again, but it never. It'S never broke me down. It. Always motivates me that we have different people in the world. You meet the ugly and you meet the good people, no matter who you meet on the way, just try it and move other, and it will work for you when zion was with me. Imagine a black woman, you having your baby at your back early morning. I go and pray for people. Some people will be like get there. Can you wait? I have to cook for my husband i have to do. They will do it before. I will continue and through all that, sometimes i get home 1pm and my even my mother was mad at me that why don't you stop this? I said no, this is what i want to do. I don't want to give up. I'Ve come so far and zion has been so good to me all this while zion was with me. Yes, it was difficult tasks. So then, after eight years i decided to settle down that i'm not going to people's house with okay, not that, because of the way some people treat me, i decided to settle down because zion is three years was three years and you know moving with a child Like that, since she was born and all that i said this is the time that my child has to stay home and learn something so i can work home and that's how i started working home now we started working home yeah. I think it's very important that you have shared that part of your story, because there are many other women in japan from all over from jamaica, from ghana, from america different places, and certainly when you just start out in japan. There are so many challenges, and i have heard the stories and for a lot of these women. They cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel, but for you you're, showing you're you're telling us that you went through the struggles and no i mean your business is flourishing. So many people know about you in japan and you are not able to say. Yes, you know things are better, it's a success, so i think it's important for you to share for people like you to share your testimony, so others who are going through it will know that they shouldn't give up so never give up in life. That'S what i'll tell anybody that is trying to achieve something never give up. You know, life is not easy. Life is difficult. Nobody will tell you, life is easy. Life is very difficult, but in all just pray to god and just move forward just have passion in what you do don't compete with anybody believe in yourself do your best, even when it's not good, for you believe that you can do it and do it and Do it fight so hard, the more you fight, the more god blesses you that's how god blesses people think you sit down in your house and god will bless you. That is not right! God doesn't bless like that. God wants people that work so hard. God wants people with dreams, so the more you work towards your dream, the more the doors open for you so never give up in life. Everything has an end. There is light in everything. At the end of the tournament, there will be a light now. It'S not easy, but at the end of the day, god is going to show his glory on you, so just work harder and never give up in life. Whatever you want to achieve, you can achieve through prayer and through your hard work. That'S what i'll say. Absolutely thank you so much. Thank you for sharing your stories with us and some of the services that you offer you offer box braids jumbo braids cornrows guides. I offer everything everything and my door is open to anybody. You can book my appointment, your appointment on facebook african praise by ethel. My ig is african breed by etho. You can see me then. Okay, thank you! So much fl, i feel so inspired you