Mwende Frey is the proprietor and owner of Man’s Chamber Barbers and Spa’ located in Kamakis, Nairobi County.
She rose to fame in April 2022 after she took to social media to advertise her business. She shared videos of female barbers dancing for clients, eliciting mixed reactions from netizens.
This barbershop strictly serves only men, women are forbidden from entering the premises, except the attendants. The “maidens” of Mwende Frey’s shop treat the clients with massages and full body shaves.
The 27-year old mother of one opened the business in mid-March 2022, with a specific aim of only attending to male clients. While people might have been used to the old fashioned barbershops where it’s always men talking to men about men stuff and complementing and complaining about women, Mwende set to do it differently.
She sought to use a charm only she knows best to compete in a field that has been dominated by “masculine” barbershops.
Inside Man’s Chamber Barbers and Spa, one finds a number of female attendants all dressed in tight outfits, showcasing their perky busts or curvaceous bodies. All of them have their make up done and don pleasant scents.
When not occupied, the maidens can be seen playfully shaking their behinds, toying with their hair, hanging around mirrors, and chattering cheekily, while others take orders from Mwende.
Mwende employs full-time ‘Twerk Queens’ whose dance for clients as they have their hair cut.
“I’ve got a lot of beautiful women here who twerk for our customers all day long, from morning to evening. It’s part of what we offer here and we see absolutely nothing wrong with that,” Mwende said during an interview with Citizen Digital.
Br0th3l Accusations
Her business has come under attack, majorly from women who are accusing her of using s3xu@l appeal to lure their husbands to her barbershop.
“When you say I’m s3xu@lizing the business by twerking, what do you mean? Women twerk in clubs every day and they don’t get paid. I get paid to do this, so why not.”
“I’m s3xy, I’m fabulous, I’m confident in my body, I’m a beautiful woman, kwa nini tufiche…. It has worked for this business, men love seeing nice things, hakuna mtu anataka kwenda kunyolewa alafu ashikwe na mikono ngumu, here you meet soft hands, soft voices and beautiful girls,” she said.
The businesswoman strongly refuted allegations that her barbershop is just a cover for a br0thel.
She reiterated that she operates a grooming den for kings where they are served by African maidens.She challenged her critics to wash their husband’s feet when they come home from work, massage them, make them look prettyif they don’t want them visiting her barbershop.
Mwende notes that they work they do should be complemented instead of being ridiculed as they help a lot of clients relieve stress.
International attention
Mwende’s style of business earned her international fame after she was interviewed by German state-owned international broadcaster DW in May 2022.
