Beauty Without the Beast: How Financial Literacy is Changing Lives in Kenya’s Hair and Beauty Industry

Women Working Worldwide
Aug 12
4 min read

In bustling salons, on busy streets, and in informal market stalls across Kenya, women in the hair and beauty sector create work that is skilled, creative, and in high demand. Yet behind the polished hairstyles and vibrant nail designs lies a harder reality: many of these women work without contracts, without protections, and without the financial skills that could give them the independence to stand up to exploitation — including gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH).

Women Working Worldwide (WWW), in partnership with the Kenya Union of Hair and Beauty Workers (KUHABWO) and the Kenya Financial Education Centre (KFEC), delivered a groundbreaking pilot initiative: Beauty Without the Beast. With support from the Network for Social Change and the Philamonic Trust, the project aimed to tackle a key root cause of workplace harassment — lack of financial independence and money management skills.

Why financial literacy is a GBVH issue

Financial insecurity traps workers in unsafe situations. When a woman has no savings, no access to safe credit, and no understanding of her rights, walking away from an exploitative boss or resisting harassment can mean risking her only income. By building financial skills, Beauty Without the Beast gave women not just the tools to manage money, but the confidence to take control of their futures — and with a supporting Union to demand dignity at work.

A partnership in action

The project was designed and delivered collaboratively. KUHABWO brought deep grassroots knowledge and access to workers; WWW provided project coordination, advocacy links, and fundraising; KFEC developed and delivered the financial literacy training itself. Sessions combined practical budgeting tools, rights awareness, and discussions on how economic empowerment supports women’s safety and voice at work.

Four half-day trainings were held in Nairobi, Nakuru, and Kiambu, reaching 97 participants — hair and beauty workers, union members and college tutors, 86% of these participants were women and most aged between 18 and 25.

The results

83% had never received any financial training before.
100% reported greater confidence in managing money after the course.
58% committed to improving their budgeting immediately, many adopting KFEC’s culturally adapted “60/20/10/10” quadrant method.
36 participants joined KUHABWO following the training, and the union signed MoUs with two local associations representing 150 informal workers.
The KUHABWO SACCO gained 18 new members, providing supportive merry-go-round savings groups and table-top banking to strengthen collective financial resilience.

The training’s impact went beyond numbers. One participant explained that she now felt able to say, “I’m sorry, I can’t give any more this month” — a small sentence that represents a huge shift in self-agency for women who are often under pressure to share income far beyond their means.

From confidence to collective action

Stronger financial skills translate into stronger collective voice. The link between financial empowerment and GBVH prevention is clear: workers with savings, union membership, and knowledge of their rights are far better placed to challenge harassment and unsafe conditions.

One of the most inspiring outcomes was the partnership between ‘Mary’, a street hairdresser facing daily harassment, and ‘Jane’, an experienced salon owner and union member. Meeting through the training, they are now exploring opening a salon together — pooling skills, resources, and determination to create a safer, fairer workplace.

Lessons learned

The pilot confirmed the huge demand for this kind of training: 98% of participants wanted to see financial literacy embedded in college hair and beauty curricula, and the majority asked for further sessions on business management, debt management, and digital finance.

It also reinforced the importance of:

Delivering training in English and local languages to encourage open participation.
Providing travel bursaries and refreshments to remove barriers to attendance.
Building in structured support for pre- and post-training questionnaires to track impact.

The road ahead

The pilot has shown what works. Now, the challenge is scale. We want to:

Roll out basic financial literacy training across more counties, targeting informal and vulnerable workers.
Develop advanced modules on investment, debt management, and small business skills.
Embed financial literacy into national hair and beauty training curricula through partnerships with colleges and industry federations such as Habia.
Strengthen Union and SACCO membership and other collective savings schemes to give women lasting economic safety nets.

A call for continued support

This project proved that financial literacy can be a catalyst for safer, fairer workplaces and a powerful tool in the fight against GBVH. The demand from workers, the increased union membership, and the enthusiasm from colleges show a sector ready for change.

But momentum will only grow with sustained investment. With further funding, Beauty Without the Beast can expand to reach many more women, embed financial skills in training institutions, and make the Kenyan and other countries hair and beauty sectors not just a place of creativity and enterprise — but one of dignity, equality, and safety.

When women have the knowledge, the confidence, and the financial independence to speak up, they are no longer at the mercy of unsafe workplaces. They can shape them.