12-y-o creates eye-catching hairstyles

While most 12-year-olds use their spare time to catch up on the latest Disney shows, Kenneva Davis loves to play hairdresser and will volunteer to fix the hair of her peers and adults in her Sunlight Street, Maxfield Avenue community.

A first-form student at Camperdown High School, Kenneva aspires to become a lawyer, but is hoping to have her own beauty salon. She said she became interested in the trade when she was 10 after watching her aunt, Dannette, who is a cosmologist, at work.

"I watched her and learned to cornrow. Whenever she sews in hair, she would let me cornrow the client's hair first. I helped her when she was braiding and catch my practice as well. I like doing the 'bang two' hairstyle and I am very good at it. People will keep them in for days, and they are always happy with the end results. I like to see the look on their faces when I am finished," she said.

Using just a tail comb and Eco Styler gel, Kenneva then showed off her talent while styling Shenay Barr, a relative. Her neighbours and relatives took to the streets and cheered on the youngster as she did her thing.

"I only use the tail comb because some of the hairbrushes are coarse and will not set the hair the way I want it. I am doing the top knot bun, where I use an elastic [band] to 'catch' her hair in one firmly, then I apply the gel. I then add the braid to the top and work my magic. I have been doing this hairstyle before it became popular," she said.

As she put the final touches to the style, she asked for a lighter, which the news team found extremely curious. Kenneva smiled before explaining that the portable flame generator is also one of her styling tools.

"A lot of hairdressers will use a scissors to trim the stray hair from the braid but after it is trimmed, it still a go come back out after a while. So I use a lighter to burn the hair. This way it will remain neat," she said, while Barr nodded in agreement. Kenneva said that she usually does hair only in her free time, after completing her schoolwork and chores.

"On weekends, I would do my friends' hair to go to school, and I would comb some of the children's hair in my community as well. A lot of times, I will catch up the big people hair as well, or cornrow it," she said. As she skilfully lay the edges to Barr's hair, Kenneva's mother, Christine Jenkins, looked on proudly. She said her daughter often saves her a trip to the stylist.

"One time mi see har a do her auntie hair inna di same style that she a do now, and mi ask her where she learn it, and she say is her next auntie she watch. People start see mi sister hair and a bare compliments she get, and everybody want to know a who do it. Sometimes mi put up her styles on mi 'status' and people always want to know who is mi hairdresser; and mi have to tell them that is not a hairdresser, is mi little daughter do it. She say she want to own her own salon when she big, and I support her," Jenkins said.