KIAMBU, Kenya — Safari Martins leads his shopper Ian Njenga right into a sparse shack on the agricultural roadside in Kiambu, on the fringe of metropolitan Nairobi. On the shack’s wood partitions hold a shovel, iron, agricultural shears and a wrench, however Njenga shouldn’t be there to purchase gear. He is there to get a haircut.
“I simply use unconventional instruments,” Martins says, smiling, moments earlier than sliding a razor-sharp shovel edge throughout Njenga’s head, lopping off a swath of hair within the first of a collection of strikes that yields a surprisingly clear haircut.
Unconventional instruments are a trademark for Martins, who’s one in every of Kenya’s most recognizable barbers with round 1 million followers on every of his Instagram and TikTok accounts, the place he is named Chief Safro.
As he makes precision cuts throughout Njenga’s head, a helper stands to the facet, capturing each second from completely different angles on a smartphone digicam.
Influencer barbers are a brand new pattern in Kenya, the place social media utilization has exploded in recent times and platforms like TikTok are getting used each for leisure and as a profitable facet hustle.
Born in Rwanda and now based mostly in Nairobi, Martins acquired his begin barbering in highschool in 2018. Utilizing borrowed clippers, he started providing trims exterior school rooms and in cramped dormitories. 5 years later, he added a digicam and dropped a standard trimmer — and by no means turned again.
Martins went viral for zany barbering strategies, however he has more and more integrated conventional African people tales into voiceovers on his movies.
“I’m motivated by African tradition, by African tales,” he says, including that one in every of his instruments, a sharpened iron field, was blessed by village elders.
The barber’s endurance has come from the haircuts themselves, which his prospects say they love—and the prospect to be featured on one in every of Kenya’s most magnetic social media accounts.
“If I evaluate him with different barbers his expertise is subsequent stage,” says Njenga, who first visited Martins final 12 months. “After I get shaved right here I get very snug … whereas strolling within the streets I get very assured.”
The draw of a singular barbering expertise and 5 minutes of social media fame is sufficient for purchasers to push previous the value. Martins prices as much as 1500 Kenyan shillings, or virtually $12, for one in every of his cuts, a hefty premium in Nairobi, the place males might pay a tenth of that for a trim.
The recognition of Martins and different content material creator barbers has come amid the breakneck progress of social media in Kenya. In January 2023, there have been simply 10.6 million social media customers within the nation, in response to DataReportal, a market analysis group. By January 2025, that quantity had elevated virtually 50%, to fifteen.1 million.
With monetization of social media content material typically benchmarked to Western digital promoting charges, discovering success on-line also can convey a relative windfall to Kenyans. Round 15% of Kenyans engaged in on-line content material creation depend on it as their main supply of revenue, the Kenya Institute for Public Coverage Analysis and Evaluation, a suppose tank, stated in a June 2025 temporary.
However, Martins complains that barbers don’t not reap the identical rewards as different content material creators, and he’s proper. A number of the highest-paid creators are those that make gaming, training, or way of life content material, in response to Fundmates, an organization that funds influencers, due to the vast applicability of name offers in these niches.
“Barbers get viral on social media however I really feel like they don’t seem to be revered,” says Martins. “You aren’t paid as a content material creator, though you’ve the views, even when you’ve got the engagement.”
