By Seleoe Nonyane
‘Mankhahle Nkhahle has totally taken the scrunchy business to another level as scrunchy headbands and puffs continue to become popular.
A scrunchy is a piece of elastic covered in often brightly coloured cloth that is used to hold long hair at the back of the head.
Now, Nkhahle has thought out of the box and has jumped into making scrunchiywatches.
Nkhahle not only produces watch srcunchies but also sews bonnets, hair scrunchies, headbands, baby nests and pearls.
Her business is named RosieStiches derived from her other name which is Rosie after she obtained a sewing machine as she initially used needles to sew. She then incorporated them together and came up with the name RosieStitches.
Her love for scrunchies was discovered in 2019 when she was a nanny in Bloemfontein South Africa where she used to do the hair of the kids she was looking after at the time.
“I loved doing kids; hair as they had a lot of hair accessories and there I saw scrunchies and I thought I could actually take the chance to make them.
“However, because I was booked and busy I had no time to do it until I came back home in 2022 and unemployed.
“While at home having nothing to do I then recalled that I had an idea of making scrunchies before, and then I decided to pursue it,” she stated.
Although she wanted to start doing scrunchies, she had no material fortunately a good Samaritan decided to donate some materials which was a friend’s dress.
“My friend had a black satin dress that she bought and never used it. She gave it to me and I did what my hands can do best.
“I made the first scrunchy with just a needle and a sewing thread,” she said.
She acquired her sewing skills in secondary school where she did needle work and she is adamant that she was quite good at it.
Also, she said she had already seen scrunchies in person and all she had to do was to recall what she had seen and bring it into reality.
In order to sharpen her skills, she watched tutorials on YouTube. She said this she did because she was struggling with closing the scrunchies after placing an elastic. But with YouTube she was able to learn and grasp how it was done.
She openly expressed her delight that being unemployed pushed her to start the business and now she is doing something that she is passionate about.
She said she orders most of her material online. Some of them are obtained locally but she maintained that it is not easy to get all the material she desires but she always finds a way and the results are always rewarding.
Since the commencement of her business, she has seen an immense growth and dreams to one-day supply to big stores while thirsting to open her own shop.
For those interested in buying scrunchies from her and purchase some stock she can be contacted on +266- 63613180.
Her products are also available in South Africa at Midrand at a Auntynanakid’s salon.
She revealed that she has a soft spot for children and has grown very fond of them over the years. In the future, she is hoping to open a daycare centre.
