Many of the gay men in Cape Town were employed in the hairdressing industry, and hairdressing salons played a central role in the life of both the queer community and District Six residents more broadly. Salons were important social centres for skinner (gossip). They were places to meet or have a party, and people would go on ‘salon crawls’, spending all day drinking and gossiping in different salons.
At the time there was nowhere for people who were not white to study hairdressing, so prospective stylists had to do an apprenticeship. Despite such restrictions, many of the District Six hairdressers were in high demand. They catered to a mixed clientele and often won hairdressing competitions.
Kewpie started seeing clients at home at the age of 14, before training at Salon Andre. Mr Davy, a friend of Kewpie’s father, then invited Kewpie to open a salon at 51 Fifth Avenue in Kensington, which became Salon Kewpie. Salon Kewpie was the first salon in Kensington, and Kewpie remembered that people were shocked to see a «gay proprietor». Kewpie’s salon was open for as long as people needed it to be – the salon would close when the last customer was done. On Christmas Eve this meant the salon would stay open until 4 o’clock in the morning.
“She had the photograph taken at Van Kalker in Woodstock.” – Kewpie
Kay Kendall and Piper Laurie were well-known queer figures and hairdressers. Both feature several times in the Kewpie Photographic Collection. Piper was the first qualified hairdresser to work in District Six, at Salon Andre in Hanover Street which was owned by Charles and Gladys Arendse. Charles described the salon as “the first modern hairdresser” in District Six.