Birch Acres hairdresser retires after 40 years
"I run a small school for learners with special sensory abilities. I have been juggling both, but it is time to hang up the scissors and comb, and fully concentrate on my learners."
Belinda Sternberg has been a hairdresser for 44 years.
The 62-year-old from Birch Acres has, after years of making people fall in love with their hair, decided to close the chapter of being a hairdresser.
She said her passion for hairdressing started at her mother’s salon in Germiston.
“My mother had her own salon, so I grew up in the salon. I used to stand on a box to help wash hair at the basin at the age of 12.
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“I was fascinated all those years with style and chemical processing of hair.”
Sternberg studied hairdressing at Doornfontein Technical College in 1979, specialising in fantasy hairstyles, tint and perm.
“I have always enjoyed the surprise elements of hairdressing. When you sculpt and mould and see the satisfaction on your client’s face afterwards, is priceless.”
Sternberg said she was going to miss it.
“The clients have all become my friends over the years and I shall still be seeing them.”
She said she had developed asthma years back, so she could not work a full-time job at a salon. As a result, she opened a home-based salon.
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Afterwards, she attended JCE, where she obtained her diploma in teaching.
Sternberg is a founder, and owner of Pax Mentis Academy, situated on Olienhout Street, Birchleigh.
“I run a small school for learners with special sensory abilities. I have been juggling both, but it is time to hang up the scissors and comb, and fully concentrate on my learners,” she said.
“I thank all who have been loyal to me through the good and the bad times.”
