Meet The Guy Behind Segun Gele   

A couple of weeks ago, a young Nigerian was the focus of CNN MarketPlace Africa. The Nigerian, a Houston, Texas-based makeup artist, Hakeem Oluwasegun Olaleye has made a name for himself in the United States of America as the go-to man for women seeking show-stopping headgear (gele) styles and beautiful makeover. The amazing story of this bloke is a shining example of transforming passion into enterprise.

•Segun Gele.

According to CNN, “The Houston-based businessman has made an art form out of tying a gele––the gravity-defying head wraps worn by Nigerian women…Watching Segun Gele whip the material into graceful folds and arcs in less than five minutes, you know he is the master.”

Segun Gele, who arrived the US from Nigeria in 2003, has already built his brand to lofty heights. He first became aware he could turn his skills into a promising business when he offered to tie a woman’s head wrap at a friend’s wedding. Within minutes, he had whipped the two-yard fabric into a head turning, vertiginous shape that left other women at the party impressed. Before long a queue had formed and he started charging $7 apiece to tie gele at the wedding. Soon, the unmarried 36-year-old transformed that experience into a flourishing business.

He now charges $650 to tie gele for brides and their party train at Houston weddings, while for out-of-town weddings his clients shell out $1,000. This is minus hotel, car rental and airfare fees.. And brides sometimes book him one year in advance.

Prominent among the Iwo, Osun State-born Segun Gele’s famous clients is Nollywood star, Ini Edo-Ehiagwina, to whom he rendered services during her wedding in the U.S. last year.

Tags:  CNN, CNN MarketPlace Africa, Hakeem Oluwasegun Olaleye, Houston, Segun Gele, Texas