Vimbai
This hairdresser has a good job at an envied salon, but a lot of people dislike her, finding her pretentious and rude. She doesn't really want to change, but she wishes she could have better relationships. Dumisani, the new hairdresser, offers his friendship to her. Through friendship with him, she understands how to have empathy for others, seeing the true suffering that some people face. She falls in love with Dumisani, not knowing that he is attracted to men.
Dumisani
Dumisani is a new hairdresser at the salon where Vimbai works. He invites her to be friends with him, seeing that she is pretty lonely, and they get rather close. Dumisani asks if she would be willing to travel home with him, but his family mistakes her company, thinking that Dumisani has finally "given up" on being gay. Dumisani's family life is painful and strained because they don't approve of his homosexuality.
Dumisani's family
Dumisani's family is firmly in opposition to him, because they think sexuality is a choice, and they want Dumisani to choose "correctly." Dumisani writes in his diary about them. They mistreat him and instead of being a supportive family who wants the best for him, they limit their concerns about him to the one thing they dislike about him. When he comes home with Vimbai, they wrongly suspect that Vimbai and Dumisani are involved, but of course, he has not "changed his mind" on being gay, because as he notes in his diary, that's not how that works.
