In Badia, at their tender age of 8 and 6 respectively, Yeye oge Oladoyin and Eesa Oladosu went through tougher lifestyle where they were made to serve more like hirelings, street-trading cooked food from Badia to Ebute Metta to Oyingbo, Iddo, part of Lagos Island, Apapa back to Badia. They would usually walk from Badia to Ebute Metta a distance of over 10 kilometres to fetch firewood for cooking. Her brother Eesa Oladosu was also signed into a 20-year long welding training while living on just one cloth each through the year and a meal a day.

In 1969, they were rescued and moved to Omu-Aran in Kwara State to live with their father and many stepmothers. In Omu-Aran, Oladoyin attended ECWA Primary School, Agamo. Life was good at Omu-Aran where she developed interest in home economics, which later laid her foundation in fashion designing.

Abigail Oladoyin attended the Teachers‘ College in Okene (now in Kogi State) and was made a Class Prefect between 1977 – 1979). It was there in 1978 she met and fell in love with a young Civil Engineer, Owolabi Onasanya, who was working with the Federal Ministry of Works constructing the Okene/Ajaokuta highway. They wedded in 1979.