Ghana Life: Ladies' Hair Styles

In Ghana, as in most other countries, women find it extraordinarily difficult to manage their hair. It is the cause of much concern, and a good deal of their time and money is spent on trying to keep it under control. The alchemy employed is complex and the psychological aspects are incomprehensible to the male mind. Nevertheless, the result of all this effort, it must be said, is very pleasing on the eye, even if it is soon condemned as being in need of urgent renovation.

In the towns and cities natural female heads of hair are seen only on children. Puberty brings the curse of periodical processing and manipulation. Only a few young women persist with comb and brush, but some of those who do, succeed in sweeping up the front or creating an all-round halo in a way that would flatter any angel. Unfortunately, male pleading to persevere in this enchanting art usually falls on deaf ears and risks provoking tales of such horrors as matting and split ends. The solution is usually found in resorting to plaiting or permanent waving.

Most men would agree that the plaiting of women?s hair in Ghana has developed into a major craft industry rivalling even Kente weaving and Adinkra cloth printing in terms of the variety of patterns and level of skill, and employing far more crafts-persons. Just as Kente and Adinkra patterns have individual names and stories, so do plaited hair styles. The names are intriguing: ?I am sitting in the kitchen,? and ?Meet me at five O?clock,? were popular in Kumasi in the 1970s and 80s. Although many patterns already exist, there is continuing scope for invention and the introduction of new fashions.

A development of plaiting natural hair is the practice of adding extensions of artificial fibres to produce long pigtails reaching down to the shoulders and often well beyond. Needless to say, creating these wonders takes several hours and it can take even longer to unravel the plaits in preparation for renewal. Cheaper and quicker versions of this hair control technique consist of fewer thick plaints, while for women with more patience and more money there are styles with vast numbers of long slender strings cascading over the shoulders and reaching down to the waist. Such styles offer much scope for creativity involving such parameters as colored extension fibres, glass beads, gold threads, etc.

Permanent waving is popular amongst women in Africa, as it is in Europe, but the aim is different. European women perm to put in curls whereas African women perm to remove them. The rule seems to be to fight nature whatever gifts it might bestow. Ghanaian women often say that they envy European hair and wish that their hair was equally easy to manage. At the same time, one hears European women complaining that their hair is so difficult they can do nothing with it. Vaguely remembering from school chemistry lessons that the process consists of controlling sulphur linkages in long chain polymer molecules, it is probably better for the layman to avoid getting further embroiled in this complex matter.

This is also the choice of many women in Ghana, who avoid the repeated cost and complexities of perming by wearing a wig. Elaborately styled Afro-wigs are made by an established craft industry using imported human hair and synthetic substitutes. When in the early 1970s the Acheampong government banned the importation of human hair, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi developed a process for making wigs from locally produced sisal hemp fibres. History has shown that the fashion needs of women have long been a principal stimulant of technological progress.

Women everywhere seek recognition of the great sacrifices they say they make to look attractive to their menfolk. This is nowhere more prevalent than in the case of hair control in Africa. Most men, while appreciating that the effort is really made: firstly for the woman herself, secondly for other women and only thirdly with their husband or partner in mind, are nevertheless content to admire the finished result; and before the advent of the mobile telephone, the long visits to the hairdresser provided welcome periodical intervals of peace and tranquillity.

Source: http://toddsblogs.com/referenceandeducation/2012/07/20/ghana-life-ladies-hair-styles/

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