African Cuts

This section today is dedicated to the changing hairstyles of African women, particularly in Africa cities. African women are getting bolder and more adventurous when it comes to wearing the hair. It is said that the hair is the crown of every women, hair maketh the woman and in African cities, this particularly rings very true. Hairstyles in rural Africa tend to be uniform weave but in the cities, women are embracing and experimenting with various cuts and ideas.

The importance of the crown has grown even for African men. African men used to and still spend very little time on their hair. We just shave it and forget until after another two weeks when we remember to drop in for another cut but times are can changing. Today, rather than just being a nuisance to be rid of, hair has become a fashion statement.

Communication and exposure to new cultures has played an important role in influencing hairstyles and hair cuts. One such hairstyle that has come about as a result of this influence is the infamous Mohawk style. The Mohawk hair style has been redesigned in various ways from the traditional  rock star design to braided dread-locks among other designs. Hairdressers are regularly innovating and introducing new variations of the hairstyle. The Mohawk is particularly popular in nairobi with young campus girls wearing cool Mohawks.

The Mohawk Hair Style

 But what has contributed to the popularity of this new trend? Is it just the movies and foreign influence or there is something particularly complementing and appealing to the tastes of Kenya's and Africa's young population? According to some stylists, the Mohawk has been popularized by the fact that it's unisex and many urban hip youth in African cities have rushed to the trend because their peers, both male and female are spotting the Mohawk.

An African Male with the Mohawk Style

For Kenyans, the Mohawk is also an indigenous hairstyle. Many Kenyan tribes traditionally wear "Mohawks" on the hair as shown below. The irony is that the hairstyle has been with us for centuries but we ignored it and rushed for the Western look. And then when the West adopted the style, we imported the style from the West again :)  True creatures of imitation. But it's interesting to see how more and more people in African are experimenting with various hairstyles in the search for "the perfect" 21st Century look.

Back to the roots: Could this be the reason why young African women are embracing the Mohawk so enthusiastically?