Vintage Nigerian Hairstyles From the Sixties

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Y’all remember the old Nigeria where people wore thread in their hair and made interesting artsy style with their natural hair? Well, a brilliant photographer,  J.D. Okhai Ojeikere’s spent the sixties and seventies documenting these hairstyles….It’s nice going back in time like this.

Celebrities and entertainers who style their hair in attention-grabbing ways (think Lady Gaga’s plaited cone or Nicki Minaj’s towering bouffant) are often lauded for their originality. But intricate hairstyles are far from being a contemporary development – as J.D. Okhai Ojeikere’s photographs show. The photographer spent the Sixties and Seventies documenting the hairstyles of the women he encountered in his native Nigeria. He snapped over 1,000 photos of these complex coiffures, from subjects he found on the streets, in offices, and at wedding celebrations, as he revealed to My Modern Met.

‘Sculptures for a day’: Nigerian photographer J.D. Okhai Ojeikere snapped over 1,000 photos of the hairstyles he saw on the street
Upbraided: Ojeikere took photos of the styles he saw worn by women in the street, or in offices, or at marriage celebrations

From tightly wound cones, buns, and curls to even more architectural designs, Hairstyles, as Ojeikere’s series is called, showcases a great range of styles.

 Shot in black and white, the photos tread a fine line between portraiture and abstraction. They also seem rife with allusion; one woman’s look recalls the gently sloping lines and sharp edges of much of Frank Gehry’s architecture.
‘All these hairstyles are ephemeral. I want my photographs to be noteworthy traces of them,’ he says. ‘I always wanted to record moments of beauty, moments of knowledge. Art is life. Without art, life would be frozen.’

Hmmm interesting hairstyles… but I’ve got to say I don’t see myself doing it. I love vintage, but this is one vintage I’m toying with.

Baby Okus, a lil’ advice from me? Don’t try this at home….because honestly Nigerian guys go on about how much they like a “natural” woman and all that BS, but at the end, they’ll cheat on you with someone wearing a 100pounds of Peruvian hair.

Ok ok… I exaggerate…I’m not saying y’all should go get 90″  Russian hair to wear, but just strive to look as sophisticated as you possibly can..that’s the first rule in Keeping Your Man 101. Stay tuned for more lectures. #wink wink

culled from http://www.dailymail.co.uk