Just like the one ring created by Dark lord Sauron-in T.R Tokens 1937 book The Lod of the Ring, delays ageing, Nigerian women are seeking human hair wigs for convenience, longevity, cost savings, time savings and limitless style.
The urge to look younger than ones age is also increasingly underpinning the demand for the wig.
Wigs are popularly known as a head covering made from human, animal hairs or synthetic fibres.
“Apart from the limitless styles and convenience, wigs help to hide the thinning and restore my confidence, it protects the health of my hair and also helps to save cost and time since I won’t need as many salon appointments,” Wunmi Oke, a banker said in a discussion with BusinessDay.
The wig industry is fast becoming a lucrative one in Nigeria. Wearing a wig is now becoming a trend among Nigerian women than the traditional way of making the hair.
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According to ladies, wigs have been trending for three years and are still trending very fast.
“The sale of wigs has been booming for like three years now. Most ladies come here to buy the weaves so that they can make a wig out of it. Ladies love it, especially in this hot season. It is versatile, saves cost and time of going to the salon, and it is convenient,” Choice Goodwin, a salesgirl at Wholesalenaija, said.
The New International Version Bible, 1 Corinthians 11:15, states that but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering.
So it is a known fact that women can spend more when it comes to looking good especially when it comes to hair.
In the streets of Lagos markets, you see stalls mostly full of wigs with saleswomen or men mostly displaying the wigs to attract the attention of Nigerian women.
The most expensive ones are human hair wigs that are hand-crafted and have monofilament cap. They look very natural, are made of quality materials while the cheapest wigs are synthetic hair wigs for entertainment (Halloween wigs and etc.), they look unnatural and can be worn not for a long time.
“We sell more wigs than normal weaves here. A normal synthetic wig costs like N5, 000- N10,000 while the human hair can go as high as N15,000-N 20,000 without closure but with closure, it can go as high as N30,000,” a salesgirl said.
Human hairs are usually imported and the market is booming in Africa because millions of people, predominantly women, are demanding for it. And as a result of this, a lot of people are going into the human hair business.
Although the demand for wigs has led to low patronage for hairstylists, it has made them learn the skill of making wigs especially the braided ones.
“I had to learn the skill fast because nowadays ladies don’t make their hair and that affects my profits. So at the moment, I make more braid wigs than hairstyling,” an anonymous salon owner said.
According to estimates, Africa’s dry hair market for weaves, human hair wigs and hair extensions is currently worth over $6 billion a year and growing quite rapidly.
On the African market, human hair products are often branded along ethnic or racial lines. ‘Brazilian’, ‘Peruvian’, ‘Malaysian’ etc.
BUNMI BAiLEY
