With all the skill of a master weaver at a loom,
Esther Ogble stands under a parasol in the
sprawling Wuse market in Nigeria’s capital and
spins synthetic fibre into women’s hair.

Nearby, three customers – one in a hijab – wait for
a turn to spend several hours and $40 to have their
hair done, a hefty sum in a country where many
live on less than $2 a day.
While still largely based in the informal economy,
the African haircare business has become a multi-
billion dollar industry that stretches to China and
India and has drawn global giants such as L’Oreal and Unilever.

Hairdressers such as Ogble are a fixture of markets and taxi ranks across Africa, reflecting both the continent’s rising incomes and demand from hair-conscious women.
“I need to braid my hair so that I will look
beautiful,” said 25-year-old Blessing James, wincing as Ogble combed and tugged at the back of her head before weaving in a plait that fell well past the shoulder.

While reliable Africa-wide figures are hard to come by, market research firm Euromonitor International estimates $1.1 billion of shampoos, relaxers and hair lotions were sold in South Africa, Nigeria and Cameroon alone last year.It sees the liquid haircare market growing by about 5 percent from 2013 to 2018 in Nigeria and Cameroon,with a slight decline for the more mature South African market.

This does not include sales from more than 40
other sub-Saharan countries, or the huge “dry hair”
market of weaves, extensions and wigs crafted
from everything from synthetic fibre to human or
yak hair.

Some estimates put Africa’s dry hair industry at as
much as $6 billion a year; Nigerian singer Muma
Gee recently boasted that she spends 500,000
naira ($3,100) on a single hair piece made of 11
sets of human hair.

The report also included the staggering numbers
for hair products in the United States: In one clue to
the potential for Africa, market research firm Mintel
put the size of the black haircare market in the
United States at $684 million in 2013, estimating
that it could be closer to $500 billion if weaves,
extensions and sales from independent beauty
stores or distributors are included. What is certain
is that Africa’s demand for hair products,
particularly those made from human hair, is only
growing.
- Yahoo.

www.radar.ng/art-life/study-shows-african-ladies-spend-over-7-billion-on-weaves-wigs-extensions-relaxers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=study-shows-african-ladies-spend-over-7-billion-on-weaves-wigs-extensions-relaxers

That's more than the military budget of Nigeria.$7billion will create lots of food farm or at least fund Ebola cure research

Na wa o

All to impress we men, smh... If you dey call some of them, dem go dey denge pose....







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Sh1t! Thought Africa is poor?

And then? Shey na one person spend all the money mtcheeew?

what a prize to pay for mutation
unfortunately brazilian HAIR is not brazilian HEAD
....

Chisos

Hmmm, Na wa ooo i no fit shout ooo.

FP all the way since way i download Nairaland app..

The search for beauty sha
anything a lady feels will make her more beautiful

This is alarming

mehn

o ga ooo…
Africa is a sure continent to make money

There are so many topics on FP today!

@topic: Their money, their business!

later they go talk say papa bomboy no build house....Deeper life here I come!

I think I have to change my job line...

And most of them still dey fugly

//

HmMm.. And I ve been here wasting my time doing white collar job. Instead of opening brazillian and peruvian hair bizness..

Choi I'm really sleeping on mouka foam..

Brazillian hair importation here I come!!

The moral of this story is african wimen have misplaced priorities... not all of them sha.. but com'on we live in a democracy..

thats great since we are slow in development of standard of living, we are should make name in proper beautification... Lets invest on other people economy. Thought from which mentality African woman? Fela said it oh!

Vanity upon vanity!

[size=20pt] I won't waste my time my signature is my comment!!!
[/size]

Smart people sell to them

And they still look ugly

You don't mean it? its worth it sha

Changing natural to unnatural, adding to GOD's perfect, wonderfully and fearfully made work. Well, we all will answer to our creator someday. No be this world we dey??

Chaiii...and am sure 90% of them obtain the money from their so called boy friends after struggling so hard.

....CHAI!!!.
Untop say dem won look attractive.
Most of these ladies would have been stinkingly rich if only dy cud suppend this so called WIGS AND MAKEUP for sum tym..
Abeg stop wasting ya resources.

Hian! What are you saying?
W hat does insecurity have to do with this?
Black Women don't do it because they hate their nappy hair, or that they want to look like white woman
It's just another beauty 'routine', like make up
And I believe women should do anything that'd make them feel beautiful

50calibre: The price of insecurity. A black woman never feels complete without affixing that grass to their heads. There's a thriving industry feeding off this insecurity by producing assorted wigs, Brazilian, Peruvian...

This has to be one of the greatest insecurities of all time, the idea of a woman only feeling confident while wearing a hair of a different race is just insane.

What they'd tell you is that other races do the same.