Cracked.com had this interesting post about major media stories that are in fact false. Number three is the story of Irene Myangoh who finds worms burrowing into her scalp after installing a weave. The cracked author of course hilariously tore the whole thing apart, providing several links to outside sources which included Huffington Post. Huffington Post further quotes an in-depth research by Scopes.com, while also citing an evidence which leads to a 2010 Nairaland post by naijabobo titled ‘A Must-Read for Ladies’. The naijabobo post is almost the same with the Irene Myangoh post but this time around the lady is Krystal a PA from Windhoek which is a Namibian city.This same story is changed to Laimi from Windoheck on Black Hair media.

There is further analysis from snopes author Mikkelson debunking this story writing
“The "worms" one sometimes sees on corpses are actually maggots, the just-hatched offspring of such flies. Human hair intended for weaves, hair pieces, or wigs is carefully washed, sorted, and matched with tresses of similar color and texture very early in the process of turning it into a fashion accessory. Ergo, even if the hair used had been taken from a corpse and had through that association become infested with fly eggs, those future larvae ("worms" would have been washed away by the first cleaning given those strands during the sorting process.”

The story is inferred to have originated from urban legends circulated by chain mails before finding its way into main stream media. To me the story sounds almost like something an uneducated deeper lifer or someone trying to teach a lesson will dream up from local fables. You remember those stories growing up that said if you collect an edible from a peer in school or anyone you didn’t know, you could be indoctrinated into witchcraft? Especially since an unknown kid collected a biscuit/chewing-gum/sweet and forgot it in his/her school bag. The kid’s mum will later find out that the said edible had turned into a human thumb. Spooky but it taught most kids not to collect edibles. For this particular story, there was a conclusion which I agree with, which was that the story’s main purpose was to dissuade people from buying fake hair. In fact in the Huffington Post comment section and even on Nairaland here it seems to be a main issue.

Personally, I love my wigs and weaves, they are “my girls”. They give me whatever look I want to achieve and I can still play with my natural hair. So I use my weave for vain purposes and that’s not bad when done in moderation. I really don’t think people should be upset that other people choose to wear weaves, I’ll still wear weaves if my hair is as long as Nairalander NappilyNigerian, who’s hair length I am jealous of .I’ll take people's healthy natural hair styling tips but coming to say you are better than I am because you have natural hair on, will have me kill you. We have no CSI in Nigeria, I know how to make it look like an accident, by the way what is that popular joke that women who wear weaves won’t get caught, because evidence leads to Brazil or other countries hair is sourced from……..added advantage!

PS: I have read so many of these kind of tales and noticed how effective this is in spreading an agenda, so I want to use this medium to beseech the great Nigerian people or just great Nairalanders to please help me spread my own urban legend so that God will use you as a point of contact to catapult me. Just please spread a story that there is a Nairaland lady by the username Xenia Onatopp, and if (Insert super rich popular business single person) does not marry her his businesses will crumble. Be inventive, create wacky stories as long as they are not tied to musicians, those ones like girls too much and almost certainly end up broke . Do I hear you say I should go and face my job and work harder? Okay, just say if one of those people does not buy the wristwatch which I will leave a picture beneath for me they will lose their businesses, I don’t mind only wristwatch if marriage is too much to ask. Please give a helping hand to help God catapult me and as you do so God will bless your individual hustles. Amen.

Sources
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/vanities/hairweave.asp
http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/4-total-b.s.-new-stories-you-thought-were-true/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/01/maggots-worms-hair-weave-hoax_n_4191200.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news

The 2010 Nairaland post by naijabobo can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/01/maggots-worms-hair-weave-hoax_n_4191200.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news

The Nairaland post that introduces unfortunate and now bald Irene can be found below
https://www.nairaland.com/1498227/worm-infested-weaves-now-market

rubbish

I totally love this!!! Perfect satire!!! People are just too gullible.