Untitled, from the series Hairstyles,

ca. 1970

The Nigerian documentary photographer Ojeikere created the series Hairstyles (1968–1985) to showcase the ephemeral art of hairstyles worn by Nigerian women at special events. The artist’s project was partly ethnographic as he was documenting a tradition that was briefly threatened by wigs in 1950s but that resurged in the 1960s with an urban flair. His intention was also aesthetic: in his bust-length portraits, form and line—rather than context—dominate. The blank backgrounds highlight the geometry of the hairstyles, which are engineered with plaiting, threading, and rolling techniques. In this image, small braids radiate from the top of the sitter’s head. They coil around themselves to form curls that lay flat against the scalp, massing at the crown to form a soft, towering bun. Likely selected to match the sitter’s necklace, tubular beads further adorn her locks, dangling by threads to accent her movements. Hair designs were often passed down to female family members and were sometimes restricted to certain families. While in earlier decades hairstyles proclaimed the wearer’s social status, after Nigerian independence in 1960, hairstyles drew their names and sculptural forms from a wider variety of sources, including architecture and political movements.