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'Coronavirus hairstyle' spikes in popularity in East Africa
‘Coronavirus hairstyle’ spikes in popularity in East Africa
By DESMOND TIRO
today
FILE - In this Sunday, May 3, 2020 file photo, Gettrueth Ambio, 12, has her hair styled in the shape of the new coronavirus, at the Mama Brayo Beauty Salon in the Kibera slum, or informal settlement, of Nairobi, Kenya. The coronavirus has revived a hairstyle in East Africa, one with braided spikes that echo the virus' distinctive shape, with the growing popularity in part due to economic hardships linked to virus restrictions. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The coronavirus has revived a hairstyle in East Africa, one with braided spikes that echo the virus’ distinctive shape.
The style’s growing popularity is in part due to economic hardships linked to virus restrictions — it’s cheap, mothers say — and to the goal of spreading awareness that the coronavirus is real.
The hairstyle had gone out of fashion in recent years as imported real and synthetic hair from India, China and Brazil began to flood the market and demand by local women increased. Pictures of the flowing or braided imported styles are tacked up in beauty salons across much of Africa.
But now, in a makeshift salon beside a busy road in Kibera, a slum in the heart of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, 24-year-old hairdresser Sharon Refa braids young girls’ hair into the antennae-like spikes that people call the “coronavirus hairstyle.” Girls shift in the plastic chairs as she tugs at their scalps.
{snip}
By DESMOND TIRO
today
FILE - In this Sunday, May 3, 2020 file photo, Gettrueth Ambio, 12, has her hair styled in the shape of the new coronavirus, at the Mama Brayo Beauty Salon in the Kibera slum, or informal settlement, of Nairobi, Kenya. The coronavirus has revived a hairstyle in East Africa, one with braided spikes that echo the virus' distinctive shape, with the growing popularity in part due to economic hardships linked to virus restrictions. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The coronavirus has revived a hairstyle in East Africa, one with braided spikes that echo the virus’ distinctive shape.
The style’s growing popularity is in part due to economic hardships linked to virus restrictions — it’s cheap, mothers say — and to the goal of spreading awareness that the coronavirus is real.
The hairstyle had gone out of fashion in recent years as imported real and synthetic hair from India, China and Brazil began to flood the market and demand by local women increased. Pictures of the flowing or braided imported styles are tacked up in beauty salons across much of Africa.
But now, in a makeshift salon beside a busy road in Kibera, a slum in the heart of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, 24-year-old hairdresser Sharon Refa braids young girls’ hair into the antennae-like spikes that people call the “coronavirus hairstyle.” Girls shift in the plastic chairs as she tugs at their scalps.
{snip}
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