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UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON 
 
NATURAL HAIR AND THE GHANAIAN WOMAN 
 
 
SUBMITTED 
 
BY 
 
FIDELIA SERWAA TSEYI 
(STUDENT I.D. 10055361) 
 
 
THIS DISSERTATION IS SUBMITTED TO UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON IN 
PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE AWARD OF MA 
MUSEUM & HERITAGE STUDIES DEGREE. 
 
 
 
OCTOBER, 2018
 
 
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DECLARATION  
I, Fidelia Serwaa Tseyi, hereby declare that except for references made to other people‟s work 
which I have acknowledged, this thesis is the original work of my own research carried out 
and submitted to the Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Ghana, 
Legon, under the supervision of Professor Kodzo Gavua.  
 
 
SUPERVISOR 
Professor Kodzo Gavua. 
 
…………………………………………………………… 
DATE  
 
 
STUDENT 
Fidelia Serwaa Tseyi 
 
……………………………………………………………… 
DATE 
  
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
This study could not have been complete without the support, counseling and guidance from 
my supervisor, Professor Kodzo Gavua to whom, I am highly grateful. Many thanks also goes 
to the Coordinator of the Media and Visual section (IAS), Dr. Amoah Labi and Dr. Irene 
Apeaning Addo, who really encouraged me to further my studies despite the challenges that 
came with work and family. I would also like to thank Professor Dzodzi Tsikata, Director of 
the Institute of African Studies who facilitated the approval of my permission to study. 
 
I would also like to acknowledge Mrs. Rebecca Ohene Asah Hesse, of NAFTI, who 
introduced me to the Museum and Heritage Studies course at the Department of Archaeology 
and Heritage Studies, I am extremely grateful for the exposure. Many thanks to Ms. Serwaa 
Affrifa for her untiring dedication in proof reading my work. I also acknowledge Professor 
Avorgbedor and Mr. Francis Gbormittah for linking me up with articles in relation to my 
work. My appreciation also goes to my lecturers, Professor Wellington, Professor 
Kankpeyeng, Dr. Aba Eyifa-Dzidzieanyo, Dr. Wazi Apoh and Dr. Fritz Biveridge for their 
support during my studies. To my colleagues, especially my course mates, Hon. Julius Debrah 
and Portia Bansa, I appreciate all your support and care throughout our study especially during 
our stay in Norway for the Internship program. I also thank all my respondents especially 
those who gave me the permission to include them in the ethnographic film in support of the 
study.  
 
To my family, I extend my profound heart felt thanks to my husband, my mother, and sister 
Josephine whose hairdressing work inspired me into studying about hair. For without their 
 
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untiring care and love I could not have been motivated to complete this study. Thank you, God 
bless you all.  
 
 
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ABSTRACT 
Evidence abounds to show that natural hair is an evolving phenomenon among Ghanaian 
women. This study investigates the diverse types of hairstyles categorised as natural hair and 
examines the increasing preference for natural hair over chemically altered or adulterated 
hairstyles in Ghana. It also explores the variables that enforce and redefine the wearing of 
natural hair as a form of cultural heritage in the country. 
 
The study employed a qualitative study design. It used ethnographic field methods such as 
observation, in-depth interviews and focus group discussion to collect data from women aged 
between twenty and sixty years, natural hair specialists and locticians. Data was analysed 
thematically. Findings of the study suggest six types of natural hairstyles, namely; Afro short, 
Afro long length, twist, cornrow, braids and locks. Of these hairstyle types, five of them 
namely Afro short, Afro long length, twist, cornrow and braids were identified as temporary 
hairstyles, which were subject to various forms of modifications. 
 
Dreadlocks or locks are observed as a permanent form of natural hairstyle. It is often seen as 
the final stage of natural hair. Peer and societal pressure as well as promotional videos on 
social media were identified as factors that contributed into women‟s desire for the natural hair. 
 
  
 
 
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DEDICATION 
I wish to dedicate this work to my two children, Joel and Charis, who have gone through a lot 
with me since I decided to further my studies. The smiles on their faces throughout my study, 
despite our challenges, until the completion of this Masters programme have been my 
inspiration to keep moving on. God has been faithful to me.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 
DECLARATION....................................................................................................................... ii 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ....................................................................................................... iv 
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. iv 
DEDICATION........................................................................................................................... v 
CHAPTER ONE ....................................................................................................................... 1 
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 1 
1.1 STUDY BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................. 1 
1.2 RESEARCH AIM .............................................................................................................................. 9 
1.3 OBJECTIVES .................................................................................................................................. 10 
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .............................................................................................................. 10 
1.5 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................................... 10 
1.5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 10 
1.5.2 Study Design ................................................................................................................................. 11 
1.5.3 Study Population and Sampling Techniques ................................................................................. 11 
1.5.4 Materials and Methods of Data Collection .................................................................................... 15 
1.5.5 Sources of Data ............................................................................................................................. 15 
1.5.6 Instruments and Devices................................................................................................................ 16 
1.5.7 Ethnographic film production ........................................................................................................ 17 
1.5.8 Limitations ..................................................................................................................................... 18 
1.6 Significance of the Study.................................................................................................................. 19 
1.7 Arrangement of Chapters ................................................................................................................. 20 
CHAPTER TWO .................................................................................................................... 21 
INFORMATION FROM LITERARY SOURCES ................................................................................ 21 
2.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 21 
2.2 Definition and historical information on hair in Africa .................................................................... 21 
2.3 Indigenous Hair and Cultural Contact .............................................................................................. 23 
2.4 Politics of Identity ............................................................................................................................ 31 
2.5 Natural Hair and Maintenance .......................................................................................................... 34 
2.6 Hair and Health ................................................................................................................................ 36 
CHAPTER THREE ................................................................................................................ 39 
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA .................................................................................. 39 
3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 39 
3.2 Types of Natural Hair ....................................................................................................................... 39 
3.2.1 Afro Hair (short length) ................................................................................................................. 39 
3.2.2 Afro Hair (long length) .................................................................................................................. 40 
3.2.3 Cornrow Hairstyle ......................................................................................................................... 41 
3.2.4 Twist Hairstyle .............................................................................................................................. 42 
3.2.5 Braids Hairstyle ............................................................................................................................. 43 
3.2.6 Dreadlocks or Locks Hairstyle ...................................................................................................... 45 
3.3 Perspectives on Natural Hair ............................................................................................................ 48 
3.4 Variables Influencing Choice of Hair ............................................................................................... 50 
3.4.1 Peer or Societal Pressure ............................................................................................................... 51 
3.4.2 Hairstyle as an Expression of Identity ........................................................................................... 53 
 
 
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3.4.3 Health Concerns Associated with Hairstyles ................................................................................. 54 
3.5 Natural Hair and its Challenges ........................................................................................................ 56 
CHAPTER FOUR ................................................................................................................... 62 
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................ 62 
4.1 Summary and Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 62 
4.2 Recommendations ............................................................................................................................ 64 
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................... 65 
APPENDIX 1 ........................................................................................................................... 70 
APPENDIX 2 ........................................................................................................................... 71 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
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LIST OF FIGURES 
Fig.1.1 Abusua kuruwa. Front view............................................................................................ 5 
Fig.1.2 Abusua kuruwa. Side view ............................................................................................. 5 
Fig.1.3 Nsordia, Front View. ...................................................................................................... 6 
Fig.1.4 Nsordia,  Side View.. ...................................................................................................... 6 
Fig.1.5 Drawings of Fante women hairstyles, Ghana 1964.. ...................................................... 7 
Fig.1.6 Fante women of Elmina (Edina) in Gold Coast (Ghana) wooden engraved drawing .... 7 
Fig.1.7 Young women during coming-of-age ceremonies. ........................................................ 7 
Wearing the Tekua Fante, Ghana, 1964...................................................................................... 7 
Fig.2.1 Uncut hair of a healer, Cote d‟Ivoire. ........................................................................... 23 
Fig.2.2 Traditional sculpture of hairstyles. Hair in African Culture,. ....................................... 24 
Fig.2.3 Hair dressing in West Africa ........................................................................................ 26 
Fig.2.4 A mother styling the daughter‟s hair ............................................................................ 26 
Fig.2.5 African Twist and  Locks, ............................................................................................ 28 
Fig.2.6 African locks with gold rings. ...................................................................................... 28 
Fig.2.7  Frytol oil  Promotions, women hairstyles (Afro) in recent  billboard advertisements. 32 
Fig. 3.1 Example of Afro Short ………………………………………………………………40 
Fig.3.2 Example of Afro Long Length ..................................................................................... 41 
Fig.3.3 Example of natural Cornrow hair. ................................................................................ 42 
Fig.3.4 Example of Twist hairstyle. .......................................................................................... 43 
Fig.3.5 Cornrow with Afro Kinky hair extension. .................................................................... 44 
Fig.3.6 Natural hair braiding with synthetic hair extension...................................................... 45 
Fig.3.7  Example of Dreadlocks or locks. ................................................................................. 47 
Fig.3.8  Example of Sisterlocks. ............................................................................................... 47 
 
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LIST OF TABLES 
Table 1.1 Number of Participants at the Various Study Sites ................................................... 13 
Table 1.2 Key Informants interviewed and Number of years they have been wearing natural 
hair. ........................................................................................................................................... 14 
Table 1.3 Interviews for the video data .................................................................................... 17 
 
 
 
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                                                  CHAPTER ONE 
INTRODUCTION 
1.1 STUDY BACKGROUND 
Hair is a mutable part of the human body, which lends itself as a symbolic representation 
embedded in many social and cultural settings (Mazrui, 1972:18). Hair relates to aesthetics and 
symbolic values for negotiating feminine identities particularly among women. A woman‟s 
hair provides her the medium to express her identity and social status particularly with the 
ways in which women wish to be seen and admired. Most women are usually obsessed with 
their hair. Therefore, a woman‟s hair preference is crucial and varies depending on the cultural 
settings she identifies with. This preference provides the opportunity to investigate and 
examine such representation of women‟s expressions of identity. Whether or not the wearing 
of natural hair is appropriate in everyday life within a given cultural setting, the study of hair 
needs to be considered. In Ghana, various forms of natural hair can be identified. These include 
Afro-hair, plaiting/threading, cornrow and braids/twist and locks. It has been observed that 
before colonisation, textured hair or perming as it is called in Ghana and associated styles were 
not common.  
 
However, with the increasing interaction between local people and Europeans the natural hair 
lost its popularity to the straightened hair that is produced through perming, hot combing and 
chemical relaxing (Desmond, 1993; Can-Tamakloe, 2011; Osewele, 2012; Sobze, 2013).  Over 
the past two decades there has been a change from permed hair to natural hairstyles. However 
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there is paucity of research data on how this change occurred and the various factors that 
influenced it.  
 
Over the past two decades Ghanaian women have shown preference for natural hair as a means 
of expressing themselves. Wearing of natural hair has become a common phenomenon 
resulting in the springing up of specialist salons for natural hair throughout the country.  This 
has also brought about the development of many Internet blogs and social media platforms that 
provide free maintenance advice plus recommended products for natural hair. There appears to 
be an increasing number of Ghanaian women desiring of the natural hair for various reasons. 
Hair is thought to be the richest endowment of women (Luther, 1962). Hair is also said to be a 
woman‟s glory, which she shares with her family as a source of strength of her beauty and 
treasure (Angelou, 2009). Some hairstyles have been in vogue over the centuries, some 
changed significantly and others have gone through multiple changes over time while some 
faded away into obscurity. Natural hair in this study is identified as naturally textured, without 
the use of texture altering chemicals.  
In Ghana, hair has held significant roles since the pre-colonial period. It has been used as a 
language and communication system that expressed religious belief and part of the local 
cultural fabric knitted into public celebration. „Ritual‟ in this context is not limited to mystical 
beings or powers but is referenced to formal and informal daily behaviours enacted for 
occasions (Turner, 1977).  Before colonial territorialisation of the Europeans in Africa, the 
manner in which hair was groomed and the processes associated therewith-reflected deeper 
social structures of status, gender relation, leadership role, personal preference, and individuals 
in society. For instance whereas the straightened hair was thought to reflect a more civilized 
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woman, within the colonial set up, the „African kinky hair‟ was imagined as a style that was 
„unkempt‟ (Johnson and Bankhead, 2014). Depictions of hairstyles in anthropomorphic 
documentations and collections by colonial administrators, missionaries, and travellers have 
emphasised the diversity and visual richness of the African hair. Writings and descriptions by 
most of these early scholars (for example, Bowdich, 1817; Rattary, 1927; Sieber, 2000) 
demonstrate the in-depth significance of hair to the Ghanaian and African societies.  
 
Can-Tamakloe (2011) and Lester (2000), suggest that African women started looking down on 
their type of hair texture when they were taking care of their slave masters‟ children hair, 
which was easy to comb. Also, the silky feel of the children‟s hair made them feel their own 
African kinky hair was inferior.  Therefore, they started desiring to have the same type of 
textured hair, and this brought about the straightening of the African hair with chemicals. The 
chemicals or hair relaxers for the African hair were invented by Augustus Garrette Morgan Sr. 
(Koppelman, 1996). He discovered that the chemicals used to repair sewing machines could 
relax kinky hair curls (Can-Tamekloe, 2011). After the discovery, Madam C. J Walker was the 
first woman to sell the relaxer to other women from door to door. She later became a 
millionaire and popular through the hair relaxer business. This was the period when most 
African women in America were most uncomfortable with the toughness of the natural hair 
(Koppelman, 1996; Can-Tamakloe, 2011). 
The centrality of hair to „diasporic aesthetics‟ and hair as a symbol of black resistance to 
oppression opened up awareness for dialogue on the understanding of historical art designs in 
Africa (Dash, 2006). Africans treasure their hair and value it irrespective of whatever condition 
under which they find themselves. The desire and willpower of enslaved Africans to style their 
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hair with broken bottles under extreme dehumanizing conditions on slave ship decks is 
admirable (Dash, 2006:27; Mintz and Price, 1992:48). The meanings of hairstyles are 
contextual and often ambiguous because hairstyles cannot be preserved in the absence of 
drawings, sculptures and photography. Bartlett (1993) posits that hair conveys status, attitudes 
and plays a role in everyday life. Hair is also an important part of the human body that has 
diverse communication functions.  
Ethnographic information from the first quarter of the nineteenth century gave accounts of the 
significance of hair to the Ashanti of Ghana as demonstrated in their burial rituals. Various 
forms of hair are represented on some Akan terra cotta funerary figurines, sculptures and in 
early photographs. The Akan terra cotta funerary figurines are portrayals of human forms in the 
nineteenth century. The depiction of people in the anthropomorphic documentation such as 
terracotta figurines collected by travellers highlights the various forms and attention that was 
given to hair in the past. The deceased royals or important personalities among the Akan were 
represented by terracotta figurines called nsordia, and accompanied with a ceremonial family 
bowl called Abusua Kurawa  (see Fig.1.1 and Fig. 1. 2). The nsordia was commissioned to 
exhibit as much as possible the identity of the deceased person. It is a form of traditional 
portrait (Davies, 1956). 
Recounting the works of Sieber and Herreman (2000) cited in Dzramedo (2009), in the 1880s 
the closest family members of the deceased within Akan traditions shaved off their hair as a 
sign of grief and as offering to the soul of the deceased. In the case of women, on days of 
rejoicing, the shaving of hair from their head was seen as an offering to deities as a sign of 
respect and honour. In the account of Rattary (1927), the hair of family members of the 
deceased are shaved off and placed in the Abusua Kuruwa (see Fig 1.3 and Fig 1.4). These are 
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sent to the cemetery called asensie in Twi with the spoken words: „Here is food, Here are 
(hairs from) our heads.  Accept them and go and keep them for us’ (Rattary, 1927:cited in 
Bellis, 1994). 
This cultural practice provides us with some insight into how hair was used to express family 
ties. Again the different hairstyles that are evident on the nsordia could be conveniently 
considered to represent diverse hairstyles in pre historical times (see Fig 1.3; Fig 1.4). 
  
 Fig.1.1 Abusua kuruwa. Front Fig.1.2 Abusua kuruwa. Side view  view   
  source: source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/530298
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/53 924848860689/ Date Accessed: July 15, 
 0298924848860689/ Date 2018.  
Accessed: July 15, 2018.   
 
 
 
 
 
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  Fig.1.3 Nsordia, Front View. Fig.1.4 Nsordia, Side View.  
Source: Source: 
https://encryptedtbn0.gstatic.com/images? https://encryptedtbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A
q=tbn:ANd9GcQpgh_WS61X0K9KR073y . Nd9GcQpgh_WS61X0K9KR073yxPNg5Dt8eQUYi
xPNg5Dt8eQUYims-VRybT0m9qGw1s6l 
Date Accessed: July 15, 2018  
ms-VRybT0m9qGw1s6l 
Date Accessed: July 15, 2018 
 
  
The application by women of black thread around hair could be seen as one of the first steps of 
styling in West Africa. The use of thread may be considered as an external influence because 
indigenes before colonial contact were not producing such threads. According to Arnoldi 
(1995), many historical hairstyles are now extinct but can be seen in the early terracotta forms, 
drawings, sculptural forms and photographs (see Fig.1.5). During ceremonies and ritual 
occasions, Fante royal wives and female priestesses wear distinctive horsehair wigs called the 
tekuwa fashioned into elaborated hairstyles decorated with ornaments (see Fig.1.7). Tekuwa 
was inspired by the engraved drawings of the actual Fante women hairstyles in the 19th 
Centuries (see Fig 1.6). 
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Fig. 1.5. Drawings of Fante 
women hairstyles, Ghana 1964. 
Photo: Roy Sieber. 
 
 
  
 
 
Fig. 1.6 Fante women of Elmina (Edina) 
 in Gold Coast (Ghana) with their 
hairstyle in a wooden engraved drawing 
(1800-1895) 
http://kwekudeetripdownmemorylane.blo
 gspot.com/2012/09/hairstyles-in-african-
culture.html 
Date Accessed: 10-10-2018 
  
 
 
 
 
Fig.1.7 Young women during  
coming-of-age ceremonies. 
Wearing the Tekua Fante, Ghana, 
1964. Photo: Roy Sieber. 
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The threading and plaiting of hair in Ghana have their roots in proverbs and events, which also 
serve as a means of communication among the women. This process is of great importance to 
women because it helps them in growing their hair in long length (Arnoldi, 1995: Dzramedo, 
2009). 
Meanwhile, there were changes in hair types from the 1960s onwards when people were 
relaxing their hair into Jelly curls with added extensions of coconut fibre. Today, women relax 
and braid their hair with several extensions and wigs. Nevertheless, many women are going 
back to what is called „natural hair‟ (Dzramedo, 2009).  
Wearing of natural hair is one of the means by which contemporary Black women feel more 
empowered about their hair and beauty. The acceptance of one‟s natural hair demonstrates a 
level of self-acceptance, which represents a powerful evolution in black political expression 
(Thompson, 2009). During the Oslo IAAF Diamond League in June 2017, the wig of Blessing 
Okagbare, the Beijing 2008 Olympic silver medallist from Nigeria, fell off during her 6.21 
meters long jump event. In spite of her achievement, she was criticized on social media for not 
maintaining her natural hair as a Black woman (Warren, 2017).  
It is noteworthy that natural hair of black people is a subject that is deep-rooted in racism, 
politics, and stereotyping but the hair is modified for its aesthetic value and mostly associated 
with „women of colour‟. Thus, many Black women appear to be changing their hair form from 
the chemically straightened hair and wigs to natural kinky hair texture (Boswell, 2016). In 
Adichie‟s novel, Americanah, also brings out the fact that the painful, expensive process of 
“relaxing” kinky African hair to conform to cultural expectations brings Black women 
dangerously close to self-hatred (Ucham and Kangira, 2015).   
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Aesthetically, one of the unique features of African textured hair is its ability to be sculpted 
and moulded into various shapes and forms. However, scholars such as Robinson (2011:358) 
are of the notion that “natural hair is kinky and as such difficult to maintain, comb, style, and 
manage”. Ghanaian female music artists such as Becca, MzVee, and the late Ebony have 
defied some of these assertions and re-contextualized boundaries of the feminine hair. Indeed, 
these identities differentiate them from other women who do not keep natural hair. Beyond the 
unique identities and ideologies that natural hair presents, there lies beneath its history, the 
philosophy and sociocultural practices layered with symbolic values.  
 
1.2 RESEARCH AIM 
 
This research aims to investigate changes in hairstyles among Ghanaian women across time 
and space (i.e pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial periods). It further seeks to examine 
preferences among some Ghanaian women for natural hair and how these preferences are 
influencing, redefining and enforcing social and cultural standards regarding gendered 
aesthetics and identities.  
 In addition, the study examines how natural hair affects the interplay of cognition and gender 
within the Ghanaian cultural experiences, redefinitions and the enforcement of sociocultural 
standards regarding gendered aesthetics and identity. 
 
 
 
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1.3 OBJECTIVES 
 
1. To explore the different kinds of hair that are categorised as natural hair. 
2. To examine the increasing preference for natural hair over chemically altered hair by 
the Ghanaian women. 
3. To examine variables that enforces and redefines the wearing of natural hair as a 
form of cultural heritage.  
 
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 
 
A number of research questions were addresses in order to achieve the research 
objectives. 
These include: 
1. What is the meaning of natural hair as against unnatural hair? 
2. What is informing the increasing preference of natural hairs over other hairstyles 
among contemporary Ghanaian women? 
3. How do attitudes and perceptions about the wearing of natural hair enforce and redefine 
it as a form of cultural heritage?  
 
1.5 METHODOLOGY 
1.5.1 Introduction 
 
This section presents information on how the research was designed and the various methods 
employed in gathering data, including visual anthropological approaches and ethnographic 
techniques of visual documentation, observation, and interviewing.  The study also used 
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qualitative approaches because the researcher considers them as the best method to be utilised 
in achieving the study‟s objectives.  
 
1.5.2 Study Design 
The study used qualitative design with focus on both ethnographic and anthropological 
research approaches in the collection of data.  Sklar (1991:6) defines ethnography as the 
portrait of people and their goals.  The current study sought to not only describe but also to 
understand what constitutes Ghanaian women‟s cultural knowledge with regard to hair. This 
cultural awareness includes the ethos, tone, character, and quality of their lives, their moral 
and aesthetic values and their worldview. 
 
The basis for this research using the visual ethnographic and anthropological approach is 
founded on Dziga Vertov‟s, quotes " The movie camera was invented in order to penetrate 
deeper into the visible world, to explore and record visual phenomena, so that we do not forget 
what happens and what the future must take into account" (Vertov, 1984: 69). According to 
Hammersley and Atkinson (1995:1), the use of the participatory approach either „overtly or 
covertly‟ in the study of people‟s lives for a period of time is useful for research.  Thus, I used 
the camera to observe and explore the spaces of the contemporary Ghanaian woman.  
 
1.5.3 Study Population and Sampling Techniques 
A sample frame was drawn from the city of Accra, particularly Madina, and University of 
Ghana Campus. However, areas like Okponglo, Mempaasem and Haatso near the University 
were also added to the study area. This is so, because specialist salons were located in these 
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areas. University of Ghana, Legon campus and Madina communities were selected because of 
their cosmopolitan population. Participants of diverse socioeconomic and socio-cultural 
backgrounds were easily accessible for the study within these metropolises. Purposeful 
sampling or selective sampling methods were used. This sampling procedure was considered 
because it is one of the most cost-effective and time-effective sampling methods. Participants 
interviewed included women who have groomed natural hair from infancy until adulthood, 
women who have groomed their hair natural but changed at one point to permanent 
straightened hair, and women who have groomed their hair natural, altered the hair then 
returned to natural hair.  
Also professional hairstylists and dealers in cosmetic and organic natural hair products were 
interviewed.  These skilled persons were important because the body of knowledge they 
possess are very relevant to the topic under consideration.  The exclusive participant, that is 
young girls and older women above sixty are those who do not fall within the study area and 
age range. Women between the ages of twenty to sixty years were included in the sample. The 
study considered this age gap because in Ghana most girls at public Senior High Schools keep 
their hair in the natural state and are not supposed to grow it until they enter tertiary 
institutions.  
 
The range of women who wear chemical hair ends at age sixty because by this age most of the 
women may have had other hairstyles or gone through the changing periods before reverting to 
natural hair. The women recruited for this study represented diverse economic and social 
population of the study area.  Table 1.1 shows the number of participants interviewed for the 
study. This includes participants for both the focus group discussions (FGD) and interviews. 
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Table 1.1 Number of Participants at the Various Study Sites 
Place of Interview Number of Participants 
Madina          8 
 
University of Ghana, Legon         15 
 
Haatso          9 
 
Okponglo          8 
 
Total         40 
 
 
The data for this study was collected through ethnographic fieldwork, employing the use of 
video recording and interview of women within the study scope and population. The 
collection of data started briefly in May 2018 and later resumed from July to August of 2018.  
The findings of the study were based on both one-on-one interviews and focus group 
discussions at the University of Ghana, Madina, Okponglo, Haatso and Mempaasem.  The 
data collected was classified and analyzed under the following sub themes; natural hair 
interpretations, African identity and consciousness, misconceptions and discriminations, 
preferences and influences. An interview guide was developed and used on the field. 
Appendix 1, shows the sample questionnaire with questions focusing on women‟s thought on 
the interpretations of natural hair, influences and preferences, challenges and privileges, 
African consciousness and health consciousness, what motivates them to wear natural hair 
amidst the proliferation of other hairdos among contemporary Ghanaian women. 
 
The study sample was a total number of 20 women aged between 40-60years. The names used 
in the table here are pseudonyms to enable the researcher relate to the people by their 
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descriptions (see Table 1.2). They are neither the names used in the ethnographic film. The 
description used in the ethnographic film includes: students, UG staff, fashion designer, nurse, 
natural hair specialist and a professor. 
 
Table 1.2 Key Informants interviewed and Number of years they have been wearing 
natural hair.  
 
 Age Marital Status Number of years they have been wearing natural 
hair  
1 33 Single 4 years  
2 31 Single Throughout her life 
3 38 Married 18 years  
5 45 Married 3 years  
6 47 Married 7 years  
7 55 Married 8 years  
8 48 Married 2 years  
9 60 Married 2 years  
10 36 Single 6 years  
11 51 Married 10 years 
Source: Fieldwork, 2018 Interview of Key Informants (KI) 
The characteristics of these respondents show that the number of years that they have worn 
natural hair ranged from two to ten years. It was however, observed that some of the 
respondents wore natural hair throughout their life, such as a 31-year-old respondent (see 
Table 1.2). 
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1.5.4 Materials and Methods of Data Collection 
 
 Field notes were kept on observations relevant to the study. To present a more detailed data, 
most interviews were captured in video. Five professional hair stylists (stationary and 
freelance) were involved in the in-depth-interviews. Among them is Mikesh one of the main 
natural hair specialists in Ghana.  Dealers in cosmetic and organic natural hair products also 
provided insights into the many nuances of natural and chemical hair grooming. A five 
member focus group discussion was conducted with a focus on women who groomed their 
hair unprocessed and women who groomed their hair by chemically treating it. The focus 
group discussion also looked at women, who have groomed their hair natural, altered the hair 
and reverted to natural hair. FDG was important to the researcher because it served to 
crosscheck the information provided from various perspectives. 
  
1.5.5 Sources of Data 
 
 The study used both primary and secondary sources of data. The researcher accessed 
information for the secondary data from library resources such as books, online articles and 
journals. Also, some archival information‟s were accessed during the researcher‟s four weeks 
internship at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.  Further information was 
accessed from the University of Ghana electronic system and Internet sites as well. The 
primary data collected included materials obtained from observation, interviews, and focus 
group discussion (FGD) as well as interactions with the women in the various study sites 
where data was collected.  
 
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1.5.6 Instruments and Devices 
 
The video camera was the primary research tool in this study.  The researcher used the canon 
HDV camcorder and Nikon 7000 in most of the interviewing and observation sections.  The 
researcher also used Huawei Y3 2017 android phone to voice record some of the participants 
who did not want to be interviewed on camera. The camera enabled the researcher to obtain 
and capture the real expressions of the women on their preference for natural hair over 
chemical treated hair. The recording was mostly done at salons, offices, among students on 
campus, churches and market places. 
 
Some of the salons could not grant the researcher access until she had some business with 
them. In most instances, she went to these salons to get her own hair done so while waiting to 
be attended to or after being attended to her hair and then she converses with them about their 
opinions. The researcher established rapport with both clients and the workers of the salon. 
There were times the researcher had to make two or more trips to the salon before she could 
get acquainted with the owner. The researcher made a lot of friends at church who had natural 
hair and told them over and over about her research intentions before booking appointments to 
record with the camera. Most people preferred to share their concerns casually than on the 
camera.  
Various photographs of hair were taken from different angles and positions during the focus 
group discussion and in-depth interview process to present a documentary film (visual 
documentation) to aid the final analysis.  Table 1.3 presents information on participants 
interviewed in the video. In light of that, ten-minute ethnographic film on the study 
highlighting the motivations for wearing natural hair, modes of maintenance, perceptions 
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about natural hair was produced to serve as a good resource for the public, historians, social 
scientists and students. 
Table 1.3 Interviews for the video data 
Age Range Number to be interviewed Number Interviewed 
20-30 6persons X 3groups = 18persons 10 
30-40 4persons X 4groups = 16persons 7 
40-60 20 persons (one on one) 10 
Source: Author‟s Fieldwork 
 
1.5.7 Ethnographic film production 
 
The ethnographic film produced out of the field data is 10 (ten) minutes in duration. It 
highlights the positive discourse around the African natural hair. The interviews that were 
captured centered on students, staff and lecturers of the university of Ghana, the natural hair 
specialist salon owners, and their clients and some individuals from churches, offices and 
marketplaces. The ten minutes documentary film begins with various definitions of what is 
natural and what comes to mind when one refers to natural hair. 
 
Respondents gave information on the processes involved when turning a chemical hair into 
natural hair, which is from the short trimmed hair to the locks stage. This phenomenon is 
usually among women of twenty years of age to sixty years. They explained that the locking 
stages or doing the dreadlocks is believed to be the peak point of the natural hair fashion. 
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Reactions to why most women prefer the natural hair to other forms of hairstyles and their 
concerns are also captured in the video. The disadvantages of keeping the natural hair 
including the pain in combing were documented. 
 
 In the film, a specialist spoke about the techniques and the available organic items that were 
used for hair maintenance. The Focus Group Discussion (FGD) participants mentioned the 
foods and fruits they used in maintaining their hair. The locticians (specialists who do the 
dreadlocks) also spoke about how safe the natural hair product were and how they are void of 
chemicals. Variations in the opinions of the participants on the affordability of keeping natural 
hair depending on the type of natural hair one wants to keep were noted. 
 
In concluding the film, study participants mentioned some comments friends and family made 
when they started wearing natural hair. They raised few health concerns in the use of 
chemicals for hair treatment but they all said they would never texturised their hair for any 
reason. The conversational interview style that was employed by the researcher made most 
participants relaxed and was able to express their views genuinely. 
 
 
1.5.8 Limitations 
 
Getting access to people for the focus group discussion and in-depth interviews was 
challenging because students were part of my data population and they had different time 
schedules. Some participants were uncomfortable when they knew they were going to be 
captured on camera. Therefore, salons, which granted the researcher audience in carrying out 
interviews, were few.  The back and forth trips to these salons, cancelling and rescheduling 
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appointments over and over explaining the study objectives demanded extra time and money 
on the researcher.  The researcher showed them her Student Identification Card before some 
were convinced she was not doing the study for commercial purposes.  
Lack of funding made the researcher unable to provide any form of compensation to the 
respondents; especially for the hair stylist time. At a point in time one of the respondents 
requested for some form of compensation. 
 
1.6 Significance of the Study 
  
Studies such as Rattray (1927), Arnoldi and Kreamer (1995), Sieber and Herreman (2000), 
suggest that hair was a way of showing identity in both the pre-colonial and colonial periods. 
In the pre-colonial period, natural hair served numerous purposes. Apart from being a symbol 
of gender identity, it marked milestones of life and signified status. However, in the colonial 
period closer contact between Africans and European children gave a different perspective 
about natural hair (Sieber and Herreman, 2000; Dash, 2006; Essah, 2008). Ghanaian women 
felt inferior about their hair and explored other hairstyles such as wig, hot comb, Jelly curls 
and perming. 
 
This study is therein intended to contribute to the paradigmatic shift regarding the very 
concept of beauty and the place of women within culture. Scholars such as Essah (2008), 
Thompson (2009), Can-Tamakloe (2011) and Osewele (2012) have documented people‟s 
perceptions about the wearing of natural hair in Ghana. Most of these literature have however, 
focused more on African American women with very little information on Ghanaian women. 
This study is therefore important because it will bring to the fore the evolving phenomenon of 
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wearing natural hair by Ghanaian women as a means of expressing and representing their 
social identities. The scholarly enquiry will further shed light on the wearing of natural hair as 
part of tangible and intangible culture. Finally, the work will contribute to literature on the 
anthropology of aesthetics. 
 
1.7 Arrangement of Chapters 
 
The dissertation is made up of four chapters. Chapter One is divided into seven sections, 
namely, study background, research aim, objectives of the study, the research questions, 
methodology, significance of study and the organization of the chapters of the research. 
Chapter Two outlines the research method and the approaches in the presentation of the data. 
Chapter Two is in two sections. The first section is about the data presentation from the 
literary sources and the field data.  
 
Chapter Three provides the discussion of the data. This chapter is also divided into four 
sections namely: types of natural hair, perspectives about natural hair, variables influencing 
the choice of hair and challenges facing the use of natural hair. The fourth chapter is in two 
sections; the first section summarizes the research findings and concluded the discussion of 
data. The last section of the chapter identified four recommendations out of the study. The 
bibliography and Appendix one and two contains the interview guide and the information on 
the DVD of the ethnographic film. 
 
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CHAPTER TWO 
INFORMATION FROM LITERARY SOURCES 
2.1 INTRODUCTION 
 
This review of literature is in relation with the study objectives. It is categorised under five sub 
headings, namely: definition and historical information on hair in Africa, indigenous hair and 
cultural contact, politics of identity, natural hair maintenance and hair and health. The review 
focuses on literature on hair as a cultural trait from the perspective of missionaries and 
travellers who came into contact with Africans, more especially, West Africans. References 
are made to articles in journals, books, online blogs and YouTube videos, which focused on 
the topic under consideration. The literature presents issues on identity formation and provides 
understanding on the relevance of hair preference as a form of cultural preservation among the 
contemporary Ghanaian women. 
2.2 Definition and historical information on hair in Africa 
 
In Africa, hair is believed to be an extension of the head. Among the Tuareg people of the 
Sahara regions of North Africa, hair is considered to be the outer manifestation of intelligence 
and much hair is linked to noble status (Rasmussen, 1994:85-6; Arnoldi, 1995: 54). Hair is a 
medium through which multiple identities are communicated, for example through styling and 
tressing and shaving. Hairstyles may relate to personal values, age, gender, religion and 
ethnicity and remains part of the ever-changing face of fashion.  
 
Hair shapes peoples lives and conveys messages such as political ideologies, and hair may be 
viewed as a symbol of modernity. Culturally, specific beliefs and values associated with the 
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head and hair underlie people‟s notion of propriety, appropriateness, good grooming, beauty, 
fashion and modernity (Arnoldi and Kreamer, 1995:23). 
 
In some West African societies, a baby‟s mother may carefully keep the cut hair of the baby in 
a basket as a sign of safeguarding the child‟s body parts as hair in the hands of a wrong person 
could be used for malicious purposes (Baduel and Meillassoux, 1975;Tayeye, 1979).  Among 
the Yoruba for example, twins called ibeji and infants born with lots of hair known as dada 
they must leave their hair on until it is cut in a special ritual (Lawal, 2000:102; Sieber and 
Herreman, 2000). It is believed also to some extent that children‟s hair symbolizes the wealth 
and prosperity, which they bring to their parents on earth (Houlberg 1971: 375-77). In Senegal 
a child is named when it is about a month and a half old in a ceremony during which the 
child‟s hair is shaved off and the head rubbed with oil in the presence of about five to six 
invited witnesses (Herreman and Sieber: 2000; Moore, 1973; Astley 1968:11, 275). 
These practices are not that different in Ghana. The Akan also celebrate the milestone of life 
by cutting the hair of newly born babies‟ before the eighth day after birth.  The set day is 
usually marked as the day of socially outdooring and naming of the child. This social and 
cultural phenomenon of cutting hair is also observed for young girls and/or adolescent girls 
who are transitioned into womanhood.  This is a prerequisite to acknowledge and affirm the 
social and gendered political practice of feminine grooming among certain heterogeneous 
ethnic communities, such as the Krobo (Boakye, 2010).  
In Ghana, indigenous priests and priestesses, including their attendants, are often identified 
with the wearing of natural hair and in various styles. Institutional social order and power is 
also enforced through the representation in traditional Queen Mothers trimmed hair called 
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“Dansinkran”. The edge of the hair is trimmed into a shape of a moon deeply dyed with 
traditional hair dye. In the Akan group, this hair representation by the Queen Mothers 
differentiates them from other women at any public event (Nkansah, 2008:72-73). 
2.3 Indigenous Hair and Cultural Contact 
 
Reports and notes by the travellers such as Bowdich (1817), Rattray (1927), Herreman and 
Sieber (2000), who came to Africa between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries on how 
ancient hair was styed and treated, suggest that hair was an important cultural trait to the 
African. The travelling exhibitions organised by the Museum of Art, New York, in the year 
2000 include objects on African hairstyles, which Roy Sieber and Frank Herreman curated. 
The exhibitions showcased diversity in African natural hair through photographs and 
sculptures and revealed how hairstyles exhibited status, ethnic origin, and individual personal 
taste, special and abnormal conditions. Asante traditional priests for example, grew their hair 
into locks known as mpesempese meaning „I don't like my hair‟ (Fig. 2.1) which could be the 
roots of locks/Rastafarian hair today in Ghana (Can-Tamakloe, 2011).
Fig. 2.1. Uncut hair of a healer, Cote d’Ivoire.  
Photo by Sieber, 2000 
 
  
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!
The mpesempese hairstyle could also be associated by society with lunatics because it is uncut 
and unattended to. Royal executioners also wear the mpesempese hair to scare people off as a 
means to signal that they are untouchable. Girl’s dolls (Fig.2.2) exhibit designs with various 
other hairdos seen among Africans (Sieber and Herreman 2000:56).  
 
Fig.2.2 Traditional sculpture of hairstyles. 
Hair in African Culture, (Sieber and 
Herreman, 2000). Accessed on: 30th May 
2018. 
   
 
 
 
 Hair as a mark of identity was part of the African culture prior to contact between European 
missionaries, ethnographers and Africans. Apart from skin colour, hair was one of the 
significant traits that differentiated the African from other races. More so hair has always had 
a particular meaning toward the feminine body. The meanings of hair are contextual and often 
ambiguous because hair cannot be preserved in the absence of drawings, figurines, sculptures 
and photography.  
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Hammond (2017) draws from a body of phenomenological description of young African 
American females transition from chemically relaxed hair to „natural hair‟. The word „natural‟ 
presupposes organic, produced by nature (biology) and not artificial or imitation. He thus sets 
the foundation for one of the ways by which we could view natural hair as the original texture 
of one‟s hair before any chemical or mechanical manipulation. 
The basis for their preference offered is not very different from ways of looking at the natural 
hair with regard to the Ghanaian woman. The concept of natural hair then could be referred to 
as hair that has not being straightened or chemically treated. The lack of chemical treatment 
makes the hair look kinky and non-glossy as compared to hair that is chemically treated to 
relax and loosen it into textures more comparable to Caucasian hair (Thompson, 2009). 
The kinky African hair texture is a natural cause of growth of the type of hair due to the 
tropical climate in Africa. In other words, hair is a cultural trait and with a particular focus on 
Africa, natural hair plays a significant role in the cultural and spiritual life of many groups of 
people. Hairstyling is a form of expression of identity, status and wealth (Byrd and Tharp, 
2001). Different hairstyles have been passed from generation to generation even though some 
have been transformed over the periods.  
In the nineteenth century, the Tsimihety people of Madagascar were known to not cut their 
hair, which later turned into locks. This cultural practice was believed to signify their 
independence in 1960, whereas European slave traders shaved off the hair on their slaves as a 
form of cleansing. To most Africans, the shaving off the hair by the slave masters rather 
signified their cultural death and loss of dignity, as hair is a sacred body parts (Essah, 2008).  
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Communal hairdressing serves as a medium through which women socialise to exchange 
personal information, community life and mother to daughter modelling (see Fig 2.3. and Fig 
2.4).  
 
Fig. 2.3 Hair dressing in West Africa. Photo: Courtesy of the Afrika Museum 
Berge n Dal  (in Hair in African Art- Sieber and Herreman 2000)  
 
  
Fig.2.4 A mother styling the daughter’s hair. Source:https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-   
r_zRIZpI0FY/UgKcOxiWkiI/AAAAAAAAPLg/17-QurbYSIE/s640/fante.jpg Date 
Accessed: June 16, 2018 
 
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People of the same gender attend to each other‟s hair; adult women groom the hair of other 
adults whilst children in most instances attend to the hair of their age mates. However, due to 
relationship dynamics and mystical belief involved in hairdressing, not anyone is trusted with 
one‟s hair. For example, Batulukisi (2000) observes that previously there were no professional 
hairdressers in African societies and by tradition, the person who dresses one‟s hair 
determines the hairstyle and that is why it is only a trusted friend or family who works on 
one‟s hair. Besides, if a person‟s hair falls in the hands of an enemy the person could easily be 
harmed as hair, is believed to be an extension of the head and the seat of intelligence (Arnoldi, 
1995; Batulukisi, 2000; Sieber and Hereman, 2000). 
There is a strong correlation between women‟s hairstyle and representations of beauty (Patton, 
2006). Thus the Ghanaian woman meticulously manipulates hair to meet the social and 
cultural criteria for admiration and aesthetic preferences. It is worth noting that, men are not 
exempted from this social criteria of beauty attributed to hair. Among the Akans both sexes 
that appear in long, „unkempt‟ hairstyles with various objects such as gold, cowries and coins 
are for religious purposes (Arnoldi, 1995:58; Cole and Ross 1977:22). Today if a person‟s hair 
is poorly looked after, that person may be criticised and insulted, or worse, called a lunatic, an 
outlaw, a witch doctor or an evil spirit. Figures 2.5 and 2.6 show types of hair that represent 
the above descriptions. 
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Fig. 2.5 African Twist and  Locks,  
 
Source: Pintress 
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/213217
363586482668/ Date Accessed : 15th 
 
 July, 2018 
 
 
 
 
Fig.2.6 African locks with gold rings. 
 
Source:Pintress,https://i.pinimg.com/origi
nals/20/eb/01/20eb0161acb060f7a2b1948c
589cab08.jpg.Date Accessed : 15th July, 
2018. 
 
  
 
 
 
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In the past, hair was conceptualised differently from how it is conceptualised currently. 
Indigenous people were braiding, shaving of some parts of their hair and threading with fibres 
long before the introduction of threads, combs and wigs (Essah, 2008). In the opinion of 
Schimit (1926), the putting of butter or vegetable oil in the hair is a widespread practise and so 
is rubbing hair with earth or lime.  “Good” hair was conceptualised in all these forms to the 
extent of growing the hair to a matted or locked state.  Hair, that was uncut and unattended to 
was locked in ways that are currently described as dreadlocks. 
 
In the account of Seiber and Herreman (2000), hair was washed, shaped and teased with 
indigenous tools and braided or plaited without attachment to anything. In some instances, 
appropriating other natural objects to shape or dress it to look stylish enhanced the hair. Such 
objects included oils and camwood. There were also the use of hair extensions in the form of 
spouses or relatives shaved hairpieces that are used with vegetable fibres weaved over bamboo 
or basketry to make complex hairstyles at the time (Sieber and Herreman, 2000). 
Natural hairstyles come in various forms among which are braids, Nubian, dreadlocks, twist, 
cornrows and bantu knots. However, the period of colonialism imposed standards of European 
beauty on African hair forms. African hair was treated as inferior and unattractive. Mokoena 
(2016) pointed out that the slave master‟s wives would shave off the hair of their female 
servants so that it would not confuse their white men. It was believed that black women‟s hair 
kept in its natural state and texture was becoming desirable to the white men. According to 
Hammond (2017), during the period of colonial and Trans-Atlantic slave trade, natural hair 
texture was regarded as “wild” and needing to be tamed whilst some were to a larger extent 
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referred as “wool.” The African hair was negatively portrayed and labelled to disregard black 
culture and identity.  
The short African hair was equally described as peppercorn or sugar in Zanzibar and 
Mauritius. These crops were the major crops on which the African slaves worked (Kingston, 
1890). In the same light, Boswell (2006) observes that, South Africans referenced short hair 
with inferior intelligence and deficiency. They even composed songs such as “jou hare kan nie 
pom-pom nie” (your hair cannot be tied in a bun). The psychological, social, cultural and 
physiological embodiment of culture contact was strongly taking a huge toll on the indigenous 
hair practice and beliefs. Hairstyles such as the wearing of wigs and heavy makeup to signify 
the wealth and status of European colonialists were acculturated into indigenous lifestyles. 
The westernisation of beauty then served as an avenue for business and trade in hair products 
and cosmetics (Boswell, 2006).  
An ethnographic account on how such systems of acculturation took place in other indigenous 
communities indicated that, „All the Slaves are led upon deck, their hair shaved in different 
figures of Star, which they generally do, one to the other (having no razors) by the help of a 
broken bottle and without Soap, It is hard to imagine a more impressive example of 
irrepressible cultural vitality than this image of slaves decorating one another’s hair in the 
midst of one of the most dehumanizing experiences in all history‟ (Mintz and Price 1992:48 
cited in Dash, 2006). 
This determination to dress the hair even in such extreme conditions by the people of the 
Surinam coast had an echo in subsequent years in the behaviour of the enslaved on the 
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plantations and other sites of bondage (Mintz and Price, 1992:48). Africans were influenced to 
a point where their hairstyles were done aesthetically (Arogundade 2003:162; Dash, 2006:3). 
 
2.4 Politics of Identity  
 
Beauty standards including straight hair, as in the case of Caucasian hair are seen as superior 
and as an ideal model for beauty. These new cultural systems and forms influenced African 
women particularly when educated women emulate hairstyles that seem more superior to their 
own kind. The current, seemingly modern and postmodern politics of the African hair – that 
is, the choice to keep it „African‟ or in tune to global trends – can be traced to the colonial era. 
It is labelled „African‟ because the style and texture of the hair has it roots from Africa. In this 
vein, Marcus Garvey suggests that „Africans should remember their past and not to remove the 
„kinks‟ from their hair and remove them from their mind‟ (Byrd and Tharps, 2001:114).  At 
the time when you stop the chemical hair in America it shows you are rebellious, meanwhile 
you feel free and have broken the image you had before (Byrd et al., 2001: 38).  
In the 1970s, the black power movement emerged and this made natural hair wearing a 
political statement. This phenomenon increased in the mid 2000‟s as a fight against western 
standard for African beauty and also the realization of how the chemical relaxers were 
damaging the natural hair. The wearing of the natural hair became a conduit for having a sense 
of belonging, empowerment, and confidence that comes with true acceptance of oneself and 
the freedom to express one‟s uniqueness. The feeling of transition from the chemical hair to 
natural hair served as basis to increase self-awareness and self-consciousness.  
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Meanwhile the pressures of mainstream beauty aesthetics and the racism that Black women 
face in the Western countries has made it difficult to tell whether or not Ghanaian women are 
also joining the racial campaigns and rhetoric about beauty standards. Today‟s women 
regardless of skin colour are modifying the hair they inherited. The rate at which Ghanaian 
women are opting for natural hair appears to be defining the new look of women. Most 
women are changing from chemical hair to the natural hair daily because a typical depiction of 
a beautiful Ghanaian woman on billboard advertisements in adulterated hair seem to have 
change in recent times (see Fig 2.7). 
 
 
Fig.2.7  Frytol oil  Promotions, women hairstyles (Afro) in recent  billboard    
advertisements.  
 
Source: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DOH38d_WAAAUbzp.jpg Date accessed June  
12, 2018 
 
 
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Keeping a low cut natural hairstyle is common to students of Senior High Schools (SHS) in 
Ghana. It is mandatory in government‟s schools for students not to grow their natural hair long 
or add any chemical to it. 
Meanwhile, Osam (2015) states that there is no recommended length of hair for SHS girls, 
although various schools observe the wearing of this hair as a norm.  
Accra Girls Senior High School was noted to have denied admission to a girl with deadlocks 
(Acquah, 2017). Although this is against the student‟s religion to cut her natural hair, the 
school authorities turned her away. The basis for such institutional rules are not very clear, 
however, there is the possibility that perhaps these mandatory rules relates to colonial systems 
of power that were laid down and have been carried on through to post-colonial times to 
today. Possibly the school going girl in Ghana had to comply with keeping the hair short and 
trimmed in order to keep a focused mind on studies. Institutional rule on the natural hair could 
also be a way of educational discipline to differentiate pupils/students from their teachers – 
which to a larger extent be cast in colonial system of power play.  
To the contrary, private educational schools in Ghana do not have such mandatory rules 
governing how hair should be worn. In other words there is no particular hairstyle that gives 
the student a focused mind to study or maintain discipline. Parents however too, do not get 
bothered about the systems of restriction with regard to the hair in these private schools. It is a 
matter of choice. Gaffey (2016), in this light argues that African students who straightened 
their hair are heading towards abandoning of their cultural heritage and identity.  
 
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2.5 Natural Hair and Maintenance  
 
The myth and enduring stereotype about black hair during the colonial and post-colonial 
periods appears to have played a significant role in shaping the current rhetoric analogy of the 
natural hair. Some of these stereotypes considered the African unadulterated hair as not 
growing long in length, untidy and not brushed/combed, “wild” and needing to be tamed 
whilst some referred to the hair as „wool‟ (Mercer, 2000). In certain instances the short 
African hair was associated with inferior intelligence and deficiency. However, these 
assertions have been heavily challenged under the shifting paradigms of beauty, identity and 
aesthetics (Brewington 2013). 
Thompson (2009) is of the view that many Black women are beginning to transition their hair 
from chemically straightened hair to embracing their natural kinky hair texture, which is 
accepting one‟s natural roots. This demonstrates a level of self-acceptance, which also 
represents a powerful evolution in black political expression. Mokoena (2016) addressed 
misconceptions about African hairstyle with the view that the Afro hairstyle is just one of the 
many forms of growing and maintaining the coiled curly hair. This form of maintenance 
shows that, the locked African kinky hair can also grow lengthy. Mokoena further recounted 
that Rastafarianism is misrepresented as dreadlocks. Thus historically, Ethiopian soldiers who 
fought in the Italian invasion, in Ethiopia in 1935 had Rastas or uncut hair. The Rastas were 
believed to have transported entangled African hair to the Caribbean. The idea was to stop the 
misconception of attributing dreadlocks to Rastafarianism. The Caribbean Rastas got their 
locks from Africa with a vow – of using the biblical character Samson as a model that they 
would not cut their hair until their country and Emperor Ras Tafari Makonnnen (also called 
Haile Selassie) was liberated and the emperor returned from exile (Mokoena, 2016). 
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According to Byrd et al. (2000), Black women are excited to talk about hair and are eager to 
learn more about becoming natural. One way they could style their natural hair was by 
threading, „where women would separate their hair into multiple parts and plait their hair with 
rounding thread around each plait” (Kauppinen, 2010: 9). During the late 1960s and early 
1970s, most Ghanaian women wore their hair in an Afro hairstyle, where their natural hair was 
combed out, so it stands and looks bushy.  According to Johnson and Bankhead (2014), the 
Afro hair is symbolically associated with militancy and black power, which originated from 
the United States of America among the African Americans. Women who wear the Afro also 
have the option of having their hair locked naturally.  
The Rastafarian‟s treatment of hair is one of the key signs of their pride in the natural qualities 
of African physical and cultural attributes. „The word dreadlocks signify “unholy people‟s fear 
of the dreadful power of the holy” (Byrd et al., 2001:125). It is further suggested the name 
dreadlocks was derived from the days of the slave trade (Essah, 2008) when Africans emerged 
from slave ships after months spent in conditions adverse to any personal hygiene, the slave 
masters declared the matted hair that had grown out of their kinky unattended locks to be 
„dreadful‟. Byrd et al., (2001:129) observe state „the style dates back to the fifteenth century, 
when the priests of the Ethiopian Coptic church locked their hair‟. Also, dreadlocks were a 
key feature in the struggle against white oppression and the celebration of a renaissance in 
black pride, black physiologies and culture. 
 
David Beckham was famously celebrated in a cornrowed hairdo as it echoed Bo Derek‟s 
plaited style in the movie 10. According to Byrd et al. (2001), hairstyle is an example of white 
appropriation and commercialisation of black „natural‟ hair looks. No longer do blacks 
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necessarily style their hair in an effort to look white as was in the colonial and post-colonial 
era. A photo documentation of eccentric hairstyles of selected AFCON football players, 
examined the use of their hairstyles in negotiating individual identity construction and as 
markers of self-actualization from the male perspective (Essel, 2017). 
The popularity and easy access to social media and the Internet in the era of globalization have 
brought about an unprecedented inter-sectionality of cultures, values and practices. What was 
once regarded as separate and unique is now common to other groups of people and cultures. 
In recent times, young people everywhere have options on a palette of styling techniques 
practice hair straightening, dyeing and curling. Such access contributes to a notion of heritage, 
which culls ideas and styling options from traditions and peoples everywhere. 
 
2.6 Hair and Health 
 
Reasons for keeping natural hair may be diverse especially when it comes to the decision and 
choice of hair to be worn by a woman. Phenomenological experiences of hair relaxers breaking 
the hair and being harsh on the scalp are a typical example. Some women would only want to 
keep their hair natural because they are tired of hiding their real identity and thus wanting to 
embrace their Afrocentric personality. Osewele (2012) noted that the present emerging trend of 
wearing natural kinky hair in twists might continue as it gains new credence and popularity as a 
style that is being embraced as „looking good‟.  
It is however, evident that health matters are not limited to environmental hygiene, sanitation 
and food only, but it is also a matter of concern when it comes to hair treatment. Increasing 
number of Ghanaian women are settling for natural hair for instance, most female celebrities 
and public figures tend to keep their hair natural (Awadzi, 2015). Tsotsoo Kwei (2018) in a 
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BBC news report observed that Ghanaian hairstylists currently complain about their 
businesses going down because the majority of their clients are opting for natural hair. 
The health concern is personalised just as much as confrontations of identity and beauty. It is 
however, interesting to see natural hair as a symbol of identity integrating the dynamics of 
health under its consideration. Can-Tamakloe (2011) explains, “Women in Accra are opting 
for natural hair because they are dissatisfied with chemical hair relaxers”. Clinical studies 
have shown many reported adverse effect associated with the use of chemical hair products – 
particularly relaxers, hair shampoos, conditioners and many others. A few of these health 
effects include hair breakage, change in colour, burns, itch and irritation on the scalp and hair 
loss (Olasode 2009; Etemesi, 2007; Swee et al., 2002).  
Chemical treated hair according to Syed et al. (2002) when compared to untreated hair, has 
weaker tensile strength, with an associated increase in porosity, indicating damage. Khumalo 
et al. (2010) also found the cysteine levels of chemically relaxed afro-textured hair to be lower 
than that of natural hair. Alkaline substances partially dissolve tissue proteins and produce 
burns through a process known as liquefaction necrosis (Cox et al., 1997). Aryiku et al. (2015) 
also avers, that “the caustic nature of such agents has the potential to cause scalp damage. This 
is especially true when high pH relaxers are left on the scalp for prolonged periods”. 
Awareness of these alarming chemical effect on hair and the body could be informing the 
many layered reasons behind the current paradigm shift of expressing beauty, social identity 
and, the relationship between the phenomenon of wearing and maintaining natural hair and 
health. 
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It is thus clear from the literature that natural hair in Ghana is identified in various forms, from 
the Afro-hair, plaiting, threading, cornrow, braids, twist and locks. It is identified that before 
colonization, texturized hair was not common. However, with increasing interaction between 
Ghanaian and Europeans since the colonial period, natural hair lost its popularity to the 
straightened hair or the European forms of hair. Whatever the issues are with natural and 
artificial hair, varied hairstyles involving both categories engulfed the Ghanaian society 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER THREE 
PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA 
3.1 INTRODUCTION 
 
This chapter presents findings of the study. It is organised under four main sub-themes, 
namely: types of natural hair, perspectives about natural hair, variables influencing the choice 
of hair and challenges facing the keeping of natural hair. 
3.2 Types of Natural Hair 
 
 Findings of the study suggest that natural hair comes in diverse forms. However, the most 
common forms worn by the contemporary Ghanaian women over the past two decades include 
the Afro, long and short trimmed types, cornrow (the front woven and the invented), braids 
(Afro kinky or artificial extensions) and locks (dreadlocks or sister locks). 
  
3.2.1 Afro Hair (short length) 
A major natural hairstyle worn by contemporary women identified in the study is the Afro 
hair. The Afro hair appears in both the short and long styles. The short trimmed hair, (see fig 
3.1) was identified as the first stage of the natural hair journey. It is an easy to go style locally 
called Daavi; literally meaning „small madam‟ in the Ewe language. It is an easy to manage 
natural hair type because one can just bath in it, towel dry and comb out. The people who keep 
this hair occasionally wear wig caps when they want to change their hairstyle. Most young 
girls of Senior Secondary School going age also wear this type of natural hairstyle. It is also 
popular with women between the ages of forty years and above who may be fed up with their 
texturized hair or for other reasons and may want to keep their hair short and manageable. 
This style is often the starting point of growing the natural hair into longer lengths. 
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Fig.3.1 Example of Afro – short 
 trimmed (daavi) hairstyle.  Photo 
 by Author 
  
 
 
 
 
3.2.2 Afro Hair (long length) 
The afro-long length hair appears to be the result of the continuous wearing of the short 
trimmed hair. Over time, the short length hair could grow out to become a long Afro hair  (see 
figure 3.2). This is achieved mainly through the woman braiding or plaiting the hair mostly 
overnight and combing it out the next morning.  Some participants suggest that this style gives 
them the opportunity and convenience to wear different hairstyles. Some of the styles they 
sometimes adapt to include twists, braids or attaching hair extensions occasionally. Overall, 
about twenty (20) respondents revealed that for those who crave for long hair, this style 
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supports the easy growth of the hair and gives the contemporary woman the latitude to 
creatively style their hair as part of its maintenance.  
 
Fig.3.2 Example of Afro Long Length 
Photo by Author 
 
 
 
 
3.2.3 Cornrow Hairstyle 
The cornrow hairstyle was also highlighted as a major style of the natural hair family. This 
style is not only limited to the natural hair of people even though it presents the African image 
and its sometimes categorized under braids. To achieve this style, some synthetic or artificial 
hair extension is sometimes added to it. This artificial hair is often made up of poly filament 
fibers, Acrylic or polyester. It was observed that although this style incorporates artificial hair 
into it, respondents nevertheless considered it as a natural hairstyle (see figure 3.3). It can be 
done with or without the synthetic extensions.  Young children of school going age, who are 
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not restricted to cut their hair short in Ghana, are often seen in this hairstyle especially without 
the artificial extensions. 
 
Fig. 3.3 Example of natural 
cornrow hair.  
Source:https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OLk
ruQadW3o/maxresdefault.jpg  
Date Assessed: July 15, 2018 
  
 
 
 
 
 
3.2.4 Twist Hairstyle 
 
The third natural hairstyle identified was the twist. This is a type of hair that involves turning 
and bending of hair strands to form a curly stretched braided hair (Figure 3.4). Most people 
who keep this hairstyle, maybe in-between the Afro and the locking hairstyle stage. Most 
respondents who had the twist suggested that they did not particularly fancy the permanent 
nature of the locked hair and thus keep the twist, which has some likeness to the locked hair. 
Others wanted to maintain the freedom of combing it out and trying other styles as and when 
they desire. 
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Twist is sometimes considered as braid because artificial hair extensions could be added to 
make it look longer. According to the respondents when synthetic hair extension are added to 
natural hair and twisted into long braids it can last from one to three months. It is locally 
called Senegalese twist because as the name suggests it is hair twist type from Senegal in 
Africa. Adding all these synthetic hair extensions is a form of preserving the natural hair 
especially when one aspires to later lock the hair into the dread locks style.  
 
 
Fig.3.4 Example of Twist 
hairstyle.   
 
    Photo by Author  
 
 
 
3.2.5 Braids Hairstyle 
 
Another significant natural hairstyle observed is the braids. The braids encompass the use of 
artificial or the synthetic hair extensions. As observed earlier, by the respondents, because it 
has braid hairstyle features, it is associated with locks look and therefore categorised as  
natural hair. When it is done with the kinky hair extension or the hair is kinky by texture but 
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uses synthetic or artificial extension to braid, it is still considered natural hair because it 
depicts the African look (see Figures 3.5 and 3.6). Most respondents also explained that 
braiding with the synthetic extention could help the individual with texturised hair transition 
into natural hair with time. For those who do not want to cut their texturised hair  but wants to 
change to natural hair, usually keep their braids for long (i.e three months). This helps them 
aviod cutting, so when the permed texture hair gets invisible then, the natural hair texture 
starts. In otherwords, it means one do not nessarily have to start from Afro short (cut trimmed 
hair-daavi) stage but could get Afro long length hairstyle or the in-between hair length to start 
wearing natural hair.  
 
 
Fig.3.5 Cornrow with Afro Kinky hair extension.  
 
Source: 
https://ferryvolution.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/12/4
418_braided_and_two_strand_twist_up_do_by_urban_
nature.jpg. Date accessed: 20 July 2018  
 
 
 
 
 
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Fig.3.6 Natural hair braiding 
with synthetic hair extension 
 
 Photo by Author 
 
 
 
 
 
3.2.6 Dreadlocks or Locks Hairstyle 
 
Dreadlocks or „locks‟ are permanent hairstyles. They are in a form of robes or braids. One 
needs a specialist to achieve this style (Fig. 3.7).  The study observed that the hair stylist were 
mostly men.  This style has particularly gained some popularity in recent times. There is also 
the springing up of specialist salons around major communities for the sole purpose of styling 
this type of hair. It emerged from the interviews with locticians that, they had turned their 
barbering salons into natural hair locking centers because of the demand for locks lately. Most 
respondents with locks intimated that once their hair is locked, one does not need any skill to 
keep until about six weeks when the new growth will show beneath them. This freedom seems 
to be a major reason for many women to adopt the locks or dreadlocks hairstyle. 
 
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 Although, when the hair is at locks stage it is permanent, it limits the wearer from wearing 
wigs and silky hair extensions. Therefore the popularity of the lock hair outweighs it 
constrains. The lock appears to be the climax of the natural hairstyle, hence once an individual 
decides to have their hair in such permanent state, returning to any other form of hairstyle will 
mean cutting back to the Afro short length hair state or daavi, the short trimmed hair stage. In 
this regard, one respondent who has had locks for eight years explained that: “bravery is 
sometimes attached to this type of style. One needs to take a critical decision in doing the 
locks hair”. The popular name given to the small strands type is sister locks (see Figure 3.8) 
and the big locks is also locally called dreadlocks. The name dreadlocks as identified by Byrd 
and Tharps (2001), originated from the descriptions that the slave masters gave to the African 
slaves hair that was unattended to, after they had spent months on the slave ship.  
 
In this vein, not everybody is comfortable with the name dreadlocks and also because the 
Rastafarian culture is associated with this type of hair, they prefer been called locks.  The 
name „sisterlock’ was originated by Dr. JoAnne Cornwell (Jones and Jones, 2007) for women 
of African heritage since more men wore the dreadlocks. The choice for this hair type is 
personal and could also be spiritual or politically motivated, therefore one needs to decide 
critically before wearing it (Clemetson, 2017). 
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Fig.3.7  Example of Dreadlocks or locks. 
Photo by Author. 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fig.3.8  Example of Sisterlocks. 
  
 Source:https://huntresslocs.files.wordpress.co
 m/2013/04/dscf3619.jpg  Date accessed: 21 July, 2018  
   
 
 
 
 
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3.3 Perspectives on Natural Hair 
 
General perspectives of natural hair were collected mainly through one-on-one interviews and 
focus group discussions (FGD). This was conducted with people who wear natural hair to 
ascertain how society views them and also with people who do not wear natural hair. The 
various interviews revealed out of thirty respondents, twenty-five says keeping natural hair is 
about asserting their inner most identities and a reflection of their true African selves. Many 
are drawn to the natural hair state as a conscious attempt to be themselves and counter the 
dominant ideas of how hair should be kept. Others attach spiritual and health reasons for 
adopting their natural hairstyles.  
For some, the wearing of the natural hair is accepting one‟s original, natural, biological trait 
and geographical location. Once you are born a certain way, it is imperative to embrace all the 
natural characteristics. It is associated with an identity as explained by one respondent in the 
focus group discussions.  
 ...natural is your own hair as in what you were born with. So for the Whites they are 
supposed to have silky hair and that is their natural hair but for us we have kinky hair 
so if you have no chemicals or let‟s say permed creams attached to it then we can say 
that‟s natural hair. (Respondent Two, in a FGD at the University of Ghana) 
 
Any other hairstyle that demands the attachment of artificial extensions is viewed as unnatural 
and unauthentic and to some extent, a rejection of one‟s biological or cultural makeup.  Some 
feel it is a confirmation of pride in the wearers‟ identity as a Ghanaian and an African, which 
differentiates them from other races.  Sharing her views on what constitutes natural hair, a 
natural hairstylist in an interview reiterated that: 
…there is no artificial, there is no chemicals…everything about natural hair is natural 
even when you are doing the treatment we do not use chemicals, we use our natural 
foods and fruits. The same food that we eat, which is natural, is what we use in our 
natural hair (KI interview at Haatso).  
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Another informant was of the view that the term natural hair is in varied forms and seen 
differently depending on the image one wants to portray.  
The term natural hair has become a political term also to the point that where people or 
women who wear their hair naturally… (A Respondent, in an FGD at Madina). 
About ten respondents in the focus group discussions further explains that natural hair in 
recent times is viewed within the context where people are trying to distinguish between 
women especially who have not put chemicals in their hair or have not changed the basic 
structure of their hair either with chemicals or some other physical means. The people who 
wore chemically treated hair can sometimes be included in the definition of natural hairstyle 
because of hair extensions and braids that look African or have the African identity.  
Similarly, one other respondent also define natural hair with racial factors, the snippet below 
captures her views: 
I guess the term natural hair is used more often by Africans or people of African 
descent than with Caucasians where they have been less of the history of chemically 
treating the hair, at least a recent history and so on…in the Victorian era and to all 
kinds of things than to Europeans hair in Europe, so really at the moment it is more of 
a political term where you want to distinguish people who have their own hair who are 
Africans and how African should look as opposed Europeans kinds of image.  (KI 
interview at University of Ghana, Legon Campus). 
The theory of identity proposes that a person‟s sense of who he or she is depends on the 
groups to which the person belongs.  Tajfel and Turner (1979), British social psychologists 
explain that „part of a person‟s concept of self comes from the groups to which that person 
belongs.  Thus as an informant explained, the wearing of natural hair shows a sense of identity 
for Africans depending on the space they find themselves.  A respondent in a focus group 
discussion at Okponglo concurred with the assertions of another respondent also in key 
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informant interview at the University of Ghana that natural hair is a unique form of hair 
identity for Africans. 
Just like we are created, God didn‟t really say…everybody is created 
differently. The Europeans are created differently, they also have their hair as 
natural just that they might put chemicals to straighten it but our hair is very 
unique, it coils and you might think the hair is short so to me going natural 
means just being yourself, not having any chemical in your hair and I know 
with the natural hair stuff it‟s just the normal plants and fruits we use in it so 
it‟s safe (A Respondent, in FGD at Okponglo ). 
From these discussions, it could be observed that most women interviewed saw the wearing of 
natural hair as a way of embracing their „real‟ self.  This belief, to them formed their identity 
as African women and specifically Ghanaian women. 
 
Overall, natural hair is seen as the articulation of historical connections that impress upon a 
person‟s affiliation in genes, religion, self-hood and geographical location. Hair becomes 
conceptualised in a contested site of binary opposition - “natural” against artificial”. Whatever 
does not grow out from beneath the skin is not considered authentic although may appear real. 
Hairstyles that look silky and shiny to the African is believed to have been borrowed, which 
means it is chemically straightened hair. Any appearance of hair that falls outside the 
boundary of wool-like and kinky nature may not be considered natural.  
 
 
3.4 Variables Influencing Choice of Hair 
 
 The study identified several variables influencing the choice of natural hair. Prominent among 
these were: peer or societal pressure, expression of identity, health reasons amongst others. 
 
 
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3.4.1 Peer or Societal Pressure 
 
 The study identified peer, family and societal influence as key factors accounting for the 
wearing of natural hair. For instance in the case of one of the respondents who was a student, 
her cousin influenced her.  She narrated it during the Focus Group Discussion: 
…a cousin  had natural hair when I was in SHS, her hair looks beautiful, thick and 
long, and so l thought of doing the same once l have the opportunity to grow my own 
natural hair…(Respondent, FGD University of Ghana). 
 
 
 
Again, societal pressure such as the global movement of people was also identified during the 
study as one of the influencing factors for Ghanaian womens‟ growing preference for the 
natural hair. An informant explains how she got influenced during her visit to Kenya for a 
conference:  
…The women in Kenya influenced me and the people who are even in my line of work 
as an archivist, we preserve culture. If you preserve culture then what is it about your 
culture with your hair? As a culture heritage preservationist, if you apply chemicals to 
your hair, it means you don‟t appreciate your own culture and so then, what are you 
collecting? (KI interview at University of Ghana). 
 
Again, another key factor influencing the wearing of natural hair for most of the respondents 
between the age range of forty to fifty years was the fact that, they got fed up with the 
chemical hair. They also identified the limitations that come with keeping the permed hair just 
as what an informant expresses during an interview.  
 
…..when I‟m stressed I go under the shower and just cool myself down but you cannot 
do that with the perm hair. Your age also influences your decision, most of my age 
mates are going natural because they want to be real, you know…(KI Interview, 
University of Ghana) 
 
During the researcher‟s reconnaissance visits, one of the respondents mentioned that she 
considered doing the short length Afro or Daavi when her responsibilities as a mother 
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increased. She further added that as a result of her busy schedules, she could not get the time 
to keep any other hairstyle apart from the short trimmed hair to enable her run errands easily.   
 
Majority of the respondents were also influenced by the multiplicity of the natural hairstyles 
that is seen on various social media platforms. Some of them also attested to the fact that 
tutorial videos that were made by individuals on YouTube about hair maintenance and simple 
styling techniques influenced their decision to wear natural hair.  The social media seem to 
have associated fashion to natural hair because the younger generations can relate easily since 
they are always on the social media. For instance, in a focus group discussion at the University 
of Ghana, comments from a respondent captures such field observations: 
Social media has influenced the growing preference of natural hair in various 
ways, you open Facebook now and you go to Google, natural hairstyles… 
thousands and one of the styles will come for you to see, you go to YouTube, 
people have dedicated themselves to show you how to wash, how to thread it to 
keep it softer when you are going to bed so that when you wake up, you get a 
beautiful look. (Respondent Two, FGD, at University of Ghana) 
During the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) most respondents agreed that the natural hair 
preference and identity was a revolution. A movement that have encourage most women of 
African decent to embrace the self as they are.  
I think once upon a time, it was a movement, it was a revolution and then I 
think it has become a trend. It became a thing in my generation. There are 
different reasons why people wear natural hair though, some of course, for 
health reasons and people who are sensitive to texturizers. Some are still part of 
the revolution movement. Some too it is because that‟s what is trending, not 
because it means anything to them – spirit, body, and mind. They are just 
wearing it for wearing sake (KI interview at University of Ghana). 
 
Similarly, the Respondent in the key informant interview also attributed the wearing of natural 
hair to the fact that it was trendy and not necessarily to portray it as a way of embodying the 
true spirit, body and mind of the African identity.  
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3.4.2 Hairstyle as an Expression of Identity 
 
From the findings, most Ghanaian women who wear natural hair identify themselves with a 
sense of pride. Many would like to preserve an image, which was passed on by the older 
generation that is family and friends. Most of the respondents mentioned the connection 
between their culture and the image they wish to portray.  Transmission of a cultural form or 
knowledge is never complete without bearers of continuity. The real African is seen, 
experienced and performed in the natural hair. Connecting to a true African identity is to 
embrace the totality of where one was born and not to be constituted of by some other 
influence. Another Key informant recounts her thought in the same direction when she 
transitioned from chemical hair to natural hair: 
…I got to a point and I decided that this is not good for me and you know I needed to 
stop. In any case come to think about it, you have the long flowing hair but that‟s not 
the image of most people of color. I say most because there are black people in India, 
there are black people in Australia, New Zealand, there are black people in South 
America who do have hair that is of a softer texture and can look, long and flowing as 
that in ways similar to Caucasian or Asian hair…( KI interview at University of Ghana, 
Legon Campus). 
 
Characteristically, Africans do not have the long flowing hair that gets blown away by the 
wind when one shakes the head or moves about. The African hair could stand firm in a shape, 
so when the African woman is trying to portray herself differently in other cultures then it gets 
out of place in defining the African persona.  
We preserve culture because no society will like to lose their sense of identity. Therefore, the 
natural hair movement is a movement, which encourages African women in the diaspora to 
grow their hair in its natural state without texturizing. This transformation suggests that when 
women apply chemicals to their hair, they do not appreciate their own culture and self-image. 
An informant also highlighted on this same trend of African consciousness and identity. 
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You know these days I think people are appreciating their roots…because there was a 
time people were always in European clothing, even when we were growing up, you 
understand but these days go around the University campuses and see, almost every 
student, about 70% of student ladies are in different African print, Ghanaian wear. So I 
feel people are now trying to identify who they really are and then appreciating their 
backgrounds. (KI interview University of Ghana) 
 
The African persona is embodied in its philosophy, biology, social gathering, and texture of 
hair found as the African identity. The trending hair also has an identity that is strongly 
connected to fashion. Whatever the occasion in Ghana, women dress to meet and/or satisfy the 
aesthetic values set by society. In that regard the hairstyle chosen to compliment any dress for 
everyday also add up to the identity.  
 
 
3.4.3 Health Concerns Associated with Hairstyles 
 
Health issues are personal but are also becoming a concern to many when it comes to beauty 
and hair. Health concerns were attributed to reasons accounting for why people wearing 
natural hair.  An informant shared her views about how she had always wanted a change 
because she got fed up with the perm hair overtime and had been considering this for some 
time until she became more conscious on the health issues. 
So there was that aspect of wanting a change but I was also becoming more 
conscious of the health issues involved in the chemically treated hair. I mean it 
should be obvious when you are putting chemical on your scalp that actually 
burn you, it should not be rocket science that this is not helpful, it should be 
harmful but then at the back of your head you go like I do this every eight 
weeks and every six weeks it is not such a big deal. That‟s on your head for 
some minutes and you wash it out, probably doesn‟t give permanent damage or 
we don‟t think about it because you are young and you are more prone to taking 
risk, you take all kinds of risk but then I got to a point and I decided that this is 
not good for me and you know I needed to stop. In any case come to think 
about it, you have the long flowing hair but that‟s not the image of most people 
of colour. (KI interview at University of Ghana) 
 
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In recent times there have been lots of information through the media on how black women‟s 
hair products are believed to have hazardous ingredients. These ingredients are causing hair 
loss called Alopedia, some are also related to fibroids and Breast cancer cases as well. The 
Alopedia condition is also associated with the constant pulling of the hair tight and for long 
period of time.  According to an informant, after watching some of these videos, she was 
convinced that it was safer to wear natural hair than texturized hair.  Also, a submission by a 
key informant, explains awareness created through social media on the risk involved in 
constantly applying chemicals to one‟s hair. She narrates in her response 
It is good to go natural because all these chemicals we are putting on our hair 
has its own side effects on the body. (KI in an interview at Haatso.) 
 
 Commenting on the effect of applying chemicals to the hair, another respondent told the 
researcher that she underwent breast surgery and was advised by the doctor not to put any 
chemicals on her body including her hair. She has since been wearing natural hair.  
It was further observed from the findings of this study that most of the younger informants 
(i.e. those between the ages of twenty to thirty years) during the Focus Group Discussion had 
never applied any chemicals to relax their hair.  
For health reasons and the freedom because there is nothing as exciting as having 
your own hair, having to pour water on it anytime you feel like but with the 
permed hair you are restricted and like she said I also used to experience a lot of 
headaches but I noticed that when I stopped perming my hair it has reduced. Apart 
from having thin hair and the dryers I usually experienced... they call it cut, so you 
noticed that the front part of my hair sometimes I have a lot of cuts and it‟s not 
funny at all so I think our experience with the natural hair so far we would say that 
it is the best for us. (Respondent four in FGD, at University of Ghana). 
 
  The study found this intriguing and as anecdotal evidence, which shows that most young 
girls from Senior High School were eager to transition from natural hair to texturized hair as 
soon as they finished writing their final examination. But due to knowledge they have about 
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the negative effect of applying chemicals to their natural hair, most of them are keeping their 
natural hair although they are in the tertiary institution. To this end, Respondent Two in the 
FGD emphasized that now, 
„Eighty per cent of girls in my class are all wearing natural hair’.  
 
 
3.5 Natural Hair and its Challenges  
 
Although most respondents talked about the benefits of wearing natural hair, others talked 
about some of the challenges that come with the growing of the natural hair. A natural hair 
specialist in a key informant interview explained how she needed to cope with attitude and 
reactions of people when she started the natural hair journey. She recounts:  
 
Some asked if I didn‟t have money to retouch my hair and I explain to them 
that not that I didn‟t have the money to retouch or relax but I just don‟t want to 
apply any chemical to my hair. Then they also make comments like the natural 
hair combing is a problem and you will have headaches, so I told them I will 
learn about it and will even like to be a natural hair specialist (KI interview at 
Haatso). 
 
She was determined to keep the natural hair despite all these challenges. The findings also 
suggest that the negative attitude of family members towards natural hair also posed a 
challenge. A key informant said her mom nags about seeing her in natural hair. 
My mum never… my mother is a typical Christian and she thinks it is not nice. 
Sometimes when she sees it, especially when… errhhmm… you are just about 
changing your style and all that and she sees you in that kind of mood she is 
like no go back to perm and then your hair will be smooth and easy to comb 
and all that…. ( KI interview at University of Ghana Campus). 
 
Most respondents indicated how their mothers especially are not comfortable with the natural 
hair. A respondent suggested if the mother could see lawyers, doctors, bankers and other 
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workers in the natural hair she might accept it. Another respondent also tried to explain that 
„Much information about this consciousness of “belonging to your root was not widespread‟.  
Well my mom, when I started with the locks she was like no I don‟t like it. 
They would say you are a bad girl and she actually wanted me to perm my hair 
so I tried it, I think I tried permed hair for like two years but I didn‟t like it. I 
actually had natural hair from… I finished SSS in 2007, so 2007 till I got to 
Level 300  and so I permed my hair till I finished eerrhhmm.. Level 400. But I 
noticed that it wasn‟t helping me and so when I started my national service I cut 
my hair and I went back to natural.  For my mother she wants me to have the 
permed hair because she thinks that is more organised… (Respondent three, in 
a FGD at the University of Ghana) 
 
Respondent Two also had similar problems with the mom as she explains: 
My mother was against it and she was like the perm was good and you should 
keep perm. So I actually cut my hair in bits, I did not cut off everything in a 
day. Whenever I go to the salon I make them cut a portion off and by the time 
she realized I had cut all… (Respondent Two, in a FGD at the University of 
Ghana) 
 
 According to Respondents above as much as their mothers are not in favour of the natural hair 
the influencing factors outweigh their challenges. The respondents in the focus group 
discussion also mentioned how in the Senior High School one is not supposed to grow their 
natural hair bushy or texturised. They recount how as a young girl growing up one has lots of 
restrictions from school.  
I completed SHS in 2014 and kept natural hair until 2016, keeping natural was 
not popular then so I didn‟t know how to keep it well so my friends convinced 
me to turn my natural hair which looked bushy into a perm hair to look polish 
and well kept. (FGD at the University of Ghana) 
Tracing the genesis of hairstyles in pre-and-post colonial Ghana, hairstyling had gone through 
a lot of criticism. Respondents mentioned how natural hair has been identified with certain 
odd images.  For example people with natural hair are seen as ruthless, „wee smokers‟ (drug 
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addicts and fetishist. In recent times, the findings of the study suggested that there is a change 
in the challenges associated with natural hair because all; both young and old are now 
admiring it. Just as a respondent explains: 
I was mocked. People used to say that your hair is your glory and what they 
meant your hair is your glory….., at that time I use to cut the hair like if you 
know the musician Angelique Kidjo use to have some kind of hair cut like that 
even lower than I keep so people call me Grace Jones and things. Then they 
were other people who also associated my look with being diasporain, you 
know „Americanah‟ then there were those compliments that‟s like I was brave, 
chick ...like „Americanah‟ came from men but the women constantly made me 
feel like I needed to grow my hair, I needed to perm and that was my battle but 
now things have changed, there are more compliments when it comes to natural 
hair than in the 90s when I started keeping natural hair it was not that easy. (KI 
interview at University of Ghana). 
The respondent above had such a treatment because of the pre- independence and current 
symbolic order at the time. The permed hair and wigs became the sociocultural norm before 
and after Ghana‟s independence, which contributed to these types of hair as the accepted 
beauty standards. The permed hair and wigs connoted social status and a sense of belonging. 
Permed hair was attributed to properness, appropriateness and, permed hair looked relaxed. 
An informant who is about fifty-five years of age got similar reactions from her mother in-
law:  
My mother in-law was not very excited, she was like when are you going to do your 
hair. It like you are in the state of transition. When will the hair finally be done and 
ready, and of course it takes a while to really lock it. In the interim stage, it doesn‟t 
really look that neat, she was constantly asking, this hair when will you finish, when 
will you be done, and I was like no Maama  this is the hair and that’s it. I think when 
she first met me, I had this long flowing perm hair, shaking my head around, looking 
like a „white‟ woman. We have been conditioned to see it attractive, so I think she 
missed that…  
(KI interview at Madina) 
 
The above statement is in relation with how Butler (1990), examines social-symbolic order. 
He views it as a regulatory consolidation, such that the order is established and maintained by 
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prohibitions. According to the informant, the appropriateness of hair at the past period is seen 
as smooth, more organised and easy to comb. Their reactions or attitudes, she thinks may be 
related to the unconsciousness of European systems of subjection and prohibition. This 
discussion came up during the Focus Group Discussion on how the public at times 
discriminate against people who wear natural hair. Respondent Four recounts: 
One day I was also going for one of these official gatherings, they told me that my 
natural hair is not good so I should do something about it…they claim it‟s not official, 
so you should braid or something or cover it…. discriminatory right! It is, it‟s my hair. 
If somebody has permed the hair it‟s allowed but me it‟s not allowed and the person 
claims that is her natural hair and me this is my real hair…it is bad and it feels really 
terrible…(FGD at the University of Ghana) 
 
A respondent narrates an incident between two sisters where one of them decided to wear 
natural hair due to time constraints associated with her work in the city and the other sister 
reminded her of how she would have problems with their mother when she sees her in 
“mepesepese” locks. The natural hair concept is evolving in style and in the rapidly changing 
Ghanaian society. Where in the mainstream media, it is an upsurge in fashion and most 
women desire to be youthful and elegant.  Nevertheless, the evolving hairstyles are strongly 
faced with opposition from the home and the community. This has made the individual to 
always try to put forward a decent image of themselves towards others. Some of the 
respondents seem not to care about whatever anyone said about their hair but rather enjoy the 
compliments. The idea of negative reactions from society was reiterated as a major set back 
for people who attempt to go the natural hair journey. For instance there is the association of 
locked hair to certain social negatives such as likeness to local traditional priests who 
historically kept locked hair. As such many respondents claimed they sometimes cover the 
hairstyle with conventional styles for social functions such as church activities. Others 
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however suggested that they do not pay attention to negative comments and with time, their 
new look becomes acceptable.  
The institutional and cultural structures in Ghana that exist in homes, community and the 
workplace makes the individual to look forward for approval from family and friends. From 
the findings, it could be said that self-presentation related to the natural hair in most instances 
turn to be daunting in the web of misconception and discrimination. People strive to have 
others view them positively, because they tend to put emphasis on other views in ways that 
impact their self-esteem.  
Another challenge associated with wearing natural hair is the cost involved in its maintenance. 
According to most respondents in the FGD, irrespective of the preferred type of natural hair, it 
was associated with cost.  Most respondents mentioned that contrary to the view that 
maintaining natural hair was less expensive than texturized hair, difficulties in accessing 
products, charges at salons amongst others make wearing natural hair more expensive. The 
choice of hairstyle comes with it economic demands, some see it cheap and to others its 
expensive.  
The cost associated with the natural hair in the organic products market, to some of the 
respondents, the price is the same as the perm products. The natural hair products are used for 
particular pleasant look, whereas some people do not apply any special products to their 
natural hair. The respondents also mentioned how the production of these products has 
become a business avenue for the producers. A respondent reported on how these hair care 
industries have made fortunes out of the African hair. 
 
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You know black women and our hair, as far as I can remember in the capitalist era of 
modern times has been a place where people can make money, you know whether it 
was the perm, whether it was the stretching comb and what you needed to do and the 
pomades you needed to buy to work with the stretching comb, whether it was the wigs, 
whether it was extension or raster as we call it. Hair care has been big business for 
many people and indeed I understand that, the hair trade is booming billions of dollars 
from weave, hair products and various products that move around the continent. So, 
even the natural hair fad that we may be going through for some people it may be a 
fad. It‟s a new area of fashion and identity that is being pushed by a certain segment of 
the market (KI Interview at University of Ghana). 
 
From the above discussions it is very clear that not much people are going in for natural hair 
because of the cost involved. Most people have turned their perm hair natural not because it is 
cheap to maintain but because of the sense of belonging to the African image. The findings 
from the study have been put into an ethnographic film and all the views of the respondents 
shared are well represented in the video in support of the field data. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER FOUR 
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 
 
4.1 Summary and Conclusions 
 
 The findings of the study were organised around four sub-themes namely: types of natural 
hair, perspectives about natural hair, variables influencing the choice of hair and challenges 
associated with the wearing of natural hair. The findings revealed that there are six types of 
hair that can be described as natural hair among Ghanaian women, namely afro short (daavi), 
afro long, twist, cornrow, kinky braids or synthetic braids and dreadlocks or sister locks. The 
Afro hairstyle is identified as the beginning of the natural hair and the dreadlocks or sister 
locks seem to be the peak and permanent stage.  
 
The keeper of Afro hair type has the liberty to change hairstyles as often as possible. It is also 
often associated with youthfulness because most young children of school going age keep 
their hair short and often do not add chemicals to it. The chemical hair was once seen as the 
transition hairstyle of young girls into adulthood, until recently when both young and old 
preference for natural hair has increased. It takes efforts of the individual to grow the short 
hair into the long length stage by twisting, plaiting and braiding overnight and combing out in 
the mornings. At the Afro long length stage the individual could easily turn the hair into many 
creative hairstyles by herself. 
 
 Cornrow and twist hairstyles are often in two forms, one with artificial hair extensions and the 
other without any hair extension.  The study observed that these characteristics allow them to 
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be classified under braids sometimes. Adding the synthetic hair or artificial hair to these 
hairstyles for long periods is a form of preserving the natural hair for a longer period and also 
keeping it healthy. Sustaining the hair in this state for long creates an opportunity to turn it 
into the locks stage since one does not comb it until after many months. This demands the 
individual critical decision before wearing it because one cannot explore much hairstyles and 
the only way to comb it, is to cut it and start all over again from the short Afro stage.  
 
Several perspectives about natural hair were also identified. Some of the respondents defined 
natural hair as “God given hair”, “hair with no chemicals”, hair grown in its natural state and 
what comes out of one‟s scalp. Some also saw natural hair as a political term. Here, women 
who wear the natural hair identify themselves to be more African than those who do not wear 
it. Natural hair as a concept is seen as the articulation of historical connections that impresses 
upon a person‟s affiliation in genes, religion, self-hood and geographical location. 
 
Among the variables identified as influencing the choice of natural hair are peer or societal 
pressure, expression of identity and their health concerns. Additionally, influences from 
family and friends, social media videos were identified as reasons why some respondents have 
natural hair.  One other key reason for the wearing of natural hair is associated with health. 
For most respondents, having been educated or enlightened about the negative effects of 
applying chemicals to one‟s natural hair, they chose not to texturize their hair again.   It is 
important to mention that one of the key influencing factors for the wearing of natural hair is 
the fact that it serves as a form of identity.   According to most respondents, their hair texture 
gave them a sense of identity as Africans and Ghanaians specifically. 
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Negative reactions and attitudes of family and friends pose a challenge to those who wear the 
natural hair.  Also the high cost of maintenance for natural hair coupled with the lack of 
information on appropriate hair products for the preferred type of natural hair were identified 
as a challenge to the wearing of natural hair.  
  
4.2 Recommendations 
 Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made: 
1. There is a need for more natural hair advocacy in shaping the minds and perception of the 
family and friends.  This kind of advocacy should be targeted at different categories of 
individuals in order to create a broader platform for further discussions on the emerging 
phenomenon of natural hair in Ghana. 
2. There should be available knowledge to the younger generation on how to manage their 
natural hair and be confident about their natural hair.  
3. There is the need for stakeholders to ensure that information about natural hair is not 
limited to social media platforms only but must include other relevant avenues such as 
community, churches, and market places etc.  
4. There must be a body that will check the standards of natural hair products available on 
the market in order to ensure consumer safety. 
 
 
 
 
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APPENDIX 1 
INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR  
KEY INFORMANTS (KI) AND FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS (FGDS). 
  
1. What do you understand by the term „natural hair‟ or what comes to mind when you hear 
the term „natural hair‟? 
2. What motivates your choice of hair? 
3. What do you think are some of the reasons why natural hair is becoming the most 
preferred? 
4. What are the challenges and/or advantages of keeping your hair in a natural state instead 
of permed hair? 
5. Have you enjoyed or ever been denied certain privileges in society because of the kind of 
hair you keep? 
6. In what ways have people reacted to you because of your hair? 
7. What health implications you know of in relation to your type of hair? 
8. What do you think accounts for the popularity of natural hair now?  
 
 
  
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APPENDIX 2 
Attached is the ethnographic film on DVD: Natural Hair and The Ghanaian Woman 
Ten minutes in duration. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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PLEASE CHECK 
THE ETHNOGRAPHIC FILM 
DVD 
 
 
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