The craze for bone straight wigs in Nigeria

Bone straight wigs are silky straight extensions gotten from human hair. It got the moniker 'bone straight' from presumably being straight as a bone.

Over the past year, many Instagram vendors proudly displayed this silky straight hair on their social media pages with women all over Nigeria ogling over it.

According to Google, since the Covid-19 epidemic started, questions such as 'bone straight hair,' have been among the most often searched beauty terms by Nigerians and searches for 'bone straight wig' increased by over 4,000%.

This begs the question, are Nigerian women in love with status symbols like the latest hairs? And is it really a status symbol if the woman in question finds it affordable?

A status symbol is something a person has that shows wealth or affluence.

Based on an Instagram poll, most people agreed that bone straight wigs are status symbols.

Result of Instagram poll Pulse Nigeria

However, with our unemployment rate at 33.3% and those working averaging N50,000 or less as salaries. Why do Nigerian women still have time to covet such luxury items?

The price of some of these bone straights wigs is half a million in addition to the cost of frontal installation.

This year, Nigerian crossdresser Bobrisky posted a video on Instagram where she said that she was the biggest girl in Nigeria because her wig costs over a million naira and, she had HD frontal.

Except you are a millionaire, it seems ridiculous to spend such an amount on a wig. Some women have defended this extravagant amount by saying it is an investment. You can hardly blame them, these wigs look good.

I did a poll on Instagram, where I asked if the cost of human hair wigs was extravagant and many people agreed that it was.

Results of Instagram poll Pulse Nigeria

Dami, thinks "Bone straight wigs are so fine! If you have the money, spend it, because they look so good."

Biola says, "If I have the money for it, I will buy it. But I know they are quite popular, even men know about it."

Although, one need not spend such an extravagant amount. You can buy a fairly good bone straight for about N70,000 - N100,000.

But the desire for these latest wigs makes women oblivious of obvious pitfalls and online scammers. This year alone, many hair companies like Mizwanneka have been called out online for either selling fake or substandard hair.

These women did not get their money worth compared to the fabulous Instagram hair the vendor used to attract them.

Yet time over time, women send outrageously large sums of money to these Instagram vendors who have no plan to deliver their wigs and, would probably block them for complaining too much.

One need not throw the baby with the bathwater, there are many reputable Instagram vendors, and these are the people you should order from. Plus, many have walk-in stores you can visit to assess the hair before you buy them.

But no matter how many times Nigerian women get scammed, they will not relent in their pursuit for good hair extensions and, who can blame them? A good bone straight wig is a fabulous looking status symbol.