5 Yoruba traditional hairstyles and their significance

Yoruba people are one of the 3 biggest tribes in Nigeria. Their women are very creative in beautifying, adorning, and styling the body. They make their hair by either plaiting it or tying it with thread. Here are 5 traditional hairstyles:

1) Shuku

The shuku style involves braiding the hair from the edges of the scalp to the middle of the head. Wives of royalty wore this style, and it was less time-consuming to create.

There are different types of suku; suku onididi, suku elegbe, susku ologede and more. Some ceremonial suku styles are plaited with the braids falling on all sides.

2) Dada

This style depicts a person’s spirituality, and natural dense hair is believed to have a religious significance, so the hair is often left to grow into dreads from a young age.

This hairstyle is related to the deity Olokun and parents believed that cutting their hair could lead to sickness or, ultimately, death.

3) Patewo

The name means “clap your hands,” which is done by dividing down the middle of the hair and then braiding from each side to the centre. It is adorned by females of all ages and social statuses.

This style can be combined with other styles; patewo and curve, patewo with base, patewo, and all back.

4) Eko bridge

This beautiful style is similar to the actual Eko bridge in Lagos. The hair is divided down the middle into different sections of about 10/11 and made with black thread, and it is made high from the scalp to imitate the real Eko bridge.

Married women were known to rock this style often.

5) Kojusoko

This amazing hairstyle is made by plaiting the hair with plastic threads used for packing hair, and the packed hair is bent towards the face. The name of this style means “face your husband.”

Married women wore this hair, and men loved it because it paid obeisance to them.