Research reveals: African women spent $1.1 billion on their hair in 2013

A new market research by Euromonitor International has revealed that last year (2013), women in Nigeria, South Africa and Cameroon alone spent a whopping $1.1 billion on their hair, Reuters reports.

It also includes purchases on shampoos, relaxers and hair lotions.

In a quick chat with a woman, Esther Ogble in Abuja, she said “I need to braid my hair so that I will look beautiful”. The 25-year-old said this while wincing as her hair was being combed, tugged, and woven.

The reporters also made reference to Muma Gee who recently said that shespends half a million Naira on her hair.

According to the report, the boom has attracted global brand likes L’Oreal and Unilever.

37-year-old Josephine Agwa in Wuse, Abuja says “The ones that don’t want to come (to the shop), they call us for home service.”, while a 20-year-old South African student says “I get bored if I have one style for too long.”

The report also says daring styles are part of the reasons for the high price, and hair extensions are mostly gotten from India and China.

The demand for hair products and human hair extensions is constantly growing. The analysis does not include sales from other sub-Saharan countries.

-BellaNaija

POST TAGS

ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson

[email protected]

An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.

View all posts by: Nana Kwesi Coomson