The late Nigerian photographer J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere spent his lifetime documenting his country’s distinct aesthetics, from its architecture to its citizens’ sartorial style and, most famously, their hair. In late 1960s, he began a decades-long project, titled Hair, centred on Nigerian women’s intricately realised hairstyles, elegantly photographed from behind. These sculptural coiffures are of important cultural symbolic value—and Ojeikere documented them with due reverence. “All these hairstyles are ephemeral,” he said. “I want my photographs to be noteworthy traces of them.”
