XIII 
p:thiopian fashions in hair-dressing 
The various forms of hair-dressing adopted by the 
native tribes of Africa would furnish material for a 
monograph. The social state of an individual, as well 
as his tribe, is indicated by the style in which the hair 
is arranged. In Africa the conditions of hair-dressing 
are the reverse of those which prevail in civilised 
countries, for it is the men who affect to have their hair 
dressed in extravagant fashions ; the women adopt the 
simplest of all modes, for they shave each other’s scalps, 
the eyebrows, and other regions of the body. African 
women perform all the menial work of the village and 
have no time to spare for hair-dressing. 
Among the Kikuyu men some of the styles are very 
elaborate. A common plan consists in rolling the hair 
into curls around pieces of bast. Heads treated in this 
way resemble the backs of a French poodle. Others 
imitate that adopted by the Masai warriors, in which 
the hair is thickly anointed with grease, especially 
mutton fat, and red earth. Thus a heavy shower of 
rain would be disagreeable ; in order to meet such an 
emergency the men carry the dried paunch of a sheep 
or goat with them, and in wet weather wear it like a 
night-cap. When not in use, this cap, which can be 
folded up into a small compass, is tied round the waist. 
When a Kikuyu man has nothing to do he sits in the 
sun and plucks stray hairs out of his body with forceps 
with the same industry that monkeys hunt their skins 
for fleas. 
156 
