Before then, hairstyles were social markers symbolizing marital status, ethnic origins, socioeconomic class. With Nigerian independence, they took on political meaning too.
Ojeikere’s work seems to have had a threefold purpose. He captured the resurgence of indigenous hairstyles that had fallen from favor under colonial powers. He documented hairstyle innovations as citizens reestablished their identity. And after a time, his approach became more archival, to preserve the memory of the styles in the face of globalization.
Photographer Medina Sage Dugger launched her project in 2017, roughly 50 years after Ojeikere began his. California-born Dugger relocated to Lagos in 2011. She spent four years as a co-curator and project coordinator for the African Artists’ Foundation and Lagos Photo Festival, before devoting herself full-time
