Some hair stylists in Lagos on Sunday lamented that they had been experiencing low patronage recently due to the current economic realities in the country.
They also attributed the lull in their activities to the increase in the prices of materials normally used for making hairs.
They added that many of their customers had resorted to wearing already-made wigs or having their hairs cut.
Mrs Modupe Alabi, a professional hair stylist in Ogba near Ikeja, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that most of her customers no longer come to the saloon to make their hairs.
“They prefer using wigs because they are affordable and easy to maintain,” she said.
Mrs Helen Ozioma, another hair stylist said that she increased her charges because she was spending so much on fueling her generator due to lack of electricity supply.
“It’s very challenging to attend to customers when there is no power supply, you need the power to dry and style the hairs as well as make customers comfortable.
“The economic challenge is not helping matters and I can’t boast of attending to six customers in a day, it is really challenging,” she said.
Some women also affirmed that it was expensive to visit the saloon or pay for the services of hair dressers, adding that they had resorted to wearing wigs.
A wig maker, Mrs Faith Victor, said the prices of wigs have gone up now as a result of high demands by women.
She added that this also depended on the quality, length and style.
“Some of these different trending wigs are the invisible lace closure wigs, million twisted braid wig, straight human hair wig, full bouncy human hair wig, Peruvian lace wig and full curls wigs,” she said.
A civil servant, Mrs Shade Adams, said she had to cut her hairs because it was expensive to visit the saloon and that she had also embraced the use of wigs.
“Before now, I used to budget between N8,000 and N10,000 for my hairs monthly but the recent economic reality has changed everything, I now spend up to N20,000 in a month.”
She said this had affected her other bills and because “I cannot cope, I have to resort into cutting my hairs and bought different styles of wigs which I wear whenever I want to go out.”
Mrs Faith Obunwa, a business woman, said that wearing wigs was cheaper, comfortable and easy to maintain.
“I do not have to sit for long hours to braid or loosen my hairs; I do not have to feel that pain when the hair dresser is making my hairs.
“I have also avoided the pain that women have to endure for days after making their hairs.
“It is true that the prices of wigs have increased but they are still better and cheaper than visiting the saloon,” she said.
In her view, Shade Dapo, a student, said that she had been using wigs to cut down on her expenses.
“Being a student, it is not easy to make my hairs regularly, again, due to the current economic challenges.
” My friends help me to weave my hairs and I wear my wig whenever I am going out, especially, for special outings and lectures.
“Wearing wigs is cheaper because there is no money to make hairs and there are better things to spend money on,” she said.
She said that wig was trending now and most women preferred to buy wigs than patronizing hair kksaloons.
“They are cheaper, comfortable, profitable, and easy to maintain, ” Dapo said.