WITH all the skill of a master weaver at a loom, Esther Ogble stands under a parasol in the sprawling Wuse market in Nigeria’s capital and spins synthetic fibre into women’s hair.

    Nearby, three customers — one in a hijab — wait for a turn to spend several hours and US$40 to have their hair done, a hefty sum in a country where many live on less than US$2 a day.

    While still largely based in the informal economy, the African haircare business has become a multi-billion dollar industry that stretches to China and India and has drawn global giants such as L’Oreal and Unilever.

    Hairdressers such as Ogble are a fixture of markets and taxi ranks across Africa, reflecting both the continent’s rising incomes and demand from hair-conscious women.

    “I need to braid my hair so that I will look beautiful,” said 25-year-old Blessing James, wincing as Ogble combed and tugged at the back of her head before weaving in a plait that fell well past the shoulder.

    While reliable Africa-wide figures are hard to come by, market research firm Euromonitor International estimates US$1.1 billion of shampoos, relaxers and hair lotions were sold in South Africa, Nigeria and Cameroon alone last year.

    It sees the liquid haircare market growing by about 5 percent from 2013 to 2018 in Nigeria and Cameroon, with a slight decline for the more mature South African market.

    This does not include sales from more than 40 other sub-Saharan countries, or the huge “dry hair” market of weaves, extensions and wigs crafted from everything from synthetic fibre to human or yak hair.

    Some estimates put Africa’s dry hair industry at as much as US$6 billion a year; Nigerian singer Muma Gee recently boasted that she spends 500,000 naira (US$3,100) on a single hair piece made of 11 sets of human hair.

    Haircare is a vital source of jobs for women, who make up a large slice of the informal economy on the poorest continent.

    But business in Wuse market has slowed recently, said 37-year-old Josephine Agwa, because women were avoiding public places due to concerns about attacks by Islamic militant group Boko Haram.

    The capital has been targeted three times since April, including a bomb blast on a crowded shopping district in June that killed more than 20 people.

    “The ones that don’t want to come, they call us for home service,” she said as she put the finishing touches on a six-hour, $40 style called “pick and dropped with coils” - impossibly small braids that cascade into lustrous curls.

    Nigerians are not alone in their pursuit of fancy locks.

    “I get bored if I have one style for too long,” said Buli Dhlomo, a 20 year-old South African student who sports long red and blonde braids. Her next plan is to cut her hair short and dye it “copper gold.”

    While South Africans change their hairstyle often, West Africans do so even more, said Bertrand de Laleu, managing director of L’Oreal South Africa.(SD-Agencies)