A Peek At Namibia’s Himba Women Culture,Especially Their Hairdo..

Married: This lady is also married as her headdress makes plainReady to marry: A Himba bride
Wow,when i see things like this,i just can’t imagine how some part of the world still live like this. Where there are no TV,water,clothes… And the hairstyle by the way is a lot of work! Photographer Eric Lafforgue reports that their hair is made of goat hair,butter and mud. He also said; While the women sport hairstyles of varying degrees of complexity, the men cover their heads with turbans from the moment they marry and never remove them; instead using an arrow-like implement to scratch the hair beneath the turban.

‘Marriage is important in Himba culture,’ explains photographer Eric Lafforgue, ‘but extramarital relations are encouraged. Polygamy is the rule for both men and women who can have other partners in addition to their husband.’

‘The Himba have a system of dual descent where every person is linked to two distinct groups of relatives: one through the line of the mother and the other through the father,’ explains Lafforgue. ‘Overall authority is in the hands of the men but economic issues are decided by the women.’

With the time they use making their hair ‘dreadlocks’ and jewelries/beads as well as taking of ticks from the goats,you would think they would be able to make decent clothes for their women *sigh*See more photos after the cut…



Ready to marry: This girl's braids are tied back, indicating that she's ready to be married. Married women add a headdress made from animal skins to their style
Himba women, by contrast, wear incredibly elaborate styles that change depending on whether or not they’re married and on how old they are. 
‘Himba women use a lot of different things, including hair and straw, to create their dreadlocks,’ explains Lafforgue. ‘Some Himba even buy Indian hair extensions in town!
‘A young girl typically has two plaits of braided hair called ozondato, the form of which is decided by her oruzo – the clan she is descended from on her father’s side.’


Spectacular: A Himba woman shakes her incredible dreadlocks, which are created using a mixture of ground ochre, butter and either goat hair or Indian hair extensions

Young: This girl is going through puberty, a fact made plain by her hairstyle which has been designed to cover her face and help her avoid male attention
Married woman: The headdress attached to this woman's hair indicates she has been married for a year or has had childrenA little girl with a double plait hairstyle
Family: A young girl typically has two plaits of braided hair called ozondato, the form being determined by her oruzo or the paternal clan she belongs to
Hot work: The women's job is to find grazing for the cows - a search that can take hours in the summerFamily: A woman and her daughter. The little girl owns a plastic doll
Friends: A group of women sit and chatCustom: A little girl shows off her trademark double plait hairdo
‘If you see a teenage girl with strands hanging over her face, it means she has hit puberty and therefore has to hide her face from the men. When a woman has been married for a year or has had a child, she wears the erembe headdress, which is made from animal skin, on top of her head.’

‘Women take several hours each morning for beauty care and sleep on wooden pillows so they don’t ruin their hair in the night,’ explains Lafforgue. ‘The first task is to take care of their dreadlocks. 
‘Then they cover themselves completely with a mixture made from ground ochre and fat, called otjize. ‘It acts as a sunscreen and insect repellent. If they do not have enough butter, they use vaseline. 

He adds:The red colour that it gives to the skin is considered a sign of beauty and they smear the mixture all over themselves – not only on their skin and hair but also their clothes and jewellery.

‘If they have access to water, they’ll take a bath, but as they live in arid places, it is a luxury. 
‘Himbas who don’t have water use smoke to purify themselves and their clothes, which they “wash” by putting them into a basket with some incense made from the wood of the commiphora multijuga tree.’


Intricate: A Himba woman shows off her long dreadlocks, created using a mixture of ground ochre, butter and goat hair. Indian hair extensions are also used

Hard work: A pair of women remove ticks from a goat - a job that can take hours when done by hand as the Himbas do it. Sometimes, the children help out
Proud: Himba women are fiercely proud of their traditional hairstyles and clothes and are more keen than the men of the tribe to cling on to their ancient customs
In charge: Women do most of the jobs in and around the home, including milking the goats and storing their milk in jerrycans - some are made from old bottles
Simple life: The Himba live in homes made from cattle dung and mud. Clothes are kept clean by being smoked over a fragrant brazier full of incense (bottom right)
Family: The Himba are a pastoralist group and regularly flit across the Nambian border to Angola, where other members of the tribe live, without visas
Good look: This man's single plait indicates that he is unmarried. Once he is, he will cover his hair for the rest of his life apart from when he attends funerals
Married man: When Himba men marry, they start wearing turbans which they never take off unless someone in the village dies. After a death, their heads are shaved
‘Some wear keys and bullets as decoration as most of their houses don’t have locks,’ adds Lafforgue. ‘The necklaces of the older women can weigh several kilos but new ones are made with PVC tubes or from things given to them by tourists. That’s why you sometimes meet HImba women wearing bracelets that have an Arsenal logo!
‘Women also use omangetti seeds as decoration because they enjoy the noise they make when they walk. The adult Himba women all have beaded anklets called omohanga, where they hide their money.  The anklets are also handy as a protection against venomous animal bites.’

‘Everywhere tradition is giving way under the pressure of modern practices and new ideas,’ explains Lafforgue. ‘Himba women seem to want to keep to the old ways and they resist change more than men do.’
Helping out: A witchdoctor such as this one is called when bad things happen in a village. The man purifies the inhabitants using magic sentences
Hair today: The Himba women's elaborate hairstyles take hours to create and are lengthened by including bits of woven hay, goat hair and even hair extensions
Tucking in: An adorable toddler makes a meal of his lunch of boiled maize meal and goat milk in one of the Himba villages visited by Eric Lafforgue
Helping out: This little girl is giving her mother a helping hand by holding a goat still while she milks it. Goat milk is a staple food for the people of the Himba tribe

Chores: For the children, doing the chores means helping out with things like removing ticks from the village goats - a task that can take hours done by hand

Married man: When Himba men marry, they start wearing turbans which they never take off unless someone in the village dies. After a death, their heads are shaved
Bereft: This man is a widower and so, has his hair uncovered. The habit of scratching his hair with his iron hair tool appears a tough habit to break as this photo suggests

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