US president Barrack Obama’s visit to Kenya has stimulated many styles and fortunes. One beneficiary of the Obama effect is Cecilia Awino, a stylist in Kisumu, who is reaping from a hairstyle named after the US president when he became President in 2008.
Women in Kisumu County are thronging her salon for the ‘Obama hairstyle’ ahead of the US president’s visit on July 24. The style, which has origins in Ghana, involves portioning of hair joined with pieces of braids to form one long strand that runs from the tip at the forehead to the back of the head. This is done repeatedly to form a style of about 20 strands or less depending on the sizes.
It takes skills, as a stylist needs to firmly interlace pieces of braids with a client’s hair and keep adding small portions carefully as they progress so as to appear like crotchets neatly done.
According to Ms Awino, who runs The Strand salon, demand for the Obama lines started growing two months ago after it was announced that President Barack Obama will be visiting the country for the Global Entrepreneurial Summit.
“We receive an average of three clients everyday who plait Obama lines,” she said. “Generally, the style is liked because it makes one appear younger. It doesn’t require daily styling hence maintenance is easy. One only needs to spray it regularly. They also don’t smell since they have spaces for aeration,” she told Nation.
Ms Clarice Atieno, another salonist at Kisumu’s Lake Market, says the style had waned over the years, only to make a comeback with the Obama’s coming. “Most customers had at some point declined the ‘Obama’ lines which they considered simple and monotonous. But it’s now the trending hairdo ahead of US President’s visit,” she said.
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