“The Salon Coiffure”

A Few days ago, as I had gone to one of the numerous Men’s Hair Salons in Kigali to have my regular “shaolin” (clean hair cut), I happened to meet one of my old friends dating nearly three decades ago. He was wearing his hair the Boney M or MJ style; say he had a typical Afro Hair style, I wondered as to why he had come to waste his money when all he needed was simply the old fashioned beard shaving device like a Nacet razor blade eh! That said and done, we would all enjoy or do enjoy the skills of the “ba Coiffure” of course I mean the genuine ones in the hair business. As you may know, there is another type of Coiffures! Talk of coiffures and I am reminded of the terminology in Kigali about “Kogosha” and “Gusokoza” (the real word for shaving and combing). A friend of mine was busy talking in their youthful jargons as their mother thought she was listening to the sons talk. One told the other that, their friend John loved his wife to the extent that he does “gusokoza” her every other time; the old mama chipped in, “eh, that must be real love for a man to comb his wife’s hair”! Now, to the real sense of the words, we have nearly lost the word combing in as far as men are concerned, all we do is shave our heads clean. In the olden days, we used to wear our hair the Afro Style (like Boney M); a real man had the hair like the mane of a lion. If we needed a nice shave, all we did was go under a mango or fig trees or the like and there would be men with foldable wooden chairs, with their mechanical hair cutting tools neatly displayed on their tables. Among their tools would be the likes of NACET razor blades, manual hair clippers, a pair of wooden combs, white pieces of linen cloth and some mentholated spirit if any etc We used to visit these tree shades at least once a month, who would need to have a hair cut every other day? It was an abomination to shave one’s head clean lest calamity befalls you (like you lose your dad). The shaving was just meant to “prune” the “flowering” tops of the hair off and leave the rest more good looking. Some of the Coiffures cum Kinyonzis would only shave with the help of the wooden combs. Unlike these days, there was no “head washing girls” in the open air salons. These days, the girls work more as customer attractors than hygiene keepers! It feels bad to go to a salon and just have the rough hands of the male Coiffure torture your head as they shave the hair into shape or the lack of it and then walk out without being soothed! Whoever thought of the idea must have been a genius. It is unbelievable to find a salon in Kigali that does not boast of the same. Gone are the days when our heads were subject to gross abuse by the male counterparts! mfashumwana@fastmail.fm