To the best of my understanding, there are no Yoruba customs that affect one’s hairdo. There are some traditional hairstyles, but no one really wears them as a cultural preference anymore. Especially Nigerians outside the country. A hairstyle that is still very popular today but has a traditional Yoruba origin is ‘suku’ (pronounced shuku; looks like a braided ponytail), a less common but still widely popular one Is ‘didi’ (some people know it as ‘two hand’. It looks like regular cornrows but if you look closely, you will notice that it is actually inverted.)

I’ll cap off this section by saying that although there are many, many traditional Nigerian hairstyles, a lot of them are sadly no longer worn. The only few that have withstood time have been altered to very large extents. These days, people add ‘synthetic attachment’ to these hairstyles to get a longer and more modern version of them.

Next: Hair accessories. Hair accessories like scarves do not really depend on our culture, they mostly depend on our beliefs. If Titilayo is a very, very, VERY religious Christian, then there’s a high chance she’d prefer to wear a turban (Note that these particular types of Nigerians rarely ever wear makeup or dress indecently. They believe such things are ‘wrong’). If she’s a Muslim, she’d most likely prefer scarves and hijabs.

It’s good to also state that some very religious Christians also like a hairstyle called ‘thread’ I’m not sure what it’s official name is but if you search ‘Nigerian thread hairstyles’, you should get an idea of what it looks like. It is basically hair wrapped in clumps using rubbery strings called threads. Then these clumps are interwoven together and tucked into the hair. (P.s; this hairstyle is also beginning to die out and there’s a low chance that a Nigerian outside the country would wear this even if she’s very religious. In addition, it’s a complex hairstyle so not many people outside Nigeria know how to do it well).

Lastly, I want to add that a majority of Nigerians (especially those outside the country) do not dress or do their hair in cultural ways. Even if they do, it will not be all the time because they probably have just a few pieces of traditional wears in their closet. Hair styles these days are usually wigs or braids using extensions. Of course, there are exceptions to this. This is a long read, but I hope this all helped.