Societies have inherited and developed their own traditions of eating, dressing, hairdressing and other values despite the expanding Western culture that threatens the cultures of many indigenous societies, and particularly those in Africa. In Eritrea, there are many cultural values that has been kept and inherited by the younger generation. Of course, there are tendencies of western cultural influences among many.

Each ethnic group has different ways of hairdressing styles that now are dressed among the youngsters as a prevailing style. If we take the Tigrigna ethnic group, Game, albaso and gilbich are some of the traditional ones that are developed into modern styles.

These hairdressings are worn by women at any age level mostly during special occasions like weddings, anniversaries and religious holidays, but in newly designed forms.

For instance the traditional hairdressing style named albaso is braided into hamushte albaso or shewate albaso, where the hair is braided into five or seven parts starting from the baby hair straight down to the neck sometimes using artificial hair. But nowadays it is dressed among many Asmarino female youngsters in diagonal, zigzag and many other designs and also into albaso of nine parts. Sometimes the albaso goes only half way of the head from the front hair and the rest is ironed.

There are different types of traditional hairdressing styles that are still popular among the young generation; but with refreshed designs. What attracted and encouraged me to write is the names, of course.

Many Asmarino young girls dress their hair in a style that they developed from the traditional ones. During the 3rd Eri-Youth Festival Sawa, I came across a displayed hair style show arranged by the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students (NUEYS) of Maekel Region. The styles are more or less the same but the names are quite different.

The names of most of the new or modified hairstyles represent major events in the Eritrean history or current major events.

The Badme braiding for instance was named after the town of Badme, the flashpoint of the Eritreo-Ethiopian border conflict, because it was introduced around that time. The dressing looked traditional at first, but soon became popular with many young girls beginning to use it.

Other styles include zigzag, the sun, fishalo, sadula, shingrwa, kanshelo, four and many more.

Shingrwa was, for example, named after the talent show contest that was broadcast on ERI-TV for more than a year, which looked for a singing star.

According to the girl who was in charge of the hairstyle show, Shingrwa is a hairstyle that consists of different colored artificial hair and that more or less looks like the colors of the Shingrwa studio.

As Shingrwa was very popular among the youngsters, says one of Asmara’s hairdressers, many girls started applying that hairstyle soon after the show’s airing.

“We know that we have to follow and develop our traditional styles, which are very beautiful. So, most of the hairdressing styles are based on the local (traditional) ones,” said Almaz Kelati, a hairdresser.

Being difficult to convince young girls to make their hairs in similar way to their mothers’, she asserts that the best option would be to develop different styles based on the traditional ones that could attract these youngsters.

“The mothers would definitely support theses styles as they are not that different from theirs. They also appreciate our creativities,” said Almaz who worked for ten years in a beauty salon in Asmara.

When you look at what is called the sun, for example, the dressing has a round shape in the front; while in kanshelo, which means a compound, a thinly braided hair goes around the head sides, making a wall style to the central part of the head.

There are many beauty salons and a few hairdressing training centers in Asmara. “The training is helpful. We learn how to develop our traditional style instead of copying others’,” said Soliana Temesgen who attended one of such trainings in 2003. She also said that most of the Eritrean women make their hair in culturally accepted styles.

The first hairdressing training center in Asmara, Salina, was started in 1999 by an Eritrean woman who was deported from Ethiopia. According to her, Salina was named after her brother who was martyred at Salina in 1977. During the armed struggle, most of the fighters were Afros or jebjeb.

During the traditional Eritrean societies, women had their own hairstyles and many used to make a living out of it. The hairdressers of that time go to their clients’ house, on an appointment. Although it was considered as cheap labor, many would prefer it than stay being recipients. Most of the hairdressers were either widows or unmarried women that could not make a living in other ways.

“The styles are popular not only here, but among many Eritrean girls who come from the Diaspora. They are our main clients when they come to Eritrea,” said Soliana, who works in a beauty salon.

She is self sustained and satisfied with what she does, and has plans to open a training center in Dekemhare. “We also discuss with friends on how to make the Eritrean style popular in Africa,” she said.

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