• J.D. Ojeikere took over 1,000 photographs of women’s hair
  
• Captured the intricate hairstyles at events throughout 60s and 70s
  
• He calls the looks he documented ‘sculptures for a day’

Celebrities and entertainers who style their hair in attention-grabbing ways (think Lady Gaga’s plaited cone or Nicki Minaj’s towering bouffant) are often lauded for their originality. But intricate hairstyles are far from being a contemporary development – as J.D. Okhai Ojeikere’s photographs show.

The photographer spent the Sixties and Seventies documenting the hairstyles of the women he encountered in his native Nigeria. He snapped over 1,000 photos of these complex coiffures, from subjects he found on the streets, in offices, and at wedding celebrations, as he revealed to My Modern Met.

'Sculptures for a day': Nigerian photographer J.D. Okhai Ojeikere snapped over 1,000 photos of the hairstyles he saw on the street

Upbraided: Ojeikere took photos of the styles he saw worn by women in the street, or in offices, or at marriage celebrations

From tightly wound cones, buns, and curls to even more architectural designs, Hairstyles, as Ojeikere’s series is called, showcases a great range of styles.

Shot in black and white, the photos tread a fine line between portraiture and abstraction. They also seem rife with allusion; one woman’s look recalls the gently sloping lines and sharp edges of much of Frank Gehry’s architecture.

Architectural lines: Ojeikere’s portraits demand to be viewed in the abstract

Medusa-like: Captivating squiggles intersect with tightly wound curls

But in contrast to the permanence of architecture, for Ojeikere, these look are ‘sculptures for a day.’

‘All these hairstyles are ephemeral. I want my photographs to be noteworthy traces of them,’ he says.

‘I always wanted to record moments of beauty, moments of knowledge. Art is life. Without art, life would be frozen.’