Hair Stylin’

In the cities of West and Central Africa, barbers pull in customers by putting out painted posters to illustrate their repertoire of hairstyles, which run from tribal to glitz. These African hairdressing signs have an unambiguous urban folk art verve that art collectors like. To see some painted do’s locally, I just go for a walk, because when it comes to hairdressing folk art, Kinshasa, Abidjan and Lagos have nothing on Westlake, Echo Park and South-Central. Here, the mostly overlooked sign artists tend to be Mexican and Central American immigrants. And while the direct correspondence between styles depicted outside and styles offered inside doesn’t necessarily exist here as it does in Africa, surely some with-it customer has walked in and demanded a spit curl, just like the one on the dreamboat painted above a unisex beauty shop in Pico-Union.