Wednesday 29 July 2009

THE ART OF A WEST AFRICAN HEAD TIE

In the picture above I simply removed the head tie to take a closer look.
This is the view from the back of the head tie.


This shot is the front view.
The follow pictures are of a different design. The above pictures are from the head tie I wore.



This is my daughter in the completed head tie.

First of all you take the stiff but pliable fabric and fold almost in half.
Starting at the front to the back.......

do a cross over and return to the front....

and then cross over at the front to ........

finally secure at the back ........

with a knot, then

work the fabric into a shape that takes your fancy...

for example work into a flower petal...

Then tuck in any loose ends.....

Here you have the finished article

daughter and mother.

NOTE
Typically head ties are worn to complete the look to an African attire, not the worn with western closes like the pictures depict above. lol

4 comments:

anthia-ofo said...

Thanks for the tutorial Nubian. Everytime I tie a gele(which I've done only 3or 4x) it comes out perfect, purely by accident. I'm fairly good tying headgear the Ghanaian way, but I want to master those wonderful shapes you Naija people make with those fabrics. It's so beautiful. Besides it'll give me a business in Ghana- tying folks' geles for weddings and functions hehe!

anthia-ofo said...

Is the background inside your house? In that case we have the same wall paper!(at least that's the one in my lounge)

Nubian1 said...

Ofo, if am honest I have probably done it the once, and like you said, you can rarely get it wrong. Its actually quite straight forward.

My niece got married last Saturday and my sister came especially for the do.

Will post a photo of her when i get some sent to me.

As for the wall paper, Ofo remember GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE!

Kittylocks said...

Thanks for visiting and for your comment. What a great tutorial. I wish I could tie my head like that. Your hair is beautiful I think we are using the same shade.