The gele theory

BESIDES shoes and bags, headgears play a major role in adding a touch of panache to a lady’s dressing. Ladies head coverings, which go way back to ancient times, are worn for several reasons. These are mostly religious, beauty, fashion and even professional.
Over the years, the tradition has stuck. In many orthodox churches for instance, women are required to cover their hair during service or while praying at home or anywhere else. These head coverings include veil, hats, headscarfs, mantilla and others.
However, many of the new generation churches don’t see the need for the practice and so leave their hair uncovered during service. In the Islamic religion, head covering is an integral part of Muslim women’s dressing, with the hijab (either full or half) being the favoured

LOTS of women also cover their hair to hide a multitude of hair mistakes and disasters. A badly burnt scalp caused by a poorly done relaxing process can lead to hair breakages and in extreme cases bald patches on the head.
Since no self-respecting lady (even one over 80 years) wants to go out looking as bald as an egg, a headscarf, hat or even a cap comes to the rescue. So the next time a colleague in the office takes to wrapping her head in a headscarf, it might not be for religious reasons but could be a hair relaxing job gone wrong!
The most common reason why women cover their hair is for fashion and beauty purposes. In the West, women have been wearing hats for centuries, with many designs being fashionable at certain periods according to fashion dictates. Styles such as bonnets, cloches, pillboxes, boaters, trilby.

BESIDES hats, headscarfs are also popular means of covering the head. Headscarfs come in different forms but the most popular at least as far as Nigerian women are concerned is the gele. This uniquely Nigerian way of tying a headscarf with distinct shape and contours stands the nation’s women out anywhere in the world.
To get the gele right takes some creativity, some form of artistry and magic fingers as well. Some women can spend hours struggling to tie their gele in the desired shape to attend an important occasion, (while keeping oga waiting and probably quietly fuming in the living-room, wondering and asking the eternal question even great philosophers haven’t been able to find an answer to: why do women take forever to get dressed for functions?)
Anyway, while some women tie their gele in a modest manner, others really go all out in intricate, sky-scraping designs that keep observers gazing in wonder and admiration.