West African Barber Shop Signs
SIGNIFIERS OF STYLE
In many West African countries, the deceptively simple signs adorning the sides of businesses and passing trucks can transform everyday streets into veritable galleries of visual imagery. Neighborhood barber shops in particular owe their livelihoods to the sign painter’s ability to depict hairstyles in an interesting, lively, and attention-grabbing manner. Brightly painted on plywood, African barber shop signs reflect the unique mix of African traditions of hair braiding and the stylistic influences of American culture. These quirky signs, depicting stylized portraits of men, women, and children, advertise a variety of hairstyles and techniques with names like the “Mike Tyson,” “Boeing 707,” “Four Lane Highway,” and “Nelson Mandela,” as well as the top fashions of the day. Most sign painters are self-taught and learn the trade primarily through apprenticeships and observing common imagery repeatedly.
Barber shop signs can be found everywhere, including in-shop windows, painted directly on shop walls, and propped up next to a market stall. Often, barbers who do not have permanent shops but have a well-painted sign roam their neighborhoods with scissors and combs, hawking their services—in effect becoming traveling barbershops...just add customers! Like the striped barber pole in many parts of America, these signs announce an everyday service in a highly effectual and artistic way. —SBR
American barber poles function much like the barber shop signs in Africa.