Da Silva isn’t the only one struggling with hair maintenance. Salon owners and hair stylists are noticing an increasing number of women are getting shorter cuts, a request, they say, that is a response to the crisis. By cutting their hair shorter, women feel it’s easier to handle in light of all the restrictions.
Shahnaaz Abrahams Samsodien says her hair was just below her elbow until last month, when she cut it to her shoulders. “My hair has always been long, but this drought has just pushed me over the edge,” she says. The fact that she washes her hair using leftover water from her son’s bath didn't help.
Shahnaaz Abrahams Samsodien
Samsodien used to shower twice a day, but she now does it only once, after putting her son to bed. She invested in a “baby dam” that she uses to cordon off a small section of the tub, where she fills up just enough water to give her year-old son a bath. Once he’s in bed, it’s her turn to get clean.
“I can literally only sit down on my knees and the water is so shallow,” the 29-year-old mother says. “I wash myself like that most days and use one jug of clean water to rinse myself off afterward.
It’s not just how she’s showering that’s changed but what she is using in the shower that’s different. Samsodien switched from bar to liquid soap, saying it’s easier to rinse. She’s also using a two-in-one shampoo and following it up with some leave-in conditioner. Her hair is much dryer at the ends because of her new routine, she admits, but it’s no bother: She’ll be “snipping it off” again, this time cutting it up to her neck—the shortest she’ll go. “I’m not daring enough for anything shorter than a bob,” she says.
Though Samsodien is Muslim, she says she seldom wore headscarves unless she was around her husband’s family. Yet since the crisis started, her scarves and even turbans have become so much a part of her ensembles that Samsodien says she can more often be seen with a scarf on her head than not. She even wears one to work.
“By the third day [without a wash]…I cannot stand the sight of my hair,” she says. “For me, [wearing a scarf] is more of a necessity than it is a religious thing.”
Charlene Miller, owner of Cape Town’s Charlie’s Angels hair salon, say she has received a few requests from clients to cut their hair shorter than usual, but that isn’t always the best solution. South Africa has an array of hair textures, Miller says, from fine to medium to coarse, and from straight to wavy to curly. “It’s a true rainbow nation,” she says. But the drought doesn’t necessarily affect one hair type more than another; what matters more is the person’s lifestyle and scalp.
