Local barbers quietly steal show

In spite of the sequential developments and modernization, barbing and shaving with local materials has maintained its position in Africa particularly in northern Nigeria where Danwanzam is still popular. They use their near perfect sharp local blades (known as aska in Hausa) to clean-shave all hairs from heads, faces and even in nostrils of men […]

In spite of the sequential developments and modernization, barbing and shaving with local materials has maintained its position in Africa particularly in northern Nigeria where Danwanzam is still popular. They use their near perfect sharp local blades (known as aska in Hausa) to clean-shave all hairs from heads, faces and even in nostrils of men to give a near hairless face. Wuse Market in Abuja the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) of Nigeria is noted for such activities.
Like other trade and profession, it is an organised ‘Yanwanzams’ world. Abubakar Danwanzam is the leader of other local barbers in Wuse Market, Abuja.
A first timer to the northern Nigeria was shocked when she saw Abubakar and his colleagues at work; he said “I saw some Hausa people using blades to cut hairs from peoples’ nostrils”.
Abubakar Danwanzam, Chairman of Wanzamai in Wuse Market said it is an old art in Hausa land but anyone could learn it.
Interestingly, for Danwanzam and his colleagues, it is not just barbing and shaving alone. They use horn to extract ‘dead’ blood from the body, circumcise female and male, severing of an overgrown velum referred to as `belubelu` in Yoruba and Hausa languages.
To start, Danwanzam demonstrated the art. To start, he removed a new blade from its packet and broke it into two equal parts and inserted halves. He inserted one half into a locally-made shaving stick with golden handle. He was ready for a customer.
Face to face with the customer Abdulhadi, Danwanzam rubbed water and a solution of GILETTE soap on his client’s head. Danwanzam told Weekly Trust that the water would soften  while the solution of gilette soap would make it possible and easier for him to remove all Abdulhadi’s hairs, dust and flakiness on his head.
“All the blades are new. I buy packets for this work daily and each packet costs N100. I use half of each blade for each person and discard it after use. I do not use it twice.”
For those with what Danwanzam described as ‘overgrown hair’,  half of the blade first is first used and the other half for fininshing touches.
Apart from gilette soap for face cleaning, Danwanzam uses toilet soap also.
The head of the local barber said it is possible to use razor blade to remove hairs from nostrils. “It is the easiest thing any danwanzam can do.
“It will not take a minute. I dip two of my left fingers into water to wet the hairs in each nostril. Then I quarter the length of the blade into the nostril and turn it round professionally aiming at the hairs. After a Danwanzam had cleaned a nostril, I will peep into the person’s nose, to see all the ‘structures’ therein. After that I will remove the hairs as through the system I just explained to you. I will take a second look to see if the hairs in the nostril had been cleared,” he said.           
What about accidental cuts on the head and in the nostrils? Danwanzam said “if it is professional barbers, no client sustains injuries.”
The chief barber said he started it as a boy but took it up as a permanent work and means of livelihood 25 years ago. “My father is a real wanzam and is still into it in Sokoto. He taught me this work.  I inherited it from him.
“If one wants to learn it, he will start as a boy of ten years old. Fifteen years is not too old to start, but certainly not at adulthood.  After many years, on a certain occasion, my father positioned my elder brother and said, “I have observed for years that none of our wanzam activities escapes your observation. Sit there, take these tools and shave your elder brother clean today. He stood besides directing me on how to go about it. I did it successfully that day and continued to shave my elder brother until I went into the trade commercially. That is why I conclude that I was born into it.”
Unlike the modern day barber’s expensive tools, the local ones are cheaper. A shaving stick costs N500 while the one with golden handle costs N1,000. Danwanzam estimated all his tools, perfumes other items to cost N20,000.
It is really a lucrative business. “My fingers are never at rest from dawn to dusk and if we should extend our service into the night, people will still be round.       
“We all shave head, face, beard and nose of each person for N150. I do not have any place of work other than here. If I want to overwork, I will shave t30 people in a day. But I seldom do that because it is very unhealthy working for too long.”
“You would never know the services of wanzamai (many local barbers) if you were not close to them.”
During this interview, a middle-aged man who fell from one of the floors of a plaza and had dislocation came looking for Danwanzam. “I reset dislocations and fractures as well. But I set bones at home. Those who know my daily routine come here in the afternoon when urgent attention is needed. One can equally learn it but it is advisable to learn it too at childhood.
Abdulhadi , a civil servant, said he started patronizing wanzamai when he was a boy. “As I grew I changed my mind and was going to the barbing saloon. When I realized there was no difference between the two, I returned to local shaving. I like this local shaving because whenever I bath after shaving, water enters my head very well and when air blows, I equally feel and enjoy it very well. There is nothing to enjoy by leaving overgrown hair.”
In the same way, another patron of local barbers, Muhammad Yakubu Bilal, said the services of the wanzamai is good. He said he patronized barbing saloons for long but always felt unsatisfied when he discovered hairs on his head cheeks and chin after barbing. He said he tried a local barber at one time and developed rashes but he followed someone’s advice that he should do it consistently to stop the rashes and the rashes stopped. He did it every two days and later made it every four days and the rashes were no longer appearing.                  
“When I come to barb, I always use my clippers because I do not like what the public call skin-hairless head or shiny head.”
Contrary to Abdulhadi and Bilal, Mr. Cliff Kodo who patronized one of the local barbers for the first time last Wednesday, said he always used his clippers to shave at home but seldom goes to the barbing saloon to barb.  But on that occasion, he went there because he wanted to know and experience what was happening there.  He said he did not request for blade because he has his personal clippers.
“I decided not to choose either blade or clippers but the blade. Who knows whether the clippers I would have chosen is even infected?”
As Danwanzam busies his hands around and about with the familiar touches, Kodo who was experiencing northern culture of local barbing for the first time, concluded that God who protects life should protect us all, while reacting to posers on probability of contacting Human Immuno-defficiency Virus (HIV).  
Medical experts listed local barber’s tools as agents of transmitting HIV/AIDS. How then do these barbers manage the situation? Danwanzam who knows that those who have the infection are not identifiable facially, said when such infection was not in the society, even barbers used clippers and blades repeatedly in their businesses.
“With HIV and other deadly diseases in the world today, all local barbers have adopted the policy of `one man; one blade`. In fact, there is no danwanzam so poor in the world today that will use a blade for more than one person. We charge between N100 and N150 per head while a blade costs less than N20,” he said.
Barbing is as old as man. It continued for decades within families with the use of razor blades, then scissors. Commercial barbing introduced manual clippers and finally electronic ones became the vogue. What is the next latest technology we expect in barbing as a business? Well, it does not look the local barber can be shoved aside in this business of giving face-lift to human face.