Abstract
The idea of leisure connoting free time makes it synonymous with laziness and wastefulness which does not fit very well within African traditional
thought. In the colonial era, the idea of leisure was seen as alien to the Africans and in the post-colonial era, some people associated it with idleness and irresponsibility. A deeper dig however in history, shows the African man and woman kept themselves entertained on specific occasions whenever they were not working. These pastime activities included dance, bull fighting, games, drawing and even hair styling. Problem: there exists a deep rooted misconception that African hairstyles are without local aesthetic content or value. From the western view, the African was thought to have no sense of leisure. Objective: the objective of this study was to establish the role and the reasons for varied hairstyles donned by Africans then and now. Design: the study used desktop and library research methods
