I travel from Lagos to Osun to make my hair – Onoriode

Onoriode Odah Ovwurie, the Editor-in-Chief of Now Magazine, talks fashion with Punch Newspaper recently.

See Excerpts;

Which would you rather wear, your natural hair or weave?

Well, if I had very good hair texture then I would have rocked my natural hair and do all crazy styles of weave with it but unfortunately, that’s not the case. I alternate with other options, thank God for weave-ons and attachments.

How much does it cost you to make your hair and how long does it take?

To be very honest, there is no price tag to my hair. I can spend a lot on it as long as I like it and it suits me. I am really crazy when it comes to my hair styles because most of the time, I create my own styles which are always very unique, crazy, and very colourful. I love playing with colours on my hair. The least number of colours you can find on my hair is three.

The duration of my hair styles depends on how well it fits me or how well I like it. I get tired of a particular look, easily. So I can take it off any time I get bored with the look irrespective of how much I spent on it. Well, the truth is, the lady that does my hair stays in Ile-Ife in Osun State. She comes down whenever I have to make my hair, I am sure that sounds crazy. Sometimes if she dosen’t come, I go over there. So transport plus her services is about ₦10,000 minus whatever weave-on or style I decide to do. On an average I spend like ₦15,000-₦20,000. That is if I’m not fixing Brazilian, Indian or Paloma weave-on and of course, you know how much those weave-ons cost.

What’s your favourite hairstyle?

I really don’t have a favourite. Whatever I decide to do has to be crazy and colourful but in a decent way. It takes guts and attitude for some ladies to wear some of the kind of hair styles I create. For instance the hair style I had on my wedding was out of this world that people spent more time looking at the hair than me.

Would you rather buy a Nigerian designer’s dress or a foreign designer’s?

I wear both foreign and Nigerian made attires as long as they look nice on me. When it comes to fashion, I don’t really go for names as such. I wear whatever looks good on me, irrespective of who the designer is. I wear a lot of Nigerian fabric clothes because I find them very beautiful and easy to play around with when it comes to designing. Our fabrics come in lots of colours and different designs that when you blend them together, they come out fine. I design for lots of people even though I am not a fashion designer. I have a flair for these things because I am a very stylish person and I also deal in fabrics.

Do you patronise Nigerian designers at all?

I patronise Nigerian designers but they may not be known names. Even though they are not really popular, they sew very fantastic clothes, even better than some known names. I admire the designs of Yomi Casual. He is a very talented young man. I see a lot of prospect in his work.

What influences your fashion style?

A lot of things influence my fashion style. From my mood, state of mind, to the environment; a whole lot. You can’t predict my fashion sense because I don’t really follow fashion trends as such. I hate wearing what everybody is wearing. I will rather wait for the trend to phase off before I decide to wear mine. People tend to appreciate it better then because it will be worn with a difference. If I am forced to go with the trend, I will definitely wear mine with a difference.

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