# West African Barbershop & Hair Salon Signs

> Hand-painted boards advertising barbershops and braiding salons across West and Central Africa, made by self-taught, often anonymous sign painters since the mid-20th century. Unlike lettering-led shop fascias they work as a picture menu: rows of naive, frontal heads, each modelling one named hairstyle, are laid out like a specimen chart under the shop name and boasts such as 'Extra O' (extraordinary).

- Period: 1950–present
- Where: Sub-Saharan Africa
- Origin: Barbershops and braiding salons in West African cities (Kumasi, Accra, Abidjan, Ouagadougou, Lomé, Cotonou, Bamako), spreading to Cameroon, Congo-Kinshasa and Nairobi
- Branch: Traditions & vernacular
- Also known as: Hair salon signs, Barber boards, Coiffure signs, Extra 'O' signs, Kinyozi signs (Kenya)
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/barbershop-sign/

## How it works

- Give each hairstyle its own cell and lay the cells out in rows and columns, so the board works as a menu a client can point at.
- Paint every head at the same scale and in the same frontal or three-quarter pose, so the hairstyle is the only thing that changes.
- Label each head with a painted name or number ('Boeing', 'America Boy', 'Sweet Banana', 'Top Secret').
- Put the shop name and a boast such as 'Extra O' in a top or bottom band, in outlined, shadowed hand-painted capitals.
- Set the heads on flat single-colour grounds or flag backdrops, in enamel or acrylic on plywood, hardboard, metal sheet or flour sacking, or straight onto the façade.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Modular grid](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/modular-grid/) (defining)
- [Framed panels](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/framed-panels/) (characteristic)
- [Central symmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/central-symmetry/) (characteristic)
- [Isolated object](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/isolated-object/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Repetition & rhythm](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/repetition-and-rhythm/) (defining)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (characteristic)
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Hand-lettering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-lettering/) (defining)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (characteristic)
- [Ornamented display](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornamented-display/) (occasional)
- [Eclectic mixing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/eclectic-mixing/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (defining)
- [Full polychrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/full-polychrome/) (characteristic)
- [Light ground](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/light-ground/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Naturalistic depiction](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/naturalistic-depiction/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (characteristic)
- [Flat](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat/) (characteristic)
- [Hard offset shadow](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hard-offset-shadow/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Restrained accents](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/restrained-accents/) (characteristic)
- [Borders & frames](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/borders-and-frames/) (occasional)
- [Emblems & badges](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/emblems-and-badges/) (occasional)

### Imagery
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (defining)
- [Icons & pictograms](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/icons-and-pictograms/) (occasional)
- [Found & vernacular imagery](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/found-and-vernacular-imagery/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Hand-painted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-painted/) (defining)
- [Architecture & signage](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/architecture-and-signage/) (defining)

### Tone & intent
- [Communal & popular](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/communal-and-popular/) (defining)
- [Warm & approachable](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/warm-and-approachable/) (characteristic)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional)

Avoids: Visual tension, Distortion & exaggeration, Diagonal axis, Collage & layering, Straight photography, Desktop publishing

Palette: #2f7fc1, #f2c230, #c8232c, #5a3220, #f4efe6, #151515

Typefaces: Outlined, drop-shadowed block capitals by sign painters, Brush-painted style names and numbers as captions, French and English shop lettering (Coiffure, Salon, Barbing Saloon) in painted sans and slab capitals

Known for: BP Konan, 'Défrisage' sign (Côte d'Ivoire, late 1970s–early 1980s); Rasmane, barbershop sign (Burkina Faso, c. 1980); Lébéné, hairdressing sign (Togo, signed 1994); Esger Duintjer collection, African barbershop boards exhibition, ASC Library Leiden (2013–14); Extra 'O': African Barbershop and Hairdressing Signs, SFO Museum, San Francisco (2020)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Grew out of: [Hand-Painted Signage & Vernacular Lettering](https://stylogeny.com/styles/hand-painted-signage.md) (1800–present)
- Alike in its design choices: [Lotería Card Imagery (Mexican Lotería)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/loteria.md) (1887–present), 68% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Ultras Graphics (Curva Banners and Tifo)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/ultras-graphics.md) (1968–present), 67% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Imagerie d'Épinal & European Bilderbogen](https://stylogeny.com/styles/imagerie-epinal.md) (1796–1939), 64% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Senegalese Sufi Devotional Imagery (Souwère Glass Painting and Amadou Bamba Portraits)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/senegalese-sufi-imagery.md) (1900–present), 62% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Amar Chitra Katha Comics](https://stylogeny.com/styles/amar-chitra-katha.md) (1967–present), 60% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Tingatinga Painting](https://stylogeny.com/styles/tingatinga.md) (1968–present), 60% alike

## Real works

- [Barbershop sign with twelve braided hairstyles (kappersbord)](https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/149082): Unrecorded sign painter (painted inscription 'Adjanor-H., B-P-34, Agbodrafo'), before 1983 (museum: donated 1983), Wereldmuseum Amsterdam (formerly Tropenmuseum), inv. TM-4808-1
- [Hairdresser's sign with fifteen hairstyles (kappersbord)](https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/147441): Unrecorded painter (front inscription 'Jardin des Beaux Arts, Fiango Market – K'ba'), 1978 (back inscription '500 francs 22/6/78'), Wereldmuseum Amsterdam (formerly Tropenmuseum), inv. TM-4739-1
- [Hairdresser's sign with four women's hairstyles (kappersbord)](https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11840/171608): Tallo (signed 'Aimé décor Tallo'), 1980–1985, Wereldmuseum Amsterdam (formerly Tropenmuseum), inv. TM-5723-6

## Sources

- https://indigoarts.com/node/5194 (Indigo Arts, notes on the SFO Museum exhibition Extra 'O': makers, dates, style names)
- https://ascleiden.nl/news/exhibition-extended-asc-library-african-barbershop-boards (ASC Library Leiden: countries, materials, makers)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “West African Barbershop & Hair Salon Signs”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/barbershop-sign/