Hair places
Cities, streets and sacred sites where hair styles were born, cut and offered. 40 places so far.
South Asia
Sacred site, IndiaAmritsarThe city of the Golden Temple, at the heart of Sikh kesh, uncut hair, and the dastar, the turban.Style capital, IndiaChennaiLong plaits with jasmine, the braided hair of Bharatanatyam dancers, and the kudumi of temple priests.Sacred site, IndiaHaridwarWhere the Ganges leaves the Himalaya: mundan at Har Ki Pauri and the matted locks of sadhus at the Kumbh.Culture region, IndiaMaduraiThe temple city whose jasmine, Madurai malli, is strung into gajras worn on plaits and buns across Tamil Nadu.Style capital, IndiaMumbaiBollywood's city: film-star fringes and buns, gajras from Dadar flower market and Maharashtrian bridal hair.Sacred site, IndiaPalaniA hill temple of Murugan where devotees shave their heads and coat them in sandalwood paste.Sacred site, IndiaTirumalaThe hill temple of Venkateswara, where pilgrims offer their hair at the Kalyanakatta tonsure halls.Sacred site, IndiaTriveni Sangam, PrayagrajThe meeting of rivers where couples perform veni daan, the offering of a wife's plait, and pilgrims shave before bathing.Sacred site, IndiaVaranasi ghatsThe riverside steps of the Ganges where children have their mundan and mourners shave their heads.
East Asia
Style capital, China, 1 hairstyleBeijingThe Qing capital that imposed the queue on Chinese men and dressed Manchu women in the tall liangbatou.Barber street or district, JapanGion, KyotoKyoto's geisha district, where maiko wear traditional nihongami of their own hair, changed with the seasons by their kanzashi.Barber street or district, JapanHarajuku, TokyoThe Tokyo street-fashion district of Takeshita Street: hime cuts, twin tails, bright colour and buns.School or museum, JapanKushi Kanzashi Museum, ŌmeA museum in the hills west of Tokyo devoted to Japanese combs and hairpins from the Edo period onwards.Barber street or district, JapanRyōgoku, TokyoThe sumo district of Tokyo, where wrestlers' oiled topknots are dressed by tokoyama and cut off at retirement.Style capital, South KoreaSeoulJoseon topknots, braided ribbons and court wigs, the topknot ban of 1895, and today's K-pop salons.
Middle East
Barber street or district, Israel, 1 hairstyleMea ShearimA Haredi neighbourhood of Jerusalem where payot, hats and the covered hair of married women mark daily life.Sacred site, Israel, 1 hairstyleMount MeronThe tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, where thousands of Jewish boys have their first haircut, the upsherin, on Lag BaOmer.Barber street or district, TurkeyIstanbul barbersThe barbers' shops of the old city around the Grand Bazaar, heirs to an Ottoman craft of the razor, the hot towel and the turban.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Style capital, GhanaAccraGhana's capital, which gave its name to Ghana braids and where a court case over locs reached the High Court.Style capital, SenegalDakarSenegal's capital, home of Senegalese twists and braiders who took their craft to Harlem, Paris and beyond.Culture region, EthiopiaJimmaThe old Oromo kingdom of south-west Ethiopia, whose women's braided styles were recorded by travellers from the 1870s.Style capital, South AfricaJohannesburgSouth Africa's biggest city, where hair was once used in racial classification and is now a scene of braiders, doeks and debate.Style capital, NigeriaLagosYoruba braids, threaded sculptures and the towering gele headwraps of Lagos weddings and parties.Culture region, MaliMopti and the Fula countryThe river port of Mali's inner Niger delta, a meeting place of the Fula herders whose braids inspired Fulani braids.Culture region, RwandaNyanza, RwandaThe old royal capital of Rwanda, where the King's Palace Museum recalls amasunzu, the crescent hair crests of men and young women.
Europe
Style capital, France, 3 hairstylesParisWhere Marcel Grateau invented the marcel wave in 1872, Antoine popularised the bob, and the chignon and French twist were perfected.Barber street or district, United Kingdom, 2 hairstylesKing's Road, ChelseaThe Chelsea street of Mary Quant's 1960s boutique and the punk shops of the 1970s, home of the mohican and liberty spikes.Style capital, United Kingdom, 2 hairstylesLondonVidal Sassoon's geometric bob, Twiggy's crop, barristers' wigs and a city of barbers and stylists.Culture region, UkraineKhortytsiaThe Dnieper island of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, whose shaved heads and long forelock, the oseledets, are a symbol of Ukraine.Style capital, ItalyRomeBusts in the Capitoline Museums show Roman women's towering curls and men's short combed cuts; the Vatican kept the tonsure.Culture region, FranceVersaillesThe royal court of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette: the fontange, the periwig and the towering pouf.
North America
Style capital, United States, 4 hairstylesHarlemThe Manhattan neighbourhood of finger waves and conks, the afro, and the African braiding salons of 125th and 116th streets.Style capital, United States, 4 hairstylesNew York CityThe barbershops of Brooklyn and the Bronx, where hip hop gave the world the hi-top fade, the Brooklyn fade and waves.Style capital, United States, 1 hairstyleHollywoodThe film and television capital whose stars made the bob, victory rolls, the pixie, feathered hair and the Rachel.Style capital, United States, 1 hairstyleNew OrleansWhere a 1786 law forced women of colour to cover their hair, and they turned the tignon into a statement of style.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Barber street or district, CubaCallejón de los Peluqueros, HavanaThe Hairdressers' Alley of Old Havana, a restored stretch of Calle Aguiar built around a barber's school and shops.Culture region, JamaicaKingstonJamaica's capital, where the Rastafari made locks a sign of faith and Bob Marley carried them around the world.Style capital, BrazilRio de JaneiroThe city of carnival, of the Black Rio dance parties of the 1970s, and of a natural-hair movement in its north zone.Culture region, BrazilSalvadorThe heart of Afro-Brazilian culture, with the turbans of the baianas, afros, braids and the Beleza Negra of Ilê Aiyê.