Headdress - South Africa

Great Hat Isicholo.
Zulu, South Africa
20th century
Large hat made of hair dyed with natural pigments, intense red.
Length: approximately 47 cm.
Zulu women wear wide hats called Isicholos (plural: izicholo), like this one, to proclaim their marital status.

These headdresses, like all pearl ornaments, were distinctive signs that allowed the decoding of their owner's status and identity.
Round and conical hats, the most commonly distributed, are made of human hair mixed with wool fibers, fixed onto a wicker frame, and colored red, then coated with fats and ochre.

This type of hairstyle is derived from a fashion worn towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
At that time, Zulu women shaved their heads, leaving a tuft of hair which they covered with grease and ochre.
Growing hair, they shaped it on a false cone.

sold without the base