It’s always struck me how beautiful body hair is considered to be in Ghana. It’s not just legs. Chin hair, arm hair — and yes, chest hair — are all considered highly desirable by Ghanaian men of all social classes. For many women, easily pluckable strands on faces, upper lips and necks are left carefully in place. You might still hear a less-hairy woman pointing to a hairier woman’s limb in Ghana, and saying, ‘Ye ton anka me to bi’ — which in Twi means: ‘If it were for sale, I would buy some.’ Some older women told me this aesthetic stretches far back in Ghanaian cultural traditions.
Today, the threat to beauty conventions isn’t Darwin but global conglomerates, keen to find new markets among the growing middle classes in developing regions, by giving consumers there new hang-ups. Teeth whiteners, wigs, weight-loss regimes, Botox and depilators are all aggressively marketed in African and Middle Eastern cities, where they promote proximity to the lifestyles of relatively wealthier consumer classes in America and Europe.
