Hair is a thing. Black hair in particular is a thing. And judging by the volume and variety of Google searches on the topic, it’s a big thing.
Here’s a breakdown of what South African women are searching for when it comes to hair.
What do you usually look for? Do you often find it?
Search terms related to hair centre mainly around hairstyles, with South Africans searching for ‘short black hair’ and ‘black hairstyles’. Rising search terms (meaning they’re increasingly being searched) in January 2016 include ‘black women hairstyles’, ‘black hair braids’ and ‘braids’.
‘Short black hair’ is definitely a trend – it didn’t feature in much in Google search terms before July 2015, but has steadily garnered interest from South Africa women since.
‘Black hair’ is evidently a bigger thing in Gauteng, where the bulk of the searches originate, followed by Kwa-Zulu Natal and the Western Cape. The other provinces don’t generate enough searches to appear in Google trends data. Within Gauteng, the majority of searches come from Krugersdorp (of all places) followed by Roodepoort, Centurion and Sandton.
A quick search on ‘black hairstyles’ generates 400 000 odd search results, a telling indicator of just how much interest there is out there, and how many people and businesses are trying to fill the need with everything from discussions about black hair, to ‘how tos’, and products and services for sale all within easy (on- and offline) reach.
Taking a more practical approach to the matter, a YouTube search for ‘black hair tutorials’ garners some 280 000 results, including South Africa’s own YouTube Creator Ayesha, whose Simple Beauty blog offers tips and tricks for looking your best, and MissPeaches1000 who has developed a series on taking care of black hair – from natural to braids.
This article was created using Google Trends by Google South Africa.
