Stylists offer advice and a listening ear as well as a trim

Yopougon, the largest of Abidjan’s 13 communes, with a population of 1.5 million, is known for its entrepreneurial grit, its bubbly nightlife and, in pop culture, as being the birthplace of Francophone Africa’s most popular comic character, Aya de Yopougon.

- By Eromo Egbejule ABIDJAN

It is also home to another taboo-busting pioneer: 49-year-old Adjoua Catherine Tano, a hairdresser who has spent two decades offering mental health advice, or just listening quietly as she cuts her clients’ hair.

A school dropout who tried out as a bank cashier before becoming a hairdresser, Tano’s resilience came in handy when speaking to a teenager worried about failing her exams. “I told her: ‘Don’t think negatively,” Tano said. “Even if you fail, how can you think that you have failed in life?’”

Mental health remains a taboo subject in most parts of Africa, even though according to the World Health Organization more than 116 million people have mental health problems on the continent. Therapy is in critically short supply, with 1.4 mental health workers for every 100,000 people.

Across Black communities, hairdressers have become a safe space, especially in places with little or no access to mental health care - or quality healthcare in general.