Hair, particularly Ifemelu’s hair, is used frequently in the novel to comment on her adaptation and/or defiance of American cultural norms. Ifemelu’s hair, whether braided, relaxed, or natural, represents her state of assimilation in America, or her attempts to push back against it. The novel begins in a Trenton hair salon—though Ifemelu lives in Princeton, New Jersey, she must travel to another city to have her hair braided. She has been wearing her hair in a small, natural Afro, but is about to return to Nigeria, and therefore must have braids, as is customary there.

Though Ifemelu understands that “the few black locals she had seen [in Princeton] were so light-skinned and lank-haired” (3) that a braiding salon would not be necessary, the fact she has to travel for this service nonetheless annoys her. The braiding salon itself is a pan-African enterprise, with female employees and customers from Nigeria, Ghana, the Caribbean, and more. The salon functions more like Africa than America, with Nigerian movies playing on TV, and Ifemelu haggles with the shop owner, something that is not a part of American culture. In the salon, Ifemelu is better understood than in Princeton. When she complains of the heat, she knows the women around her will not say, “‘You’re hot? But you’re from Africa!’” (13).