How to tie gele? – Step by step instruction

How to tie gele ? – Step by step instruction

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Gele is very popular in Nigeria. It is not easy to tie a gele, but, in any case, you can do it yourself at home following our few steps. So how to tie gele?

 

Gele tying has already become an art. Some time ago Nigerian ladies abandoned using it. It happened because of the complication of this often long process. So, how to tie African gele in a very easy way? Are there different methods? How to pick the best one for you? Find out all the answers.
How to tie gele step by step?

The history of wearing African gele in Nigeria has started long ago. Yoruba women have already been wearing them for a lot of years. They created some special methods how to tie Yoruba gele. They even created some for the special occasions. You need to follow ten steps in order to tie your gele with no effort and fast.
1. Make your hair

Before starting your casual or bridal gele, you need to make your hair. So if you have very long hair, put it up and fix it in a ponytail or a knot. You need a smooth foundation for the perfect gele. Once you put your hair up, you’d better also brush it well and mostly in the area of the forehead. You should smooth it up.
2. Put your cover on

You can easily skip this step, in case if you have very short or totally straight hair. However, if you have a lot of hair or very smooth hair, you are able to use some additional cover up. Using transparent African fabric gele works very well.

You can also use a piece of some old pantyhose or leggings to cover your head. You should cut off small lower part of it and then put it on your head. You can also use any hair slides to set it there. So you create a much better foundation for a future African gele. This method helps it not to slide off the head. If the gele is totally transparent, so your new head cover is more even due to its underneath color. It can also keep your curly, fluffy hair down and tight extremely well on your head.
3. Make a fold


There is one popular traditional way to do a gele at one edge. Everything depends on the girth of this gele. If it is extremely wide, you can easily fold it by half. Or you can, for example, bend its one edge. You can fold your gele all the way to another end of it. Make a crisp bend there and press it together with the fingers. It would be easier to tie your headband using this method.
4. The long and short end of it

Now you should take it so, that one bend is downward and the unbent edge goes up. One of the gele ends must be long and another one should stay short. It must be so long that you can wrap it at least twice around the head.
5. Put it on your head


Now you should put the bent edge over the forehead. The shorter part should go down to the nape (plus 10-15 cm). You must press it tight to your head and put two ends down to your nape. You should be sure that gele covers the forehead and these two ends cover your ears.
6. Cross the ends

At this moment, your gele must stay tight to your head. You should fasten the shorter end using the longer one, so now you can free up another hand. Then place the short part under the long one and stick its tail to the other side. After that pull the longer end and then fasten your shorter one. So you have one free hand, which can help you to do the folds.
7. Wrap it once

Make the first wrap all around the head. Watch your folds. This is the moment when you need to form and shape folds. Press crisp bend to your head. Also, make a small indent on the first layer of gele in order to shape some more folds. Move all the way down to your nape.
8. Wrap it twice

Move to the second wrap, and make some more folds. The gele’s beauty means folds. They are the essential part of it. This time you should make some small pleats using your hands on the edge of the crease. You fold it up using small movements and then press the edge down to the head. Move all the way down to your nape again and then wrap it up.
9. Tie it

At last, you tie your two edges (they have the same size now). You make a strong knot, so it won’t fall off your head. The knot must be located on the nape or a bit on the side next to one of your ears.
10. Regulate gele

It’s the moment when you have to adjust the gele at its topper part. You stick that unfolded end up. You should round it up a little bit and make some nice folds over the head. And that’s it.

This is the most popular basic and also the simplest method of how to tie an African gele. You can do it easily with no help at all. It just needs a little practice and time. But there are a few other tricky methods. For example, you may leave both long ends of the gele and wrap one part around your head with each of them. Or, you can just create a simple zig zag pattern on the head.
Other ways of tying gele


So you need two or maybe even three scarfs of totally different colors. It will look very nice, if you make them even and smooth, creating some kind of zig-zag. One more way to tie the gele is to make some pleats. In this case, you should not make the fold.

But instead of it, you start making some pleats using your hands on one gele edge and then put your short end at your temple. You start rolling your gele around the head, but not forget about making the pleats on the edge. You should not stop and go round and round till you have no scarf left. Then you must tie one knot with two ends and regulate another edge. Using this way you manage to get a lot of nice folds on the head.


If all these instructions still seem to you very difficult, you can watch how to tie gele video guide right here!