Huli Wig SchoolHuli wig school is one of the oldest traditional school that has exist for thousands of years in Papua New Guinea. Where its lesson has been passed down from generation to generation and even still exist today.

Huli men are best known for their custom of wearing decorative woven wigs during a celebratory festivals.

Huli men who attends the wig schools are known as the “Huli Wigmen”.

Huli Wigmen live together in isolation from the rest of the communities.

Wig masters are elders who must have powers and able to cast spells to grow hair.

At wig school, they learn the fundamental rules of Huli traditional customs: from growing their hair to collecting feathers and making armbands.In Huli culture, the boys live with their mothers until they are seven or eight years old, then they live with their fathers to learn skills like hunting with bows and arrows, building mud walls and making houses.

Learning Fundamental Rules

When they around 14 to 15 years old, they go to wig school and don’t return home at all until they graduate.

Sometimes they stay there for up to 10 years. Other times they are given the choices to return to their villages or stay in the forest to learn more and improve their skills.

To enter the wig school, the boy’s family pays the wig master in shell or a pig.

Huli wig student stay with the wig master for 18 months to grow one wig. If they want to grow another, they stay longer and pay again.

Only young and virgin males can enter wig school. Before the student comes to wig school, the wig master has to put a powerful spell on the students. The spell will not work on someone who had a sexual relations.

Women are not allowed to go to wig schools because they don’t wear wigs.

ACCEPTED INTO THE SCHOOLOnce student accepted into the school;

The students and master perform a special ritual near a creek or other water source.

The master spits into a bamboo pipe filled with water from the creek.

Each students gulp down half of the water and spit it into the air so that the water will fall onto them and cleanse their souls.

The other half is then drunk to cleanse the interior of the student’s bodies.

Students have to keep their hair wet at least three times a day.

It is a tradition to sing while using fern leaves to sprinkle water onto their big bouncy hairdo.

They also have to follow a diet where certain types of food are not allowed such as pig’s heart, pig’s fat and spicy food.

They also adopt a special sleeping position: perched on one elbow and neck resting on a wooden log, all to ensure a healthy growth of hair.

After 18 months of growing their hair out, the wigmen cut their hair out and hand them to the wig specialist, who then sews and weaves the student’s hair into wigs.

The wigs are decorated with feathers from various birds, including parrots, birds of paradise and killer cassowaries.

Once the wig specialist weaves them into immaculate wigs, he goes to the market and sells them.

Many Huli men who don’t grow their own hair will buy them to wear for festivals, weddings and greeting tourist.

In the past huli wig school received 20 to 30 students each term, but now it’s only get 10 or less. More huli men prefer to go to public schools this days.

Short video of Huli

wig school

Presented by: Betty Wakia(白丽 )