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The EU is working on broadening sanctions on Russia to include oil and gas embargoes but such measures would take “several months”,  European officials told AFP on Friday.

The bloc last week announced a ban on Russian coal in a first step against Russian energy exports — together, Moscow’s main hard currency earner. 

But the coal sanction only kicks in from mid-August, and would hit around eight billion euros ($8.7 billion) in Russia’s sales abroad, annually. 

Russian oil and gas sales to the EU account for a far higher amount of revenue: between a quarter of a billion to a billion euros per day, per different estimates.

Public and political opinion in the EU is swinging towards a total energy ban as Moscow’s war in Ukraine grinds on and yields discoveries of atrocities.

An EU official involved in discussions on cutting Russian energy imports said the European Commission is “thinking about options”. Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has already come out publicly in favour of targeting Russian oil.

But, the official said, “adopting measures on oil means undoing existing contracts, finding alternatives and preventing circumvention”.

“That can’t be don’t overnight. It requires at least several months.”

– Outrage over war –

Building EU outrage over the war is sweeping aside hesitation by the member states reliant on Russian oil and gas, such as the bloc’s biggest economy Germany, and Italy, Greece and Austria.

Some EU countries, such as Lithuania, have already announced national bans on Russian oil and gas.

One option to quickly stall revenues going to Russia’s war could be to pay for energy imports through an escrow account, which Moscow wouldn’t be able to touch until a postwar settlement.

But there is also thinking about how Russia might retaliate, by cutting supplies to Europe, or — as President Vladimir Putin said this week — selling more to Asia.

In any case, it’s clear that European industry and consumers will have to consume less oil and gas — something economists call “demand destruction”.

“Cutting demand will have an impact with price hikes,” another EU official said, echoing comments from several ministers in the bloc.

They noted that the EU’s main ally in the sanctions, the US — which a month ago imposed its own ban on Russia’s energy imports — is leery of petrol price rises for American drivers.

“What’s more, if Russia sells oil snubbed by the Europeans to other buyers, the sanctions won’t work,” one EU official said.

The Europeans and Americans are looking to avoid the sanctions being weakened by China and India. 

Brussels is telling Beijing and New Delhi the EU would find it “difficult to accept partners who undermine the sanctions,” one EU diplomat said.

– EU unity –

At the same time, the EU is intent on preserving unity among its 27 member states as it navigates sensitive national interests on energy.

Yet determination to target Russian energy was evident at the last meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday in Luxembourg.

“The European Union is spending hundreds of millions of euros on importing oil from Russia — that is certainly contributing to financing this war,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said at that meeting.

“In our view, we need to cut off that financing of war, even though it creates huge challenges and problems for the EU to solve together.” 

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said after the meeting that “nothing is off the table, including sanctions on oil and gas” but no decision was yet made.

Borrell said that, in 2021, the EU paid Russia $80 billion (74 billion euros) for oil and $20 billion for gas — which would work out as an average of 250 million euros per day.

Other European sources, including MEPs, have spoken of Russian fossil fuel imports to the value of up to 700 million euros per day. 

Figures vary depending on what period of time is being looked at, contract prices versus market spot prices, and currency valuations.

A spike in energy demand as Covid-19 restrictions were eased made energy prices jump even before the war in Ukraine.

The International Energy Agency said that, in 2021, the EU  imported 155 billion cubic metres of gas from Russia, representing 45 percent of its gas imports.

The World Economic Forum says the EU gets over a quarter of its imported crude from Russia, but volumes have been dropping over the past decade.

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka imposed fuel rationing on Friday in another worsening of the economic crisis that has sparked widespread demonstrations calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation.

The state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), which accounts for two-thirds of the retail fuel market, said it would limit the quantities drivers can buy, and banned pumping into cans altogether to prevent motorists stocking up on petrol or diesel in fear of further rationing.

The maximum for motorcycles was set at four litres of petrol, with three-wheelers allowed five litres, the CPC said. Private cars, vans and SUVs were allowed up to 19.5 litres of either petrol or diesel.

Most pumping stations were already out of petrol, while the few that remained open saw long queues. At least eight people have died while waiting in fuel lines since last month.

Energy ministry officials said they expected the country’s other fuel retailer, Lanka IOC — the local unit of Indian Oil Corporation — to follow suit. 

There was no immediate comment from the Lanka IOC, which accounts for the remaining one third of the market.

The island nation is in the grip of its worst economic crisis since independence in 1948, with severe shortages of essential goods and regular blackouts causing widespread misery.

The country’s main cooking gas retailer Litro Gas said it was completely out of stock, but hoped to get new supplies by Monday to resume distribution.

The state-owned firm said its chairman, Theshara Jayasinghe, a strong ally of Rajapaksa, had resigned on Thursday over the “prevailing situation” in the country.

Tens of thousands of people kept up a protest outside Rajapaksa’s office for a seventh straight day Friday demanding he quit over the economic hardships suffered by the country’s 22 million residents.

Sri Lanka’s economic meltdown began after the coronavirus pandemic torpedoed vital revenue from tourism and remittances. 

The government has urged citizens abroad to donate foreign exchange to help pay for desperately needed essentials after announcing a default on its entire external debt.

It has announced it will open negotiations with the International Monetary Fund to seek a bailout.

Chinese automakers warned they may have to put the brakes on production if Covid-19 lockdowns in Shanghai persist, with a top Huawei executive also sounding the alarm Friday about snarled supply chains.

The restrictions have kept Shanghai’s 25 million residents mostly at home for weeks, forcing manufacturers to halt operations and making China’s GDP growth target of around 5.5 percent look increasingly difficult to achieve.

Shipping giants also warned that Shanghai’s lockdown was snarling up the world’s busiest container port.

Covid outbreaks across the country and the associated reductions in economic activity have already hit the auto industry hard, with car sales dropping 10.5 percent in March.

“If supply chain companies in Shanghai and its surrounding areas cannot find a way to dynamically resume work and production, all original equipment manufacturers may have to stop production in May,” XPeng chief He Xiaopeng said Thursday on social media.

XPeng has been touted as a Chinese challenger to US electric car giant Tesla, and its chief said that businesses were hoping for more support from the authorities to navigate the Covid closures.

A top executive at Chinese tech giant Huawei — which has started to work with domestic auto manufacturers in the intelligent vehicle sector — echoed the comments on Friday and warned the clock was ticking.

“If Shanghai continues being unable to resume work and production, from May, all tech and industrial players involving the Shanghai supply chain will completely shut down, especially the auto industry!” Richard Yu, head of Huawei’s consumer and auto segment, said on the social media platform WeChat.

Huawei sold its first 3,000 electric vehicles with the company’s HarmonyOS operating system in March.

The group has been working with automakers to provide intelligent auto components, but does not make cars on its own.

– Global brands affected –

The Covid curbs have affected global brands as well, with Volkswagen saying it has been “severely hit by Covid-19 outbreaks in Changchun and Shanghai”, where the German titan’s Chinese joint ventures are located.

The firm is “temporarily unable to meet high customer demand,” said Volkswagen Group China CEO Stephan Wollenstein Thursday.

China’s zero-Covid policy has been increasingly strained as the country battles its highest number of infections since the start of the pandemic.

Volkswagen said around 20 percent of its dealers were forced to temporarily close in March alone as a result of lockdowns.

And Tesla’s multi-billion-dollar “gigafactory” in Shanghai — which the company calls its main export hub — has also been reportedly shut.

Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio said last weekend that it had suspended vehicle production, as business partners in virus-hit areas such as Jilin and Shanghai halted operations.

Containers have been piling up at the port of Shanghai as the city faces limited trucking capacity, and shipping giant Maersk said in a statement Thursday it would stop taking new bookings for refrigerated containers and hazardous cargo into the city.

It cited “yard congestion in Shanghai terminals” for the move.

Another shipping company, Ocean Network Express, said that plug slots for keeping refrigerated containers cool were “highly stressed”.

Asian markets dipped Friday after a negative lead from Wall Street, with investors around the world worried about surging inflation.

Central banks in several major economies including the United States, Canada and Britain have already started raising interest rates to contain prices, but the European Central Bank on Thursday kept its stimulus plans and rates unchanged.

That sent the euro plunging to a near two-year low, but eurozone stocks were boosted while Wall Street retreated ahead of the Easter holidays.

The mood was subdued in Asia too, where only a handful of markets were open on Good Friday.

The Nikkei 225 closed 0.3 percent lower with Wall Street’s woes depressing sentiment.

Analysts had expected China’s central bank to cut interest rates on Friday to provide support to the Covid-stricken economy.

But the People’s Bank of China left them unchanged.

“That’s somewhat surprising given the sharp economic downturn and recent calls from China’s leadership for monetary support,” Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a note.

“It underscores the reluctance of the central bank to aggressively ease policy. But we think it will have little choice but to do more before long.”

Shanghai was down 0.5 percent at the close.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has added to the uncertainty about the global economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was reflected in statements from major banking executives in the United States, who described the American economy as solid but warned about the impact of the Ukraine conflict and the measures central banks such as the US Federal Reserve will take to control inflation.

“We don’t think there’s going to be a recession,” Julian Emanuel, chief equity strategist at Evercore ISI, told Bloomberg television.

“We don’t think the Fed is going to break the glass. But the problem is investors aren’t in that mindset quite yet.”

European and US markets are closed on Friday.

– Energy, food shocks –

Russia is a major global oil and gas supplier, and — along with Ukraine — is also a key player in the grain sector.

The conflict has shaken markets for these commodities, and the impact has been felt from the Middle East to South America.

In Yemen, there are fears of food shortages with the war-ravaged nation already on the edge of famine.

In Argentina, a strike by grain transporters has paralysed farming exports — haulers are unhappy with the rates they are paid, pointing to the spike in fuel prices because of the Ukraine crisis.

The war has sent oil prices soaring, with reports swirling about further energy sanctions on Russia.

Both main contracts have hovered above the $100 per barrel mark in recent days.

“There are no surprises here as oil continues to march higher, with global supply shortage outweighing concerns about slower demand in China,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a note.

– Key figures around 0745 GMT –

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.3 percent at 27,093.19 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,211.24 (close)

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holiday

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0808 from $1.0832 at 2100 GMT Thursday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3068 from $1.3076

Euro/pound: DOWN at 82.70 pence from 82.77 pence

Dollar/yen: UP at 126.46 from 125.87

Brent North Sea crude: UP 2.7 percent at $111.70 per barrel at 2100 GMT Thursday

West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.6 percent at $106.95 per barrel at 2100 GMT Thursday

New York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 34,451.23 (close)

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 7,616.38 (close)

— Bloomberg News contributed to this story —

Chinese auto makers may have to put the brakes on production if strict Covid-19 curbs in Shanghai persist, said the founder of electric carmaker XPeng, as a prolonged lockdown of the economic hub menaces supply chains.

The lockdown has kept Shanghai’s 25 million residents mostly at home, forcing manufacturers to halt operations, and has made China’s GDP growth target of around 5.5 percent look increasingly difficult to achieve.

Covid outbreaks across the country and the associated reductions in economic activity have already hit the auto industry hard, with car sales dropping 10.5 percent in March.

“If supply chain companies in Shanghai and its surrounding areas cannot find a way to dynamically resume work and production, all original equipment manufacturers may have to stop production in May,” XPeng chief He Xiaopeng said Thursday on social media.

XPeng has been touted as a Chinese challenger to US electric car giant Tesla, and its chief said that businesses were hoping for more support from the authorities to navigate the Covid closures.

Volkswagen also said it has been “severely hit by Covid-19 outbreaks in Changchun and Shanghai”, where the German titan’s Chinese joint ventures are located.

The firm is “temporarily unable to meet high customer demand”, said Volkswagen Group China CEO Stephan Wollenstein on Thursday, adding that he hoped the production delays could be made up in the coming months.

China’s zero-Covid policy has been increasingly strained as the country battles its highest number of infections since the start of the pandemic.

Volkswagen said around 20 percent of its dealers were forced to temporarily close in March alone as a result of lockdowns.

Tesla’s multi-billion-dollar “gigafactory” in Shanghai — which the company calls its main export hub — has also been reportedly shut.

Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio said last weekend that it had suspended vehicle production, as business partners in virus-hit areas such as Jilin and Shanghai halted operations.

Asian markets dipped Friday after a negative lead from Wall Street, with investors around the world worried about surging inflation.

Central banks in several major economies including the United States, Canada and Britain have already started raising interest rates to contain prices, but the European Central Bank on Thursday kept its stimulus plans and rates unchanged.

That sent the euro plunging to a near two-year low, but eurozone stocks were boosted while Wall Street retreated ahead of the Easter holidays.

The mood was subdued in Asia too, where only a handful of markets were open on Good Friday.

The Nikkei 225 closed 0.3 percent lower with Wall Street’s woes depressing sentiment.

Shanghai was down 0.7 percent in afternoon trade.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has added to the uncertainty about the global economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was reflected in statements from major banking executives in the United States, who described the American economy as solid but warned about the impact of the Ukraine conflict and the measures central banks such as the US Federal Reserve will take to control inflation.

“We don’t think there’s going to be a recession,” Julian Emanuel, chief equity strategist at Evercore ISI, told Bloomberg television.

“We don’t think the Fed is going to break the glass. But the problem is investors aren’t in that mindset quite yet.”

– Energy, food shocks –

Russia is a major global oil and gas supplier, and — along with Ukraine — is also a key player in the grain sector.

The conflict has shaken markets for these commodities, and the impact has been felt from the Middle East to South America.

In Yemen, there are fears of food shortages with the war-ravaged nation already on the edge of famine.

In Argentina, a strike by grain transporters has paralysed farming exports — haulers are unhappy with the rates they are paid, pointing to the spike in fuel prices because of the Ukraine crisis.

The war has sent oil prices soaring, with reports swirling about further energy sanctions on Russia.

Both main contracts have hovered above the $100 per barrel mark in recent days.

“There are no surprises here as oil continues to march higher, with global supply shortage outweighing concerns about slower demand in China,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a note.

– Key figures around 0700 GMT –

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.3 percent at 27,093.19 (close)

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.7 percent at 3,204.50

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holiday

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0806 from $1.0832 at 2100 GMT Thursday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3055 from $1.3076

Euro/pound: FLAT at 82.77 pence

Dollar/yen: UP at 126.68 from 125.87

Brent North Sea crude: UP 2.7 percent at $111.70 per barrel at 2100 GMT Thursday

West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.6 percent at $106.95 per barrel at 2100 GMT Thursday

New York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 34,451.23 (close)

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 7,616.38 (close)

— Bloomberg News contributed to this story —

Asian markets dipped in early trade Friday after a negative lead from Wall Street, with investors around the world worried about surging inflation.

Central banks in several major economies including the United States, Canada and Britain have already started raising interest rates to contain prices, but the European Central Bank on Thursday kept its stimulus plans and rates unchanged.

That sent the euro plunging to a near two-year low, but eurozone stocks were boosted, but Wall Street retreated ahead of the Easter holidays.

The mood was subdued in Asia too, where only a handful of markets were open on Good Friday.

The Nikkei 225 slid 0.7 percent with Wall Street’s woes depressing sentiment.

The Tokyo market is likely to be “dominated by sell orders as investors are disheartened by falls in US shares,” Mizuho Securities said in a note.

Shanghai dropped 0.2 percent.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has added to the uncertainty about the global economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was reflected in statements from major banking executives in the United States, who described the American economy as solid but warned about the impact of the Ukraine conflict and the measures central banks such as the US Federal Reserve will take to control inflation.

“We don’t think there’s going to be a recession,” Julian Emanuel, chief equity strategist at Evercore ISI, told Bloomberg television.

“We don’t think the Fed is going to break the glass. But the problem is investors aren’t in that mindset quite yet.”

– Energy, food shocks –

Russia is a major global oil and gas supplier, and — along with Ukraine — is also a key player in the grain sector.

The conflict has shaken markets for these commodities, and the impact has been felt from the Middle East to South America.

In Yemen, there are fears of food shortages with the war-ravaged nation already on the edge of famine.

In Argentina, a strike by grain transporters has paralysed farming exports — haulers are unhappy with the rates they are paid, pointing to the spike in fuel prices because of the Ukraine crisis.

The war has sent oil prices soaring, with reports swirling about further energy sanctions on Russia.

Both main contracts sat above the $100 per barrel mark.

“There are no surprises here as oil continues to march higher, with global supply shortage outweighing concerns about slower demand in China,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a note.

– Key figures around 0320 GMT –

Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.7 percent at 26,995.86

Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.6 percent at 3,204.96

Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: Closed for a holiday

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0801 from $1.0832 at 2100 GMT

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3063 from $1.3076

Euro/pound: DOWN at 82.67 from 82.77 pence

Dollar/yen: UP at 126.39 from 125.87 at 2100 GMT

Brent North Sea crude: UP 2.7 percent at $111.70 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.6 percent at $106.95 per barrel

New York – Dow: DOWN 0.3 percent at 34,451.23 (close)

London – FTSE 100: UP 0.5 percent at 7,616.38 (close)

— Bloomberg News contributed to this story —

Israel, a leader in making seawater drinkable, plans to pump excess output from its desalination plants into the Sea of Galilee, depleted by overuse and threatened by climate change.

Irregular rainfall, rising temperatures and intensive pumping have overtaxed the world’s lowest freshwater lake, which for decades has served as the Jewish state’s main sweetwater reservoir.

Israel now plans to tackle the challenge by reversing the water flow through its vast network of pumps, pipes and tunnels dating to the 1960s, the National Water Carrier.

Authorities hail the project as a showcase for Israel’s cutting-edge desalination and water management technology, which can also help deepen ties with arid Arab states.

Critics charge that Israel has long short-changed Palestinians out of their fair share of water, leaving much of the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip facing severe water stress.

And environmentalists note that the more Israel relies on fossil fuels to power its desalination plants, the more its carbon emissions will worsen climate change.

For now however, experts say, urgent action is needed to brace the country for global warming coupled with rapid population growth.

Israel’s average temperature has risen by two degrees Celsius over the past two decades, said Noam Halfon, a researcher at the Israel Meteorological Service.

A wet winter has just topped up the lake, but its level dipped substantially in the drought years of 2014-2018, a potential harbinger of worse to come.

“Some models predict we will have less precipitation overall, a reduction of 10 or 15 percent in the second half of the 21st century,” Halfon said.

Israel’s rapidly growing population adds to the need for the new water infrastructure project, he said.

“Every 30 years we double the population. Without this project, it would be an awful situation.”

– ‘Scarcity to abundance’ – 

Ziv Cohen, an engineer at Israeli water company Mekorot, was overlooking a work site in northern Israel where a crane was lowering water pipe segments into trenches. 

The verdant hillsides were scattered with blooming spring flowers, but Cohen said appearances are deceiving.

“In recent years, we have all felt a decrease in rainfall” in the lake’s catchment area, he told AFP.

Cohen said the one-billion-shekel (over $300-million) project will, by the end of the year, reverse the flow of the system which previously delivered lake water to areas across the country. 

“The minute water flows through the pipeline, bringing excess water from desalination plants in the centre, we can raise the level of the Sea of Galilee, and it will become an operational reservoir,” he said.

About an hour’s drive away on the Mediterranean coast, David Muhlgay poured himself a glass of water made by the Hadera Desalination Plant, one of five in Israel.

“Israel has gone from water as a scarce product to an abundance of water in 15 years, which is phenomenal,” said Muhlgay, CEO of OMIS Water Ltd.

His plant produces 137 million cubic metres a year — 16 percent of Israel’s drinking water supply — with the capacity to produce 160 million cubic metres. 

“We are ready to go” and connect to the new system, he said.

The seaside plant sits beside the coal and gas-fired plant that powers it, underscoring the contradictions in adapting to the climate crisis through energy-intensive desalination. 

“Electricity needs to be sourced,” Muhlgay said, arguing that for now only fossil fuels can do the job. 

“It cannot only rely, for the moment, on renewable sources.”

– ‘Lots of interest’-

Israel’s desalination expertise has opened new diplomatic avenues in the water-scarce Middle East, where it has established ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco. 

Israel, Jordan and the UAE last year agreed in principle on a plan for Jordan to exchange solar power for Israeli water, which authorities told AFP would come from the Galilee. 

Muhlgay said his plant had hosted visitors from Morocco, and the plant operator’s parent company IDE had sent a vice president to visit the UAE.

“There’s lots of interest in the Israeli technology,” Muhlgay said. 

“If everybody is short of water, bringing water can solve a few problems.”

The situation for Palestinians has however scarcely budged despite the new technologies, said Ayman Rabi, executive director of the Palestinian Hydrology Group. 

Israel exercises tight control over water resources in the occupied West Bank, with Palestinians granted limited access to an underground aquifer.

Under the terms of a 1990s peace agreement, Israel sells water back to Palestinians, but allocations have not kept pace with population growth. 

To cope, Rabi said, Palestinians have begun planting crops that require less water, and made a concerted effort to catch rainwater. 

“Of course (Israelis) are marketing themselves as water exporters,” he told AFP. “I don’t think this will impact the Palestinians.” 

“Shaggy,” “messy,” “unprofessional”. Natural curls were once looked down upon in Egypt, where Western beauty standards favoured sleek, straight locks. Now, things are changing.

For Rola Amer and Sara Safwat, their curls were once a career-hindering nuisance. Now part of an aesthetic liberation movement sweeping Egypt in recent years, they own a curly hair salon that caters to women and men like them.

Amer used to spend hours straightening her bouncy curls, she told AFP as she began her day at the Curly Studio, which became Egypt’s first natural hair salon in 2018.

“Curly hair takes a lot longer to cut than straight hair,” Amer said, meticulously snipping her way through a client’s curly mane in an affluent suburb of Cairo.

Three hours later, she can finally show the result to her client, and both are delighted as the salon buzzes around them.

It’s a far cry from Amer’s own experience a few years ago. “If I ever left my hair curly, I’d feel shaggy, like I wasn’t taking care of myself,” she said.

In this rare type of salon in Cairo, the final product fits each client’s curl pattern, and rollers have replaced straightening irons to prevent heat damage.

Safwat, 38, explained the dangers of straightening, adjusting her curly bangs as she spoke.

“One time, a mother brought her three-year-old daughter. She had tried a chemical treatment to straighten her hair, and now it was falling out,” she said. 

The obsession with straight hair, rooted in what Safwat calls “completely false beauty ideals,” compelled generations of women to burn their hair to a crisp using chemical treatments and excessive heat damage.

– A marked change –

With her curls considered “unprofessional” Safwat says that, before she became a hairdresser, she would often be asked in job interviews: “Will you be coming in to work like this?”

In the early 2000s, Lebanese singer Myriam Fares was one of the first curly-haired icons in the Middle East. 

Halfway across the world, Black women in the United States were increasingly embracing their curls in a natural hair care movement. Many of the biggest brands built by Black women at the time would eventually find their way onto the shelves of curly salons in Cairo.

In 2012, Egyptian actress Dina el-Sherbiny became one of the first to break the taboo on screen, flaunting her chestnut curls in hit TV series “Hekayat Banat” (Girls’ Stories).

Ten years later, curly heads feature in TV shows, movies and the billboards that line Cairo’s highways, a marked change in pop culture.

In Hollywood, Egyptian-Palestinian actress May Calamawy even shows off her curls in Marvel’s latest series, “Moon Knight,” helmed by Egyptian director Mohamed Diab.

“There has been a real social movement,” Doaa Gawish told AFP. In 2016, Gawish launched a Facebook group called The Hair Addict to help women give their hair a break from harsh chemicals and blow dryers.

Within months, the online forum had grown from 5,000 to more than 80,000 members, as the local cosmetics market grew by 18 percent, according to Euromonitor International. 

Two years later, Gawish launched her eponymous haircare company.

“A lot of big cosmetics companies started releasing products for curly hair, because they could see it was an essential customer base,” Gawish told AFP.

This base is steadily growing in Egypt’s sizable cosmetics market. With a population of 103 million, the country has about 500,000 salons and more than three million employees, as estimated in 2020 by Mahmoud el-Degwy, head of the hairdressers’ division at the Cairo Chamber of Commerce.

Teacher and natural hair influencer Mariam Ashraf has seen the market’s potential firsthand. Only a hobby at first, her Instagram videos quickly became “a real source of income”, she told AFP before filming a new clip for her 90,000-plus followers.

“Brands are contacting me more and more to showcase curly hair products,” the 26-year-old explained. “And now modelling agencies are contacting me for advertisements.”

– ‘Fragile masculinity’ –

But the world of natural hair care is not accessible to everyone.

While the average monthly income in Egypt is 6,000 pounds ($325), a haircut at the Curly Studio can cost up to one-tenth of that.

Since he inadvertently discovered his curls during Covid-19 lockdown, cybersecurity expert Omar Rahim has been gladly paying to maintain his style.

Today, he maintains an intricate regimen, despite jeers from his friends in a conservative and patriarchal society.

“We have a problem with fragile masculinity; people think a man shouldn’t take care of his hair or buy products,” he told AFP.

“I want people to understand that this is normal, but I’m not ready to fight this fight just yet.”