December 24 is considered National Day Tubia festival that has no legal basis, but has great popular support among thousands of Dominican women who do the typical hairstyle from the early hours of the morning on the day the festival is celebrated. Christmas Eve.
In a tour of different sectors of Greater Santo Domingo, Diario Libre was able to see dozens of women in the streets with spiked hairstyles and hairnets.
“I usually do tubi on a date like this because while I’m in the kitchen or doing any housework, I protect my hair from the heat and prevent it from getting waves,” explained a woman who only identified herself as Elizabeth.
Stylist Yeimy, owner of the Salon that bears her name in Villa Blanca, Sabana Perdida, attributes the popularity that the hairstyle has acquired in recent years to the fact that it is a way to keep hair straight and manageable for longer.
How is a tubi made?
“It consists of wrapping the hair around the head and holding it with spikes or clips, finally a hairnet is placed that provides the final touch,” says the experienced “salonist” from Sabana Perdida.
Yeimy, who has been styling for more than 20 years, explains that the tubi It is more common among those with curly hair, although sometimes women with straight hair also have it done.
In the neighborhoods of Santo Domingo, the price can vary depending on the salon, but the average is usually between RD$400 and RD$600, as it usually includes hair washing, blow drying and finally the tubi.
Origins
Research on the subject does not indicate a specific place or date of its emergence, although they agree that it is in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico where it is most used; Puerto Ricans usually call it “dubi dubi“.
The folklorist Xiomarita Pérez assures that the hairstyle is not so new but it was in recent times when it acquired this popularity: “I remember that I got to make myself tubi Towards the end of the 70s, at that time you used the curling iron and then did the tubibut it wasn’t a hairstyle for leaving the house, like it is now.”
He explains that in those years, the process was very tortuous, since you had to heat a metal tongs on a stove with charcoal and then pass it through your hair, to which Vaseline was previously applied.
“Years ago this hairstyle was for being at home, before going out somewhere, but now one sees the tubi wherever you want; we see it in the subway, on the bus; mainly women from the Dominican diaspora, even use it on the plane when they go on a trip,” explains the analyst of the transformation of culture.
Tubi fashion
Xiomarita explains that the hairstyle of the clips and the hairnet is not the ultimate goal, it is rather the prelude to something: “note that a woman does not usually wear a tubi on a date with her lover, she uses it beforehand so that her hair looks splendid.
In 2013 the singer Rihanna gave the tubi one of the pushes that contributed to her worldwide expansion and viralization when she attended the American Music Award (AMA) gala with the typical hairstyle.
A decade later, the tubi It is even used in university classrooms, squares and offices, many of the women who wear it display it with pride, honoring the phrase that says: “What is fashionable, does not bother.”
