There was a time back in the 1980s and 90s where different scenes and consumer products were commonly used and practised. However, changes have led these trends and consumer products to start phasing out or completely disappear. The younger generation is not even aware of some products or services, since they have already gone extinct.

These trends are common and are the result of technological advancements, according to experts. Yeraswork Admassie (PhD), a lecturer at Addis Abeba University's College of Social Science, says that technology is interrelated with the growth of human populations.

“It’s the population growth that influences the invention of new things that replaced the old practices,” Yeraswork says.

Fortune has curated five scenes and consumer products, which were common and widely practised in the capital but have started to disappear these days.

HAIR CLIPPER

Playful Bekele Waqetola, a 77-year-old father of three, has been a barber for about five decades. When he started his career as a barber, he used to use a hair clipper, which is similar to scissors but has razors and is used to cut hair.

He was only 26 years old when he started his career as a barber, joining a barbershop located close to Anwar Mosque at Merkato, the largest open-air market in the city in Addis Ketema District.

Spending his entire life in Piassa, the heart of the city, he has worked at four different barbershops. During Emperor Haile Selassie's reign, his employers used to share half of the profit they earned with Bekele. When the military junta came to power, employers of Bekele started to share 70pc of their revenues with him.

He used to charge between 0.25 to one Birr, depending on the class of the barbershops he worked for.

Bekele is now working at a barbershop located on Eden Street, Piassa. He uses an automatic cutter that works either with batteries or electric power. He started using the modernised hair cutting machine in 1978. Now he charges 55 Br for a haircut.

“I would have stopped the job if I still used the old hair clipper,” said Bekele, who says the old clipper required more energy. “I'm old enough to use the clipper, which requires labour to operate it.”

HOMEMADE FOOTBALLS

Hana Kebede, 19, used to find herself in terrible arguments regularly with her mom and dad when one of her father's leg socks was lost from the drawers.

Hana used to enjoy playing football with the boys in her neighbourhood. She would steal a sock from her father, fill it with plastic bags and roll it into a ball.

When her parents found the pair-less sock and asked her the reason, she used to reply, "I don't know, but maybe a rat took it." Then she would decorate the ball with different pieces of coloured cloth to camouflage the lost sock.

"It was challenging to play with this homemade ball during rainy seasons," she recalled. "It got wet and held water, making it very difficult to kick."

The last time she made a ball from socks and plastic bags was five years ago. Now she plays with a ball made of rubber.

“The rubber football is much easier to play with," she said.

The younger generation like Markon Tadesse, a six-year-old boy who comes to Mesqel Square every Sunday morning with his father to play football, does not know about these homemade balls.

"I have never seen such kinds of balls," Markon told Fortune.

BONO WUHA

Berhane Weldaye, a 60-year-old mother of three, resides at Serategna Sefer, a neighbourhood of Piassa. She moved from Ezha Wereda of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, & Peoples’ Regional State to Addis Abeba after getting married to her husband.

Berhane has gone through a tough life after her husband, the head of the house, passed away 15 years ago. To support her family financially, she started to supply water from Bono Wuha.

A kebele owns Bono Wuha, but Berhane pays the monthly bill for the water and takes whatever is left after the payment for herself. She charges 0.5 Br for ten litres of water.

Residents get water from 8:00am to 11:00am in the morning and from 4:00pm to 5:00pm in the afternoon.

Back in the day, most of the residents of Serategna Sefer used to use Bono Wuha as a source of water. Berhane was responsible for supplying the water, and customers would get angry with her if she did not arrive on time to open the water spigot.