African tribe where MEN spend hours doing their hair and makeup to impress the women: Annual festival sees males compete to steal each other's wives

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Putting on makeup, dressing in your finest clothes and doing your hair will be familiar parts of any woman's beauty regime - but for the nomadic African Wodaabe tribe it is the men who put in all the effort to attract a partner. 

Sometimes known as 'the world's vaniest tribe', Wodaabe men are known to carry mirror with them everywhere they go and to spend each morning fixing their appearance before even going to herd cattle.

And once a year they go all-out at the Gerewol fertility festival, often known as the wife-stealing festival, where men dress up and compete in a series of dances to win the admiration of female judges - and a lot more besides.

Wodaabe culture prizes white eyes, white teeth and height as the pinnacle of beauty, so the men don brightly-coloured makeup and eyeliner to accentuate these features.

The Wodaabe tribe - nomads who can be found in Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon - compete in a yearly fertility festival known as Gerewol, where the men put on makeup, dress up and do their hair to win the affections of women

Wodaabe culture prizes white teeth and eyes as well as height, so the men paint their faces to accentuate these features as well as rolling their eyes and grimacing to accentuate those features. They often wear headdresses to make themselves taller

The week-long festival sees men spent hours each day doing their hair and makeup, which is made from saffron or ochre, giving it a yellow or red appearance. Battery acid is sometimes used to make the black lipstick

Men typically shave the front part of their heads and braid the rest of their hair down their backs - adorned with beads - and then spend hours dancing in front of female judges

The Wodaabe are usually married off to each-other at a young age, meaning most of the participants in the festival are married, but they live in a polygamous society where taking other sexual partners is common 

They will often put feathers in their hair or wear elaborate headdresses to accentuate their height. They also shave the hair off their foreheads and braid the remainder down their backs, often adoring it with beads.

Competitors will then take part in dances over the course of a week, culminating in a night of dancing that goes all the way through to dawn the following day.

Women as young as 12 sometimes participate in the ceremony, where they pick the most beautiful men to sleep with - and sometimes marry

Gerewol is known as the wife-stealing festival because Wodaabe men typically have a marriage arranged for them at a young age, meaning most of those taking part in the ceremony will be married.

But the Wodaabe are a polyamorous people, meaning that sleeping with other people while married is not taboo. As a result, women participating in the festival will typically sleep with the men they choose as winners.

If she chooses, the woman can leave her current husband and marry the man she has picked - meaning that some Wodaabe tribesmen will have several wives.

These photos were taken by travel photographer Trevor Cole from Londonderry, Northern Ireland, who went to Chad in September last year to capture the images.

He said: 'To participate in the Gerewol, the girls must have menstruated prior to the festival. Effectively when choices are made the girls know they are going to have sex in the bush with the chosen Wodaabe male, if the male accepts them.

'This may be a one night affair, or last for longer, sometimes culminating in marriage. Men may have a few wives and, as women do all the work, second or third wives are seen positively by the first wife.

'The girls may be as young as twelve or thirteen when they make their selections at the Gerewol,' said Trevor. 'They have no formal education and their culture is still resilient to the outside world.

'As a tribe, they perform the Gerewol for themselves not for any visitors. Very few have ever seen this in Chad. More have seen it in Niger but instability has curbed any potential tourism.

'There were only a few photographers and travellers there, but the friendliness of the tribe was universal although quite a few were shy, which is part of their cultural code.'

The week-long Gerewol festival culminates in a night of dancing that goes on until dawn, when the women will choose a male partner to sleep with - which may end with him taking her as a wife

The Wodaabe also practice facial scarring as a means to accentuate their looks, with razor blades used to cut the skin before ash is rubbed into the open wound - leaving a dark scar

The Wodaabe are often known as the world's vaniest tribe. Researchers say men will often carry small mirrors with them wherever they go and will fix their hair and makeup each morning before even tending their cattle

Long hair is also prized in Wodaabe culture, so men will shave the front part of their heads while keeping the back braided to accentuate its length and impress the women more