While describing a beautiful woman, writers start describing the beauty with the damsel’s hair.That’s the value of hair in a woman’s beauty. In Hindu mythologies Parvati was described as ‘Ramya kapardini. ’Because her dense hair looks like a group of black bees. Any heroine of a classic or just a modern novel with a long and raven and shiny hair will make the heads of the onlookers turn. Thus writers’ favourite tool to describe a beautiful woman is her hair.

Human hair is a big Dollar earner.

Now in the modern times, Hair, the literary theme has become a commercial theme. It is not all. Hair has become one of the biggest Dollar earner of late in India. According to Indian tradition, offering hair to god symbilises surrendering to the god. Surrendering ego. Many temples in India, especially Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, collect the hair offered by the devotees, store in special containers and offer it for auction to the Hair exporting organizations.

Andhra Pradesh in the fore.

The state of Andhra Pradesh has many temples, where the devotees both men and women offer hair as part of a religious commitment. Among them Tirupati, Srisailam,Vijayawada, Yadagirigutta, Simhachalam and Annavaram earn huge amounts through auctioning of hair offered by the devotees.

Tirupati’s annual income is above Rs. 200 crores per annum.

Durga temple of Vijayawada’s income is Rs.7 crores per annum.

Srisailam’s income is Rs.4.23 crores per annum. Yadagirigutta earns Rs. 3.5 crores per annum. Smhachalam and Annavaram earn Rs. 5.4 crores and 1.1 crores respectively. 

A craze for Indian hair.

Many countries in the world vie with each other to buy products like Wigs, wefts and extensions made out of Indian hair. The reason is Indian hair especially woman’s hair is free from knots and long with a natural deep black color. Another reason is except a few urbanites, majority of Indian women do not use chemical ridden beauty products.

The hair exporters term this kind of hair as ‘Remy hair.’

Specialty of ‘Remy Hair’

The prime requisite for making a natural looking Hair extension is, the hair’s cuticles should be in tact. This makes the hair tangle- free. The hair remains soft and silky. Synthetic hair cannot be used by the wearer like natural hair. Natural hair can be washed straightened and styled as the wearer wishes. Still the natural hair retains its original smooth and silky qualities.

Categories of human hair.

The superiority of the hair is decided by the length of the hair.

  1. The first and most sought-after category is the hair which is more than 31 inches or more in length. It fetches Rs. 20, 842 per kilogram.
  2. The second variety has a length between 16 inches to 30 inches. It fetches Rs. 18,650 per kilogram.
  3. The third variety whose length is between 10 and 15 inches fetches Rs. 7451 per kilogram.
  4. Hair having a length between 5 and 9 inches, is the fourth variety. It fetches Rs.5451 per kilogram.
  5. Ungraded hair comes under the Fifth variety. It fetches Rs. 80 per kilogram.
  6. The last and the sixth variety is grey and white hair. This variety fetches Rs. 9360 per kilogram.

Hair business is not new to India.

India has been exporting hair since 1950. But the countries which were importing Indian hair were mostly using in the production of Amino acids. For many years India remained as an exporter of hair as a raw material only. India never thought in terms of a manufacturing country for hair products. The reason was India had no demand for wigs.

Changing conditions.

Of late with more incidences of cancer, chemo therapy has entered the scenario. Chemo therapy renders the cancer patient hairless. This created a demand for Wigs.

There are other reasons too.

Increase in the craze for beautification, both men and women are rushing like mad towards the harmful chemical ridden beauty products. Beauty products like shampoos are causing more harm to the hair and forcing the users to look towards wigs.

Another reason for creating demand for wigs is that, people's inherent desire to look young. Though Hair transplantation ,to some extent is a solution, it's too expensive. This triggered the demand for wigs all over the world.

Today's show business which was influenced by Hollywood, more than ever cannot go ahead without the use of wigs both for male and female actors.

Multiple uses of hair.

The ingredient in human hair L-C stain is used in the manufacture of medicines, food stuffs and beauty products. For this purpose, short hair generally available in hair cutting saloons is used. Now, the studies show that L-C stain is present in the wings of chickens and ducks. Industrialists cast their eyes towards this angle.Hair is being used in the manufacture of fertilizers. Hair is also used as sutures after a surgery. An inferior kind of hair is used as hair for the dolls.

In a country with a population over 100 crores,the use of hair for industrial purposes and exports is very low. A huge quantity of hair is going in to the gutters. Municipal staff unable to understand what to do with huge quantity of hair is burning the hair. This practice is harming the environment.

Hair is not biodegradable . Hence, wastes of hair which enter the sea are being consumed by the marine life causing immense loss to the marine life.

With the help of modern technology, researchers revealed that soft silky cloth can be made with human hair. If such things are materialized, a country can boost its industrial growth and create employment opportunities to the unemployed.

How tradition Boosted the economy.

Offering hair to god as a symbol of surrendering one's ego is an age old custom in India. The hair thus collected is being exported to different foreign countries. Every year India is exporting 1000 crores worth of hair.

Tirupati located in the state of Andhra Pradesh is the table topper in the exports of hair.By auctioning the hair offered by the devotees Tirupati Devasthanam is  earning more than Rs. 200 crores.

650 Barbers and 800 Kilograms of hair in 24 hours.

There are 650 barbers employed by the Tirupati Devasthanam to shave the hair of the devotees. On an average every barber shaves the hair of 60 devotees. This means 800 Kilograms of hair is cut every day. And this number will be more on weekends. After Tirupati, the Devasthanams collecting hair are Kanakadurga temple, Vijayawada, Srisailam Mallikarjuna swamy temple, Srisailam and Yadagiri Narasimha swami temple, yadagirigutta.

Though the reason for collecting the human hair is a religious belief, it's earning astronomical revenue to the governments.

Easy run for the hair exporters.

The hair collected through the offerings of the devotees do not pose major problems in repairing and cleaning for exporting. Hair that comes from the temples are generally clean and untangled. It's easy for the trader . Grading of hair becomes easy .

Sops for the devotees.

In order to encourage tonsuring, the Tirupati Devasthanam  offers sops to the devotees. 5 Laddus or the Prasadam free of cost to every devotee is offered  who tonsures his or her head. Such devotees need not stand in the serpentine queues. 

The starting of an international  level business.

You will wonder if you see how a simple and small activity leads to a multicrore export business. Simple women living in villages have the habit of collecting their tangled hair, roll them in to small bundles and keep them under the roof of their thatched huts.Why they do it, you may ask.

There are takers for These small rolled bundles. Nomads collect the hair and pay the women with small hair clips and hair pins. These simple women will be happy to see their useless tangled hair fetching them something for which they have to spend money.

That's all, the matter comes to end as far as the village women are concerned. They are not aware that the nomads after collecting the tangled hair of several women, sell the hair to  agents belonging to the main businessmen dealing with exporting of hair.

Some women who are aware of such agents, for an extra income sell their hair periodically.

Thus the preliminary part of business started. Now, the exporters start classifying the hair in to different categories depending on the quality,color and length of the hair as described earlier in the article. After classification,hair will be shipped to different countries.

What I mentioned is the theoretical part of exporting the hair. In reality, lot of trained men and women are needed to sort out the good hair from bad hair and classification and grading has to be done. in addition to this special storage facilities are needed to keep the hair in good form and shape. Finally, after all the necessary treatments, hair will be washed with a shampoo to impart a glow to the hair.

Some interesting facts about hair.

The hair of dead celebrities has lot of demand. In an auction center in Dallas, great revolutionary Che Guevera's hair was sold for more than Rs. 50 lakhs.

Whenever there is an oil spill in the sea accidentally or due to some other reason, brooms made of human hair are used as the oil layer above the surface of the water will be attracted by the human hair.

A movement known as "Donate your hair movement" works to make wigs for those who lost hair in the chemo therapy operation for cancer, from the hair donors.

Some tribes believe that wolfs cannot withstand the smell of human hair. Owing to this reason, the tribals hang human hair at the entrance of their houses to thwart the entry of wolfs.

It's believed that one strand of hair can carry a weight of 100 grams. If it is assumed that an average person's hair consists of 1.25 lakhs to 1.50 lakhs of strands, the strength of the hair is equivalent to  close to 12 tons.  Basing on this fact , ropes for industrial purposes are made with human hair.

A wig made of quality human hair costs anywhere between 1.5 lakhs to 3 lakh rupees in the international market. To make such quality wig, 200 grams of quality hair is needed. Up to 350 grams of hair can be taken from a  woman with copious hair.

One of the reasons  for India's success saga in hair export business lies in the fact that the the rate of hair growth in Asians is the fastest in the world. 

Hollywood celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Paris Hilton,Samantha morton  to name a few, prefer wigs made of Indian hair. All of them say in unison that wigs made of Indian hair look as if the hair is their own hair.

China is the biggest importer of Indian hair. China manufactures highest quality wigs made from the Imported Indian hair. It also manufactures synthetic wigs made of synthetic fiber. 

American comedian Chris Rock has produced a film , " Good hair", which depicts all about wig making, right from material stage to finished product. It also deals extensively about the uniqueness and specialty of the Indian hair.

Some chemicals present in the hair are used in the manufacture of certain kinds of dog foods. Chemicals extracted from the hair impart  the taste of meat to the dog food. That's why dogs relish this food immensely.

Ebb and Tide in hair business.

At one particular time,wigs made of  synthetic fiber dominated the market. Majority of the wig wearers preferred wigs made of synthetic fiber. During that period, wigs made of natural human hair suffered a set back. Many wig manufacturing companies had to face closure.Over a period, it was found synthetic wigs were linked with skin related ailments.

With that the tide turned again towards wigs made out of natural hair. Unscrupulous  businessmen  flooded the market with fake hair of animals and pushed into the market claiming as natural hair. Such unethical trade practices dealt a severe blow on the credibility of hair export business.

Despite all the market problems, hair exports  stood firm. In the coming years, Indian exchequer is going to be filled with more and more Dollars, Marks and Francs.

Tail Piece.

British Pop star and famous model Jamelia was an ardent fan of wigs and hair extensions made of Indian hair. Once a voluntary social activity organization shown her a few clippings showing, how women are subjected to a plethora of tortures, in order to get hair for the sake of a few Dollars,

Jamelia was moved. She said, "I love the Indian hair and the products made out of it. But, now i have decided to use those hair products made in an ethical way."

There is a hairline gap between ethical business and unethical business.


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