As hair extensions once again surge in popularity, there have been renewed calls to educate the public on where a lot of this hair comes from.

Though some hair extensions come from animals and others are synthetic, but a lot of the higher-end hair extensions from companies such as Great Lengths, actually come from temples in India.

According to the documentary “Hair India,” Hindu pilgrims have donated their hair at holy temples throughout Southern India for centuries in an attempt to purify themselves and repay debt to their gods.

The Venkateswara Temple in Tirumala, India, had a problem. Thirty to forty million pilgrims visit the temple each year, thousands everyday and in a gesture of humility and sacrifice, 10% to 25% of them, men and women both, have their heads shaven.

At the temple, some 650 barbers sit in lines on the concrete floor and tie the women’s hair into ponytails before cutting it off. Once the large portions of hair are removed, the barbers use a razor to shave each pilgrims head, before dousing their head with water to wash away any blood.

When companies buy hair from the temple for as much as $700 per pound, it contains sweat, blood, and lice.

Africa also bucks global trends: despite the prevalence of poverty in many countries, Africa isan importer of hair.

Britain, the third largest importer in the world, buys 43 million tonnes of human hair a year. That’s enough to cover two million heads, or stretch around the world 3,200 times.

In India, they’ve been known to target men, offering them £6 if they persuade their wives to sell their hair.

There have been reports of husbands forcing their wives to do so, and of women being attacked and shaven by gangs.

Slum children have been tricked into having their heads shorn in exchange for toys. ‘I was held down by a gang of men who hacked at my hair,’ one girl said. ‘I know of other women who have been blackmailed and threatened.’



Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3849708/The-shadowy-human-cost-1-200-hair-extensions-style-obsessed-women-t-live-without.html

Women wait in line in at a temple in southern India where they have their heads shaved, pictured, with steel blades as an offering to Vishnu, often knowing the hair will be sold on.

A boy having his head shaved.

A temple in Tirumala made £22million in a single year from the 'mountains of black gold' it received from local women.

Once hair is collected, bought by companies, it’s transported (rolled up in huge bales like hay) by road and plane to factories, and distributed to workers as many as 350 per site to be processed.

There’s a lot of secrecy in the trade. Obtaining hair is not easy, and there’s a risk of it being stolen while in transit. ‘Hair collectors are in competition,’ says Ms Tarlo. ‘The factories don’t want to reveal their sources and they don’t want to give away their methods for bleaching or processing the hair.

‘Hair is worth a lot of money it’s known in the industry as “black gold”.’

The first stage in the extension making process is to separate each hair, with women in a factory in China, pictured, taking on the painfully slow and poorly paid job.

Explorers:
Women wait in line in at a temple in southern India where they have their heads shaved, pictured, with steel blades as an offering to Vishnu, often knowing the hair will be sold on.

Head shaved in a Temple to collect the hair then offered to gods and later sold to ladies. May be this is the reason why some ladies like hitting their head once they have it on. Hindu gods are having meeting

Washing the hair.

The next part is soaking the hair. The cheaper waste is soaked in acid to remove germs.

High- quality hair is placed in an osmosis bath, the exact composition of which is a closely guarded secret.

A mixture of chemicals slowly removes dark pigments without damaging the cuticles (the outer part of the hair shaft), which would otherwise leave it dry and brittle.

The locks, pictured, are then soaked in a mixture of chemicals making them shiny, elastic and ready to be dyed, with up to 20 days needed to achieve the right colour.

Finally they end up in salons in Britain, pictured, with the average client paying between £790 and £1,200 for them depending on length and volume.

Or in Africa hair market or salon.

Funjosh:





Head shaved in a Temple to collect the hair then offered to gods and later sold to ladies. May be this is the reason why some ladies like hitting their head once they have it on. Hindu gods are having meeting

Lol....offered to gods.

I have seen this documentry before on BBC

No wonder our girls have so many evil spirit among them. Nothing you do pleases or satisfy them.

Indeed, the gods are having meetings on our African girls!

no wonder our girls dey misbehave wen the gods are having meeting

Lol.

This won't stop naija from purchasing.


I believe that were it here people would be beheaded for thier hair.

Seen...

By the way, could it be that they've been bringing fakes here? This is cos we mostly don't get to buy them that expensive... Is 40k to 150k up to that plenty pounds mentioned? Maybe ours are goat hair

Whew

sisisioge:
Seen...

By the way, could it be that they've been bringing fakes here? This is cos we mostly don't get to buy them that expensive... Is 40k to 150k up to that plenty pounds mentioned? Maybe ours are goat hair

Whew

May be they've been mixed, not pure human hair. They will prefer taking the pure hair to countries where they can have more buyers. How many Nigerians will spend almost 100k buying an extension that will be used for just 2weeks?

Funjosh:





Head shaved in a Temple to collect the hair then offered to gods and later sold to ladies. May be this is the reason why some ladies like hitting their head once they have it on. Hindu gods are having meeting

You cannot understand

I watched this on CNN... So disgusting. No wonder some of our ladies Behaves anyhow..

I was telling someone to stop buying all these human hairs that were offered to some "demons" before been sold to the market, or she should just pray over them . She called me names.
This is not funny at all.

Hmmmmmm.!!!!
That's all I have to say.
Nothing More.

bleeehh!! thank God I stopped using this shit long ago

One such lady, a 40 yr old housewife, has been walking to the temple for over 30 hours in her bare feet. This is the fifth time that Pujari Aruna has given up her hair and she is with her family of 25 members and friends who are also there to get their heads shaved.

She said, “Offering your hair to the god is a symbolic gesture of surrendering one’s ego and a way of giving thanks for your blessings.” Aruna is thankful because her husband, Pujari Nagraja, 45, made a swift recovery after an accident.

Although she does not know exactly what the temple will do with her hair, she has a rough idea, “I don’t know what temple staff will do with it but I am sure they sell it to someone.”



The hair is removed by shaving and takes a few seconds with the average woman’s head yielding around 10oz of hair, worth about £210 in extensions.

The candidates usually tie their hair back into ponytails to make it easier for the six hundred and fifty so barbers to shave it quickly where it is put into a basket and then washed.

The temple at Tirumala Venkateswara attracts many tens of thousands of pilgrims in a single day and although it has 18 massive shaving halls, the crowds are so big that women and young girls can wait in the queue for up to five hours.

Mayoor Balsara, chief executive of India’s largest exporter of human hair, Sona Devi Trading Company, says, “For poor rural women, their hair is their only vanity.

They have saved up to make a once-in-a-lifetime journey. Thousands have made an oath to their gods they may have asked to be blessed with a child or for a good harvest.

Should their wish be fulfilled, they offer their most precious possession as a sign of gratitude.”



Temple hair is much sought after as it has typically never been processed, is stronger and more healthy, has never been dyed or washed with any substance more abrasive than coconut oil and herbal soap and often you will find it has not been cut. And as once where Russian hair was the gold standard of hair extensions, now Indian hair is making its mark as clients are finding that European hair is too thin in diameter for the process whilst Chinese hair, in the meantime, is simply too thick and rigid for use with European clients.

Officials who run the temple argue that the hair would be thrown away if not used and some profit from selling the hair is paid back into the community by way of funding orphanages and hospitals, with an estimated £70 million a year being spent. As for women such as Aruna, they would never dream of asking for money for their hair. A simple blessing is enough.

If you are thinking of getting hair extensions always ask your hair consultant if they have been ethically sourced.


http://www.shoppersbase.com/13963/how-temple-hair-offered-as-religious-gift-ends-up-as-hair-extensions/

lalasticlala

Very disgusting.

Ewww..its kinds irritating

it will still not make people to stop buying the hair

prettyjo:
it will still not make people to stop buying the hair

Sure..

Our religious brethren this part of the globe, say the hairs come from the marine kingdom, explorers, you trying to say they are ignorant liars?

Kai! Blood and lice, I'm tempted to say I ain't having no weave on my head no more, but, who am I kidding?