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Hair Loss News Archives
February 2007
Hair gets sold in Asia, ends up on women's heads in U.S.
Feb 2007
When hair comes in to G & G Hair Extension, it all looks just
about the same _ long, straight, black. Pretty much like what it is _ hair from
the heads of women in countries like India and China.
But with some twisting and curling and combing and dyeing, by the time the hair
leaves the store, it can look like the perfect fit for a lot of women's heads _
Hispanic, black, white.
Behind this process, however, are several global factors that have caused
many changes to the business in recent years.
Hair extensions and weaves, for decades a part of the hair-care repertoire of
black women, have become increasingly popular among other ethnic groups, along
with a growing roster of celebrity clientele.
And the supply itself is changing, as women who used to have long, unprocessed
hair perfect for extensions have started to change their styles.
The countries of Asia, particularly India and China, have for years and years
been a goldmine for hair. Cultural aesthetics have encouraged women to grow
their hair long, and dyeing and other chemical processes popular in the West and
potentially damaging to hair have only recently been making inroads.
Women have also been willing to give their hair up, either for profit or
principle, whether by offering the hairs that get caught in their brushes, or by
cutting off years of growth at a time. In India, for example, a religious
practice calls for the cutting of hair as a sacrifice, and at least one large
temple in India has brought in much money for the institutions by selling the
hair the devotees shave off.
Aside from the length, Chinese and Indian hair also have another advantage _ the
strands are strong enough to handle the color stripping and other steps it takes
to turn Asian hair into something that matches other women.
"The Chinese hair handles the process the best," with the Indian hair close to
it, said Gary Teitelbaum, owner of Adorable Hair-Do Corp., an outpost on 24th
Street. While most hair for extensions is processed outside of the country and
brought into the United States already packaged, there are some places like
Adorable and G&G that do it themselves.
And what a process it is. The hanks of hair are separated into sections, and
wrapped tightly into coils around wooden sticks of various thicknesses. The
sticks go through a procedure of boiling and drying that makes the hair curl. To
change the color, the pigment is chemically removed and the new color added in.
The result is a product that's remarkably varied in appearance. Straight, wavy,
curly, in a range of colors from red to blond to black.
"I can get any texture I want now," said Diane Da Costa, a stylist and author
who specializes in working with textured hair and extensions.
"You can have the European straight look, you can have the African kinky look,"
said Thembi Mhlambiso, 43, of Nyack, N.Y., who has been wearing extensions for
years. "Weaves are great for me."
Her main concern with extensions is making sure they blend inconspicuously with
her own hair, not what they used to look like.
"I've never thought it about from the angle of I'm wearing someone else's hair,"
she said.
Those who are in the business of human hair extensions, though, are clearly
aware that they need someone else's hair _ many people's in fact _ in order to
make their business run. And at a time when the popularity of extensions is
exploding, other global factors are making getting the hair more challenging
that it used to be.
Realizing they have a lucrative product, the hair dealers who amass the hair
from women's heads are charging more for it, Teitelbaum said.
"The communists are now capitalists ... they want their price," he said.
And demand has grown in the European market, where hair sellers can get good
prices for top-quality hair, said Enrique Gamez, the manager at the 6-year-old
store in the Inwood section of Manhattan.
"There have already been times when I needed 20-inch hair and it's been hard to
get and the price will go up," he said.
And in countries like India and China, improving economies mean other
possibilities for employment and income. That means women don't have to use
their hair as a money source, said Sheila Stotts, a haircare specialist for
celebrities who buys the raw hair to process for her clients' extensions.
She used to buy hair from women in Europe years ago, but lost much of her supply
when the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended.
"When you see economic things happen ... their lifestyle comes up," she said.
"They don't need to sell their hair for money."
The cultures in those countries is changing as well, Teitelbaum said, with women
wearing their hair shorter in general and doing more to it, like coloring and
styling. And with more Western influence, the diets in those countries are
changing as well, which he thinks is affecting the hair.
"The raw hair that we get has changed," he said. "It's harder to get the best
quality hair."