Real Hair Extensions - Don't Wear Them

smorgs, I'm sincerely curious - I can't find any mention of hair theft on google. I've tried several different word combinations but can't find anything like what you're talking about. Truly, I'm curious.

I wouldn't wear hair extensions either. I could envision circumstances that might lead me to wear a wig though and I would like to know.

My only experience with anything like this is from sitting on a bench with my neice when someone came by and offered to buy her hair. She said "no, thanks", was given a business card by the wig maker doing the asking, and that was the end of it. She really does have insanely beautiful hair though. I don't think things like this happen very often.

Bella, I'm not talking mono-fibre or volunteer hair. The argument simply does not stand up... what? are you saying that cancer victims are not socially ware? That they would rather have human hair at any human price? I don't think so...

...of course there ARE ethical hair products, where there's a market - there's a supply, but then there is a question of cost. I have no problem whatsoever with women voluntarily selling their hair.

But beauty comes at a price. In the time it takes for a footballer's wife to have human hair extensions added to her own scalp, across the globe in Northern India, thousands of women will be divesting themselves of their crowning glory.

They wait patiently in line on the cold stone floor of a temple in India to have their hair shaved off with a dry razor, leaving them completely bald.

Within a matter of weeks, their luscious locks will have been bleached, or 'high-lifted' using ammoniated mercury, and then bonded on to the heads of rich Western women who want to imitate the latest red carpet fashion for wavy tresses. In fact, at a minimum of £500 in exclusive salons all over the UK, you, too, can have real human hair bonded on to your own, thickening or lengthening it instantly.

'Temple hair' is hugely popular with A-listers, such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, J-Lo, Kate Beckinsale, and even John Galliano. But while top hair salons enjoy the profits made from selling human hair, does anyone dare to ask where it comes from, or how much women abroad are being paid to donate their locks to fashion?

The shocking truth is that not a penny is awarded to the women at the Indian temple who sacrifice their hair. In fact, they are not even told that it is soon to be sold for profit. All the money goes to the temple itself. Perched on the hills of Tirupati, in India, the Hindu temple is the second richest religious site in the world after Vatican City. Boasting up to 20 million pilgrims a year, the popular site costs $120 million a year to maintain. Money mainly comes from donations. The most prevalent source, however, is from the sale of human hair.

Every day, up to 4,000 women visit the temple to take part in this religious ceremony, called tonsuring, in which they shave off their hair as a sacrifice to the god Vishnu. In particular, virgins before their wedding happily take part in this tradition, which is a sign that they are willing to give up their pride and vanity, and to thank the gods or ask them for health and happiness in the future.

So how does their humble sacrifice wind up draped over the shoulders of the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow?

Lakshmi Srinivasan, a beautiful 21-year-old girl, lives in Chennai, close to the temple. From the tender age of 11, she sat on the floor of a factory, sorting hair to export to the US. "I worked for one of the distributors of the hair who would buy the cuts from the temple, then sort it, dye it and package it for the luxury market", she says. She began in the combing room, where bins of hair cut from the heads of devout women would be taken through and placed on to the floor. Lakshmi's nimble fingers would then comb through the hair, taking out knots and sorting it into lengths.

"It doesn't matter if it is from the same head, although that does help," she says. Even more than the back-breaking hours on the job, Lakshmi remembers the overpowering stench of the hair.

"Indian women rub oils into their hair to keep it soft and beautiful. After a while in storage, it starts to stink. But it is these oils and the care Indian women take of their hair which leaves it in such good condition. Also, they grow it very long. Our hair is a major source of pride and beauty." Lakshmi, coming from a poor family, needed to work to feed her parents, as well as to save for a dowry so she could marry. But she had to make far greater sacrifices for their prosperity. "When I was younger, I was made to have my own hair cut off at the temple," she remembers.

"It shamed me. I had to go back to school completely bald. But my parents believed that it would bring us some luck, so I could not say no." Many poor families go to the temple to pray for good crops; for poor farmers, the sacrifice of hair to Vishnu adds to their chances of having a good harvest. The temple, of course, also benefits.

Lakshmi says: "We are encouraged to give donations to the temple, but some women are too poor. Their hair is all they have." The tonsuring process Lakshmi remembers is designed to make sure that the hair is kept in perfect condition for selling. The head is bowed forward and a dry razor blade is used to take the hair off at the roots, all at once. "No creams are used, no scissors - it all comes off in one go. That way, it is long and fresh for the factories," she recalls.

'Sores on the scalp'

"It is uncomfortable and itchy, because of this, and you can get sores on your scalp. But they have a lot of people to go through," she shrugs. "Thousands come every day to make their sacrifice." When the hair extension craze exploded five years ago, Indian hair was already popular. It is very fine, but strong and durable as well as rich in pigment and easy to treat.

When the wasted tresses which covered the floors of the temple were brushed up, it amounted to tonnes of hair every year. As most Hindu women never cut their hair, the locks are long. Perfect for those trips down the red carpet thousands of miles away.

And in LA, where looks are everything, women will pay premium prices to get their hands on these virgin locks.

LA's hottest shopping street, Melrose Avenue, is teeming with skinny blondes in designer clothes. And among the top boutiques lies the one-stop shop for every starlet's most vital accessory: hair.

Vered Hair Salon is not just another exclusive hair and nail spa; this is where everybody who is anybody buys their luscious locks. Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are huge fans, not to mention Playboy bunnies who pout seductively from framed photos on the wall of the salon.

The idea of 'temple hair', with all it's spiritual connotations, has a special appeal in the city where religious fads are considered part and parcel of celebrity.

"We do have every colour," explains the owner, Vered, "but this is LA, so obviously blonde is the most popular. And the blonder it is, the faster it sells. "Most of the hair, obviously, is used by people who want to be beautiful, plus spirituality is very 'in' over here, so that kind of adds to the whole experience of getting temple hair." And where America leads, Britain is quick to follow. "Indian hair really is the best quality, I find," says a spokesman for Tyrone and Company, a London salon. "It can be treated just like your own hair, it can be heated and curled, coloured and blow-dried, unlike acrylic." The look is also far more expensive. "If you look at Chantelle, her hair is acrylic. Compare it with the real thing, say, on Paris Hilton. You can see the difference." There are now more than 50 salons in London alone which deal in Indian temple hair, and business is booming. But as with anything in fashion, knockoff merchants are waiting in the wings to provide a cheaper version for the masses who want to copy them. Just like fake Fendi or Chloe bags, temple hair merchants have to fight a flurry of Indian hair suppliers desperate to break into the market for hair extensions. Now, up to 80 out of every 100 locks of human hair comes from this black market.

Shri E.V.K.S. Elangovan, an Indian trade minister, worries about the popularity of Indian human hair. "Aside from the temple hair, we have no idea where the rest comes from," he says. "In many cases we fear women are being exploited. There are no specific restrictions on the import and export of human hair. This is obviously an environment that breeds illegality." Preying on desperately poor women in Indian villages, these suppliers cajole them into selling their hair for next to nothing. The cost of a set of hair extensions in the West is enough to feed a family in India for six months. It is the salons and the hair distributors, however, who recover the profits.

With the black market in human hair becoming more prolific as human sources are being found across Europe and China, too, is it ever possible to have luxury human hair extensions put in without having to worry about where they came from?

Connect Hair Systems, which provides Victoria Beckham with her designer locks, claims that its business is a purely ethical one. "We make sure that our benefactors are giving their hair through choice," says the salon. But with hair extensions in such hot demand, there would need to be a lot of women who are willing to sell their crowning glory to complete strangers - for profit or for free.

How can you ever be really sure that neither poverty nor desperation is a factor? After all, how much would someone have to pay you to donate your hair to Victoria Beckham?

When I took my late wife to the wig shop to conceal her baldness due to chemotherapy, I enjoyed her gratification at finding a real-hair wig that closely matched her own hair. If she learned that her wig was provided by an impoverished woman who needed money to feed her kids, she would have been additionally pleased to be able to serve as her market. How unfortunate it would have been if noone wanted to buy the woman's hair.

smorgs, do you eat meat? Chicken, turkey, pork, beef or lamb?

I only ask because we are educating each other right now.

The real problem is the eradication of poverty, not the elimination of ways for the poor to make money.

Those women are not exactly being mugged for their hair but I do understand the concerns re: black market hair.

A lot of what I have found is marketers contracting with villages for their hair - again, it is something they enter into willingly.

I think there are more Mrs. Nobody's than Victoria Beckmans in the world.

Many women about to undergo chemotherapy now shave their heads and have wigs made from their own hair. I know this because I have photographed their heads from many angles in order to provide a guide for the wigmaker.

And JL is right on with his last post

I know that JL...

This is how they do it in China:

Henan Rebecca Hair Products, Inc. in Henan Province Uses Slave Labor in Forced Labor Camps
Xuchang City in Henan Province is a major production center for wig products in China. When the Henan Province No. 3 Forced Labor Camp was on the verge of bankruptcy, the labor camp abducted many Falun Gong practitioners and forced them to do slave labor making wig products for export. The labor camp survived and prospered this way.

(Clearwisdom.net) Xuchang City in Henan Province is a major production center for wig products in China. When the Henan Province No. 3 Forced Labor Camp was on the verge of bankruptcy, the labor camp abducted many Falun Gong practitioners and forced them to do slave labor making wig products for export. The labor camp survived and prospered this way. Qu Shuangcai, the former labor camp head, is favored by his superiors for his zeal in persecuting Falun Gong. In May 2003 he was transferred to the Shibalihe Female Labor Camp in Zhenzhou City and put in charge of that labor camp. Right away he signed a contract with Henan Rebecca Hair Products, Inc. in Xuchang City. In addition, within several months, three female Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death.


No. 3 Labor Camp Gets Rich Exploiting Falun Gong Practitioners' Labor


Yuzhou County (in Xuchang City) and Xuchang City, Henan Province is a major manufacturing center for wig products in China. Great amounts of them are sold to the U.S. and European markets. The chairman of the board of Henan Rebecca Hair Products, Inc, who is also the general manager and a distributor, resides in the U.S. Henan Province No. 3 Labor Camp in Xuchang City is located between Xuchang City and Yuzhou County. Many of these wig product factories don't hire many employees outright; instead, they rely heavily on the slave labor of detainees in forced labor camps, jails and detention centers, including many illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners.


Guard Shen Jianwei from No. 3 Labor Camp often said, "A while back, when the labor camp was short of funding and was about to be shut down, many Falun Gong practitioners became available. The government allocated 20,000 Yuan to 'reform' each practitioner. The labor camp used eight million Yuan of government funding to construct residential buildings to encourage the guards to persecute these practitioners." Right now, the labor camp is "buying" Falun Gong practitioners from other places for 800 Yuan each, as slaves to increase the volume of products. Whoever shouts "Falun Dafa is good" at the labor camp is tortured.


Qu Shuangcai Escalates the Persecution of Falun Gong, Leading to Disaster


Qu Shuangcai, head of the No. 3 Labor Camp, has committed countless crimes and has received retribution. Once, when riding a motorcycle, he ran into a wall and was hospitalized for five months. Unfortunately, he didn't repent. Instead, he is favored by his superiors and was transferred to the Shibalihe Female Labor Camp in Zhenzhou City and promoted to head of that labor camp. Right away he signed a contract with Henan Rebecca Hair Products, Inc. located 120 miles away from the labor camp in Xuchang City, and brought straight jackets with him. Within several months three female Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death.


Dafa practitioner Ms. Zhang Yali, in her 30's, was one of the practitioners who were tortured to death by straight jackets. She was an accountant at the No. 2 Oil Extraction plant of the Oil Exploration Bureau in Henan Province. Her husband was the deputy manager of the plant. Their daughter is a junior high school student. Zhang Yali was very responsible in her job, worked hard and diligently, and was very kind. She proactively carried out her assignments at her job and was well liked by her colleagues.


The straight jackets are made of fine canvas. They are put on the victim from the front and tightened from behind the back. The sleeves are about 10 inches longer than the victim's arms, with straps on them. The persecutors force determined Dafa practitioners to wear the strait jackets, and then pull their arms to their backs, cross and tie their arms behind their backs. Then they pull their arms up over their shoulders to the front of their chest, tie up the practitioners' legs and hang them up in the air from the windows. At the same time, they gag practitioners' mouths with cloth, put earphones in their ears and continuously play messages that slander Dafa. According to an eyewitness account, people who suffer this torture quickly sustain broken arms, torn tendons, shoulders, wrists and elbows. Those who endure this torture for a long time have completely broken spines, and they die in agonizing pain. On May 22, 2003, a female Dafa practitioner in her 40's was tortured this way for one day and one night. When she was released from the strait jacket on May 23, her body was cold. In order to conceal their crime, the police ordered drug addicts, and criminals Yan Ping and Fu Jinyu to carry her body to a nearby hospital for an injection. Afterwards they claimed she died from a sudden illness and hastily cremated her body. Crimes Behind "National Civilized Work Unit"


Only male detainees are held at No. 3 Labor Camp of Henan Province in southwestern Xuchang City. More than 800 people, including illegally detained Falun Gong practitioners, are detained at this No. 3 Forced Labor Camp. They are forced to work overtime, day and night, under the high-pressure and cruel control of the guards. If the workers make a slight mistake, the guards slap, kick and verbally abuse them. This labor camp was awarded the "National Civilized Work Unit" citation from the Central Politics and Law Committee "610 Office" and the Labor Camp Bureau, for persecuting Falun Gong. At the time the award was put up, three detainees fainted from exhaustion.


Young practitioners Mr. Li Jian from Zhengyang County, Zhumadian City, and Mr. Yao Sanzhong, an outstanding teacher in Luohe City, were tortured to death at the labor camp. The labor camp authorities lied and claimed they died of "natural causes." When Dafa practitioners questioned the officials, they tied up the practitioners with ropes, taped their mouths shut, shocked them with electric batons, hit them with rubber clubs and subjected them to the "Tiger Bench" torture, in addition psychological torment. They also increased the practitioners' workload. If the practitioners do not complete them on time, they are not be allowed to sleep; they are forced to stand against the wall and their terms are illegally extended.


Names of Persecutors at the No. 3 Labor Camp


Aside from Qu Shuangcai, the former head of labor camp, guards at Henan Province No. 3 Labor Camp include Shi Baolong, Ma Huating, Tan Junmin, Ren Gaoqiang (the former political head of the Falun Gong Division, currently the head of the Education Section; he is very vicious) Dong Jianchao, Li Xinjie, Jia Zigang (head of the Falun Gong team, very vicious) and Zhao Zhimin. In order to make money for themselves and get promotions, they viciously persecute Falun Gong practitioners and extort money from them in a villainous manner. Falun Gong practitioner Wang Yukun from Anyang City was beaten until a bone in his leg broke; practitioner Pang Liang's arms were broken and nearly lost function, but the labor camp authorities would not allow them to have medical treatment and refused to release them. Falun Gong practitioners illegally detained at labor camps in Henan Province are being brutally persecuted and are completely deprived of their most basic human rights.


We call for all just governments, organizations, businesses and individuals to resist the sale and consumption of these wig products, which have on them the blood of Dafa practitioners who abide by the principle of Truth-Compassion-Tolerance. In the business world, there is a proverb saying "a truly good person profits through humane means." If we allow the sale of such hair products, aren't we helping the evil persecution? If there is no demand for such hair products, the evil labor camps would lose their profitability and base for persecution.


We call for all just governments, business people and other people in the world to pay attention to the labor camps that are utilizing Falun Gong practitioners' slave labor. Learn from the practitioners around you, especially from those who are unwilling to give up their belief and were illegally detained in labor camps in China; learn the true story about products made by Falun Gong practitioners who are forced to do slave labor in the labor camps in China. We call for everyone who knows the facts to resist and expose the crimes with their conscience and power of justice, to expose the pre-arranged visits and shows hosted by labor camps in China that are used to cover up their crimes.

I'd recommend that anyone considering a donation to Locks of Love do a fair bit of independent research before proceeding.

The expectations of the worthy donors may not be met by the reality.

Of course not! I only buy my clothes at 4EVER21

I had a girlfriend with hair down past her ass that she finally decided to cut because it was so hard to take care of. She made some good bucks from it too.

Cuz that's what you are my dear!

Actually, I really think the clothes there are cute. Shoddlily made but cute. Great for growing teens!!

If you have to wear a wig in hot weather, a human hair wig will definitely be much cooler. :wink:

The above is merely "HEAR SAY" on your part, since you haven't provided one LINK to support your commentary.

source

Wal-Mart?

Minimum wage?

From later in the article:



This practice is centuries old, probably millennia old.

Now the temple sells the hair and the money benefits the temple.