India's human hair industry grapples with government export ban



For several years, Satwan Kumar has been bartering crisps and candy floss for tufts of hair collected from women in the northern Indian town of Kasgunj.To get more news about human hair wigs, you can visit monavirginhair.com official website.

Mr Kumar, 18, is one of many hair collectors in India who roam villages and towns to gather the human hair that is raw material for making wigs for the multi-billion dollar world fashion industry.Since January, his business has been hit after the Indian government imposed restrictions on the export of human hair, part of an industrial policy to boost the local wig-making industry.

“My business is almost dead. My profit has halved because there are no takers for the raw material,” Mr Kumar told The National.

The teenager from Uttar Pradesh state learnt the trade from his father and elder brother as a child.Many women in India do not throw their fallen hair away in the belief that tresses are a part of their body and they preserve them according to age-old traditions.

India is one of the leading suppliers of human hair for wigs for the fashion industry and people suffering from conditions such as alopecia or hair loss through chemotherapy.

During last April and November, India’s hair exports were worth $145 million, a huge jump from $15.28m in the previous year, according to government data, with China a major export market.Much of the exported hair comes from scores of temples, where female pilgrims tonsure their heads – clipping hair as a religious gesture for Hindu deities.

The hair, known as Remy hair, fetches high prices and is known for its quality as most of the donors come from rural areas where use of hair artificial beauty products is less common.

Hair derived from salons is not used in the industry as clippings are too short, increasing demand for naturally fallen or "virgin" hair that hawkers such as Mr Kumar collect from door-to-door.

Depending on the quality and the length, the hawkers buy the hair for 2,000 rupees ($26) a kilogram, which is sold to dealers for 6,000 rupees.Most of the hair ends up in the eastern part of West Bengal state’s thriving cottage industry, where workers untangle the clumps, wash it and straighten it.

Once ready, the raw hair, called “goli”, is flown around the world, mostly smuggled to China, where it is used in wigs, extension braids and curls.

But the government restrictions on exports of human hair – in part to address smuggling – have severely affected the small vendors and cottage industries as demand and rates paid for hair have fallen.