The Human Hair Trade

At the Balaji temple which is more formally known as the Sri Venkatasvara temple in Tirupathi south India, a women kneels down whilst her head is shaved. 'Temple hair' is not the only hair traded in India, but it is the longest, cleanest and generally accepted as being the highest quality. Also prized is the long hair of Sikhs, cut from the centre of the scalp to keep their turbaned heads a little cooler in the summer. Religious Sikhs are not supposed to trim their hair at all and few admit to the practice, but it is said to be common. Lower in quality is what is called 'village hair', collected from villages by people known as hackers. This is the hair left on a womens comb or brush every morning and accouts for 80% of the human hair exported from India. Once a month the hacker comes by and collects what has been accumulated, giving sweets, plastic toys or bindis in exchange. The hackers bring the village hair to the factories. At this stage it is full knots, and the hackers often rub in dirt to increase the weight so that they can get more money for it.

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