The History of God-Given Hair That Actually Gets Extensions for a Fee

Where do the high quality wig and extension making materials come from? Hair comes from all over the world even though there are two states that export hair in such large quantities that they become the first sources of human hair. They are India and China.

In India, China and Eastern Europe, small Commercial agents go to villages to persuade poor women to get haircuts for a small fee, Sometimes, husbands forced their wives to sell their hair, and slum children were tricked into getting their heads shaved in exchange for toys.

But the most absurd thing is that many temples in South India make millions of dollars in profit from religious sacrifices performed (without their knowledge) by pilgrims.

Hair donors, many of them poor, do not get a penny for cutting their hair. Many of these women are not even aware that the hair they donated while praying for the good health of their husbands or the good school grades of their children is being sold to high fashion houses to make expensive wigs.

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At the center of the controversy is the Venkateswara Temple in India. It is the richest temple in the world in terms of donations received and one of the most visited pilgrimage sites. On an average, the temple is visited by 50,000 to 100,000 devotees every day. Thousands of these devotees receive, at least in theory, the “grace” of having their hair shaved by donating it to the temple and therefore to the revered god.

legend has it Lord VishnuWhat we can define as an incarnation of God, once a small part of his skull was lost due to a head injury. A divine princess saw the bald patch and immediately cut off a part of her hair giving it to Lord Vishnu.

The Lord was so moved by their sacrifice that he ordered all devotees who visited his abode to offer him their hair, which the Lord would give to them, in order to enact a substitution of sorts. A different version of the legend states that Lord Vishnu once received a huge loan for his marriage, which he was never able to repay (because even an incarnation of a god can be poor when it comes to religion). Is). To this day fanatic Hindus have offered their hair to Vishnu to help him repay his debt.

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In the past the hair was thrown into the river. Today they are sold through online auctions to vendors in Western countries that bring in millions of dollars annually to the temple.

Every day, between 500 and 600 barbers work on rotation to shave over 20,000 heads. Baskets full of hair are collected every six hours and placed in a huge warehouse, where they are piled knee-deep. The hair is then sorted out and sorted according to length, grade and colour.

The best quality hair sometimes sells for upwards of $800 per kilo. The smaller pile is used to stuff mattresses, make oil filters, or whatever else.

The largest portion of Indian hair is procured by Great Lengths International, a real hair extension company based out of Italy. Great Lengths supplies hair extensions to over 60 different countries and over 40,000 salons. Hollywood celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Tyra Banks, Paris Hilton and Beyoncé are among Great Length’s regular customers.

While the whole operation may seem highly unethical, temple officials have defended their decision to sell the donated hair by arguing that the money raised is used directly to fund medical care, the education system, and other critical infrastructure projects in the local community

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The Venkateswara Temple is one of the many South Indian temples engaged in this business. The important thing is not to go there if you are suffering from herpes, otherwise your appetite increases dangerously.

Sources: The Guardian / BBC / WSJ / The Yale Globalist / NY Times