Human Hair Extensions: This simple term has a complicated business behind. This industry is not that easy to explore. The prime source of this industry is hair tonsure from south Indian temples. "Tonsure" originated form Latin indicating this practice is prevailing since ancient times.
Off-late the tonsure practice and it's outcome "hair" turned out to be an happening industry with so many customers awaiting the best quality hair. Though hair tonsure had it's roots in Europe, it's happening now in very few places - most of them in southern part of India. Here people from Hindu religion sacrifice hair (considered as a symbol of beauty) to the God in exchange of the god's blessings.If India is considered the source of hair, why so many hair companies in China? How hair industry in China is far bigger than India? How do Chinese provide hair cheaper than Indians?
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| Hair Tonsure at Indian Temple © hairboutiqueindia.com |
Women in Indian villages collect hair post everyday combing - the hair that sheds and sticks to the comb are collected together as a bunch - approximately 0.01 Kg per day per person. They sell to the local collectors when 0.5 Kg (18 oz) of hair is collected. These local collectors sell to the regional collectors who in turn sell to Indian and (mainly to) Chinese companies. India, being the second most populous country, the scale is so huge - multiple trucks carry large amount of hair from India across the border.
This source of hair is not of high quality - heads and tails are mixed up and tangled. They are heavily processed (using chemicals) to remove the tangles and make them look like remy. (Remy hair is the hair procured from temples where the head and tail are aligned in one direction). This processing chemicals weakens the hair and removes all the cuticles. Since the cuticles are peeled off, the hair may not last longer. Post a wash, the hair tangles to the extreme. Also the chemicals are too harsh and they may cause skin infections.
This is why and how the hair from Chinese and many of the Indian companies are far cheaper. These cheap hair stands no different from the "Made In China" products. Use it once and....... throw it off. The worst is most of the Indian companies are following China for competitive pricing. Very few companies still stand and deliver the high quality temple hair and they are rare. The real challenge for human hair distributors is to find the right human hair suppliers who could give them the high quality hair consistently. Very few companies have faced and conquered this challenge - Rest all; start up, procure, sell and vanish in few months.....
This human hair industry is much more complicated than it looks. The beauty industry across the world ( including but not restricted to the USA and Europe) depend heavily on the "hair from India". As the phrase says it has to be India and not China where the high quality hair has to be procured from. The bitter truth is most of the Indian companies follow Chinese techniques to sell cheap quality hair.
This industry is no different from others. Quality product comes at a cost.
An article from
Suresh, Chief Executive
Hair Boutique India
http://www.hairboutiqueindia.com
