Hair Trade in India

990 Words4 Pages
women and girls cut of their hair every year in India, they travel to the Hindu temple of Tirumala Venkateswara on the coastal state of Andhra Pradesh where, every day, thousands of Indian women – and a few men – offer up their hair as a gift to Lord Venkateswara, the presiding deity One Minate they have long flowing locks, next thick, dark clumps of hair flop down into baskets at their side until, just seconds later, the former owners look round, blinking and completely bald. It is a Selfless act It is also the starting place and principal provider for an astonishing industry, one that has seduced celebrities in Europe and America, and those rich enough to follow them. The trade in human hair is booming. Temple hair, as it is known, has already found its way to hundreds of British salons, where it is sold in the form of real hair extensions costing up to £3,000 a time. One leading manufacturer boasts that horde of celebrities, including Mischa Barton. To fans of extensions, the appeal of human hair is obvious: it both looks and feels better than the synthetic Moreover, the quality of Indian hair, which is strong. It is safe to say that the temple makes millions from the piles of thick black locks. Yet the women who once possessed the hair – many of them peasants – receive not a penny, donating their hair, instead, as a religious sacrifice. The shaving ceremony and the sale of hair is not limited to this one holy site, but Tirumala Venkateswara attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims in a single day and is by far the dominant temple in the trade. There are 18 shaving halls, all of them vast, and so big are the crowds that women and young girls can wait in the queue for up to five hours. With a few expert sweeps of a razor, each head is shaved smooth and is then doused with water, washing away any blood caused by nicks from the razor. The average woman’s
Open Document