The Globalized Business Of Hair: A Sector With No Growth Problems:
Do politicians need hair to impress the public and win elections? The Belgravia Centre in Victoria, London ( which provides advice and treatment for men worried about their thinning pate) seems to think they do. On their blog, they refer to journalist Jonathan Maitland’s view (in his book “Vote For…How?) that the “converging policies of the major parties in recent years has led to the image of their leaders becoming more significant”. He also points out that Sir Winston Churchill was the last bald British politician to be elected Prime Minister – back in 1951 In the opinion of Leonie Roberts of the Federation Of Image Consultants (as quoted on BBC News), the way a politician looks has become “far too important”. The “Daily Mail” has reported that both Prime Minister David Cameron and Opposition Leader Ed Milliband have been attempting to “tackle their hair challenge”- but also that Cameron’s friends have refuted any suggestion that his “much more luxurious head of hair” is the result of a transplant, weave, or intervention by a trichologist or colourist. The “Guardian’s” parliamentary correspondent, Simon Hoggart, seems (from his position high in the House Of Commons press gallery) to take a keen interest in Cameron’s bald patch: “Last summer, it was on the left of his head…now it has shifted to the right, nearly two inches away…Is it a matter of combing the hair in different directions, so that covering the bald patch in one place makes it re-appear in another? Whatever the truth, it is clear that it matters a great deal to the Prime Minister”. The Daily Mail commented that Ed Milliband’s barber “appears to have been busy “ with his “distinct tuft of white hair” (exactly the same as his brother David’s, who he defeated in the 2010 Labour leadership contest) – though it was in evidence again during his House of Common’s confrontation with Cameron last Wednesday. Furthermore, that European politicians take their hair much more seriously than their British counterparts – especially Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi, who has admitted publicly to having had a “painful” hair transplant.
Politicians, of course, are not the only pèople who fuss constantly about their hair. The American journalist , Shana Alexander, once commented that “Hair brings one’s self-image into focus: It is vanity’s proving ground. Hair is terribly personal, a tangle of mysterious prejudices”. This certainly seems to apply to many well-known personalities in the global entertainment sector. The actor Steve Martin has described a celebrity as “Any well-known TV or movie star who looks like they spend more than two hours working on their hair”. This doesn’t involve just styling, washing or treating. Fashion models such as Britain’s Naomi Campbell & America’s Jennifer Hudson, the R&B singer Brandy Norwood and the actress Jennifer Anniston (among many others) are said to have used hair extensions – with varying degrees of success. Complaints were made to the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after revelations that when the singer and former X-factor judge Cheryl Cole declared in a L’Oreal TV advertisement that her hair felt “stronger, full of life, replenished with a healthy shine”, she was in fact wearing 2mm high hair extensions – though L’Oreal “didn’t know” whether these were natural or artificial”, or where they had even come from.
The most likely source would have been India. It is from there – according to the “Worthy News” website – that the “temple hair trade” has grown into a multi-million dollar industry. The thousands of Hindu pilgrims who offer their hair to the gods at temples such as the one at Tirupati (the “second richest religious site after the Vatican and one of the biggest suppliers of hair to the international market”) do not realize, asserts “Worthy News”, that their hair “is actually being sold overseas for astronomical prices”. Much of the latest information has emerged from the documentary “Hair India” transmitted on the Al-Jazeera news channel earlier this year and which will be shown again on four successive days from July 31st to August 3rd. The aim of the programme was, in the words of the Italian filmmaker and co-director, Raffaele Brunetti, to “follow the journey of human hair from the holy temples of Southern India to the production lines of Europe and on to high class beauty salons around the world”. His impression from his visit to the temples was that the pilgrims don’t really care about what happens to their hair after they’ve made their “sacrifice” by being “tonsured”. This relaxed attitude results, say “Worthy News” in India’s “poorest of the poor being exploited” while their top quality hair is being marketed for up to $160 per kilogram or weaved into wigs and extensions and then sold for $1,500 – $3000 in the USA or Europe. “Bella News” highlighted one instance of a temple auctioning 3 million kilos of hair for about $1 million: “In theory the proceeds should go back to the community & welfare programmes for the pilgrims”, though in practice that rarely seems to happen. It also discovered that “rag-pickers” go around villages in India collecting hair from women’s combs. Once full, the bags are eventually dispatched to China “as a low-grade option” for about $12 a kilo. “Link TV”considers that“Hair India” has illustrated how vanity, globalization, marketing and ancient ritual have all contributed to creating a lucrative enterprise. The “Great Lengths” factory in Rome is regarded as the world’s leading manufacturer of the extensions used to thicken and lengthen hair – which are then exported to the USA, Europe, Australia, Russia and even back to India. A New York Times “Global Business” report has estimated that “Great Lengths” earns $250 million in the American retail market and that naturally blond hair from Russia and the Ukraine has also become “a precious harvestable commodity”. David Elman, co-owner of “Raw Virgin Hair Company” based in Kiev, Ukraine, acknowledges that people in that country “don’t sell their hair for fun”, but only do so if they have temporary financial difficulty.
In the UK, there are several companies that cater for customers who prefer hair of Latin American origin. “Naohair”, for example, states that its products are imported from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and Bolivia and that its authentic South American hair comes clean and untreated with chemicals, can be used for many years and is 100% “tangle free”. The “Buy Hair Supermarket’s” rates for its “Sleek Mexican Crazy4Curls” vary according to the length: 12 inches (30cms) of jet black, dark brown and dark hair cost £34.31p and 16 inches (40 cms) £51.47p. “Dream Waves” in Essex “works exclusively with 100% natural Brazilian human hair extensions” and professes to operate a Fair Trade policy by “honouring all employees’ hard work overseas”. Megahairbrazil.com has announced that it has “Brazilian Mulata Hair”in stock for the summer but with limited availability and guarantees that it is “natural or you get your money back”. Meanwhile, the “Human Hair Extensions” organization based in Cali (Colombia), Curacao and Miami is committed to selling “only real human hair from Latin America that can be used for five years or more and on its website provides a list of prices per metre for both straight and curly hair. Those people who would rather purchase their new hair direct from the original “owner” can go online to: http://buysellhair.com There’s someone on it at the moment in Harrisburg, USA offering her 17+ inches of “Korean/American” hair for just $500 .As an alternative there’s 13 inches of shiny brown virgin European hair from Dallas for $190 or the “dark blonde” who doesn’t specify a price but invites the “best offer before July 15th”. Anyone interested in that one will have to hurry: For some mysterious, unexplained reason the hair will “no longer be available” after Wednesday 20th July.
COLIN GORDON