NEW DELHI, INDIA, July 9, 2006: Ever wonder what happens to all the hair that is shaven off devotees’ heads at temples in India……. This news piece gives food for thought about a little-known industry that has blossomed from devotees’ shaved heads. According to this article, hair worth about US$136 million collected from temple barbers is shipped from India, one of the largest exporters of human hair, to factories in China while the United States imported hair worth $82 million during the 2004-05 fiscal year from India. Jaswanth Soundarapandian, regional director of the government’s council on hair export, said, “There has been a steady rise in demand from China. However, while it remains our biggest buyer, the burgeoning hair fashion trends in countries like the United States of America and European countries have helped to expand trade.” The news item clarified, “Exporters say buyers from countries such as the United States pay $1.50 for a strand of hair that expensive beauty salons may then weave into extensions or wigs that can sell for between $1,500 and $3,000. Exporters say that Hollywood is one of the biggest consumers of human hair.” Apparently the famous temple in Tirupati is the largest hair supplier and in the last year the temple sold over 3 million kilos of hair for about 1 million dollars. The temple now employs over six-hundred barbers. One hundred of these barbers are females that service the 4,500 to 20,000 female devotees who devotedly offer their hair to God on a daily basis.
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