Constructed in the ninth century and lavishly extolled in ancient Hindu religious literature, the Venkateshwara temple of Tirumala is nestled 125 miles inland from Chennai, deep in the postcard beauty of South India’s Seshachalam mountains. It attracts more than twenty million pilgrims a year. Balaji is a form of Lord Vishnu who is also frequently referred to as Venkateshwara, Govinda, Srinivasa and Narayana. In this temple, and many others, e.g. after the birth of a long-awaited son or the recovery of an ill spouse, Hindu women often shave their long locks as a gesture of thanks. They pay to have their hair cut. The tariff at Kalyanakatta (see below) is 2.00 rupees at cottages it’s 10.00 rupees.

The objective behind tonsuring (shaving one’s head for the Lord) is to demonstrate that he/she completely surrenders his/her ego at the feet of the Lord. Pilgrims can have their heads tonsured at the Kalyanakatta (opposite the Annanadanam Complex). There are seventeen sub-centers for tonsuring. Pilgrims can also request to be tonsured at the cottages where they are staying (source).

Although traditionally the barbers were male, since May 2005, about 100 female barbers offer their services as well, even though conservatives don’t like it, some saying women are impure. Pilgrims usually offer the hair on their head to the Lord as a devotional offering. Persons in need of the assistance of the Lord usually take a vow and when they visit the temple offer their hair at the Kalyanakatta erected for this purpose. A bath in the Pushkarini follows the tonsure ceremony, after which the pilgrims enter the temple and worship the Lord (source).The tank of Swami Pushkarini is believed to be a pleasure tank of Lord Vishnu. It is said that a bath in the Swami Pushkarini cleanses all sins and bestows prosperity (source). Another reason for their generosity: according to Hindu belief, Lord Vishnu borrowed money to celebrate his marriage and promised to pay interest on the debt. “Basically, the people are donating so he can pay off his interest,” says Ajeya Kallam, executive officer of the foundation that runs the temple (source).

Few suspect that their sacrificed hair may end up on the head of a European or American woman, possibly even a Hollywood actress. Carla Bruni, Monica Belluci, Jennifer Lopez, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, … they’re all happy to spend thousands of dollars for their hair extensions. Human hair has become big business.

The majority of hair used for extensions is collected after brushing, and this is sometimes described as Fallen hair. Believe it or not, but millions of ladies throughout Asia do this on a daily basis (source). Human hair collected directly from a hair donor is called Remy Hair. It is sometimes referred to as Cuticle Hair, Virgin Hair and Cut Hair (source).

David Gold (what’s in a name?) has made a fortune selling hair extensions. He’s the founder of Great Lengths, based near Rome, Italy. He gets his hair from Mayoor Balsara (OnAsia stock photos), who is a goatee-sporting, British-educated resident of Bangalore, who owns a company, SDTC Exports Pvt. Ltd. (weirdly enough listed selling battery products, even though it’s in the ‘hair’ directory). Mayoor Balsara collects hair from several temples, smaller ones as well as the above mentioned Venkateshwara temple. The temple hair is pulled through the long metal teeth of a hackle. Workers sort the hair into piles by the length of each strand, a strand having about 200 individual pieces of hair. Once the strands are sorted, cleaned and fumigated, they’re sent to Italy.

Mister Gold pays about 30 cents a strand, and after the hair is dyed and a patented keratin tip is attached to each strand, the strands are shipped to distributors who pay about $1.50 a strand. Hair is available in 40 natural shades, as well as in fashion colours. They even sell strands with Swarovski crystals in different sizes and varying from Amethyst to White Opal, or anything in-between. The hair that isn’t dyed properly, is being sent back to India, where women spend entire days removing individual pieces of hair, in silence, except for the sound of their bracelets clinking. I wonder how much they get paid.

While salons are making more money than he does, David Gold makes a neat $70 million a year. Those in command of the temples, like Govindaraj who’s in command of the Manjunath Swamy Temple at Dharamsthala in Karnataka, or those in charge of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), a mammoth organisation that employs over twelve thousand people and oversees the business and management of not only the Balaji temple in Tirumala but eleven other temples in the surrounding area (source), make a more than decent living as well, I’m sure. Last year, the temple says it took in $5.6 million through hair auctions — twice as much as the year before (source). In addition to that, pilgrims donate about $40 million in cash, jewelry and other items to the temple each year, and the annual budget is $120 million. Makes me wonder how much is spent on social services. Mentioned is a yearly budget of two million dollars for social services. Some things are provided for free to the pilgrims, like food and housing (although they also rent accomodations).

While already it is sad that those offering their hair actually have to pay to have their hair shaved, without being aware of the huge amounts of money made from their offerings, because of the vanity of Western customers, it gets worse. The Western desire for ‘temple hair’ extensions has led unscrupulous dealers to prey on the young and induce them to shave their heads. Village women across India are being increasingly targeted for their sought after waist-length tresses, mainly by unscrupulous agents hired by small-time exporters who, in an attempt to bypass the Hindu temples’ monopoly in the market, are offering husbands less than $10 a time for their wives’ hair and, in more extreme circumstances, forcing women to shave their heads. Across India amateur ‘hair-pickers’ whose sources are anything from pavement barbers and domestic dustbins to slum children who readily swap their hair for small toys and sweets, operate in their thousands (source).

Some customers have the audacity to claim: “But, if you’re a spiritual person like me, you feel an energy from the chi of the woman who donated it. I don’t think the Indian women are exploited. They see the ceremony as an honor.” (source) They might see the ceremony as an honour, but they also might think otherwise if they knew of the market . There are growing concerns over the Indian hair trade. There are no specific restrictions on the import and export of human hair and can be done freely. This is obviously an environment that breeds illegality, says the Minister of State for Textiles and Commerce in Tamil Nadu (source).

Meanwhile, “anybody who has ever spent any time socialising with the Chassidic shgatzim in mixed company will know that when the schmooze turns to sheitels (wigs) it is time to head home. Not before mentioning the Rabbanim have discovered that the human hair that all wigmakers use comes from a Hindu temple in India where the people offer up their hair to an idol. This makes the hair Takroives Avoide zore (an offering to an idol) and it is forbidden to derive any use from it”, which worried many Jewish women (source, also read the comments, as well as the comments on this post).

Inspired by “La route du cheveu”, a French documentary by Jérémie Drieu and Edouard Perrin (France2)

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