Long hair is esteemed as a mark of beauty and has deep religious meaning in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where monks and nuns shave their heads as a sign of humility.
Hair buyer Zin Mar handed over the equivalent of $13 for the 20 inches (51 cm) of hair she sheared off, roughly the minimum weekly wage in Myanmar.
On the other side of the world, the hair, processed and repackaged as “raw Burmese hair”, will sell for hundreds of dollars to consumers clamoring for wigs and hair extensions.
“People from all over the world want hair from our country, because when you shampoo and condition it, it shines with the color of pearls,” said Win Ko, a 23-year-old who buys hair from individuals and small suppliers such as those at the market. The demand for Burmese hair is outpacing supply as modern fashion trends make it harder to source long, straight and chemically unaltered product
Although the trade in human hair dates back centuries myanmar now sits at the heart of a multi-million dollar industry. Since 2010, it has quadrupled the volume of hair it ships each year to become the world’s fourth largest exporter, the United Nations says. In 2017 alone, Myanmar earned $6.2 million from the export of hair equivalent to the weight of 1,160 average-size cars. The trade has drawn in thousands who source, process, and export hair, whether from desperate people like Za Za Lin or bought by the kilo.
Once gathered, the hair travels from vendors to factories to be untangled, combed, washed, and repackaged before being shipped, mostly to China, to become extensions and wigs.
Min Zaw Oo of Tet Nay Lin, a hair trading business started in the mid-2000s, says he sells mostly to black women in Britain, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United States. “This is our market: black people.”
“It’s not as silky as Indian hair, and it’s not as coarse as Brazilian hair. But it’s a little bit in the middle,” said a beauty blogger.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-hair/shines-with-the-color-of-pearls-myanmars-trade-in-human-hair-booms-idUSKCN1N63CR
Hair buyer Zin Mar handed over the equivalent of $13 for the 20 inches (51 cm) of hair she sheared off, roughly the minimum weekly wage in Myanmar.
On the other side of the world, the hair, processed and repackaged as “raw Burmese hair”, will sell for hundreds of dollars to consumers clamoring for wigs and hair extensions.
“People from all over the world want hair from our country, because when you shampoo and condition it, it shines with the color of pearls,” said Win Ko, a 23-year-old who buys hair from individuals and small suppliers such as those at the market. The demand for Burmese hair is outpacing supply as modern fashion trends make it harder to source long, straight and chemically unaltered product
Although the trade in human hair dates back centuries myanmar now sits at the heart of a multi-million dollar industry. Since 2010, it has quadrupled the volume of hair it ships each year to become the world’s fourth largest exporter, the United Nations says. In 2017 alone, Myanmar earned $6.2 million from the export of hair equivalent to the weight of 1,160 average-size cars. The trade has drawn in thousands who source, process, and export hair, whether from desperate people like Za Za Lin or bought by the kilo.
Once gathered, the hair travels from vendors to factories to be untangled, combed, washed, and repackaged before being shipped, mostly to China, to become extensions and wigs.
Min Zaw Oo of Tet Nay Lin, a hair trading business started in the mid-2000s, says he sells mostly to black women in Britain, Nigeria, South Africa, and the United States. “This is our market: black people.”
“It’s not as silky as Indian hair, and it’s not as coarse as Brazilian hair. But it’s a little bit in the middle,” said a beauty blogger.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-hair/shines-with-the-color-of-pearls-myanmars-trade-in-human-hair-booms-idUSKCN1N63CR
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