Demand for women's hair surges

The trade of naturally shed women's hair collected from homes, streets and beauty parlours across Rawalpindi, Islamabad and adjoining districts has expanded significantly due to growing demand from Chinese buyers.

Street vendors who previously purchased scrap items such as dry bread, plastic and metal have now started buying women's hair collected from combs in neighbourhoods and markets.

Demand for naturally shed hair with roots intact has sharply increased, with most of the collected hair being exported to China. Chinese dealers reportedly purchase all available stock in cash.

The growing business has also encouraged several customs clearing agents to enter the trade of exporting women's hair to China.

The buying and selling of comb-collected hair for export to China started in Rawalpindi around 2000 and remained limited for the first few years. At that time, the hair was purchased for around Rs4,000 per kilogram.

Due to increasing demand, the local price has surged from Rs4,000 to Rs14,000 per kilogram over the past three years, registering an increase of Rs10,000 per kilogram.

Scrap dealers and customs agents buy the hair from street vendors for Rs16,000 per kilogram and later sell it to Chinese dealers for around Rs20,000 per kilogram.

The report said the hair is used in China to manufacture modern wigs made from natural human hair. These wigs are exported to Europe, the United States and the Middle East, where a Pakistani hair wig can reportedly sell for Rs200,000 to Rs250,000.

The business has now spread across Rawalpindi, Islamabad, six districts of Rawalpindi Division, Azad Kashmir, Abbottabad, Hazara and Haripur, where vendors collect hair by moving through residential areas.

According to traders, five to seven sacks of women's hair are dispatched daily from Rawalpindi customs to Urumqi, China.

Many street vendors have also signed agreements with beauty parlours, where staff now collect fallen hair before trimming customers' hair and sell it weekly to vendors.

Women in neighbourhoods have also started storing naturally shed hair in shopping bags for sale, whereas such hair was previously discarded.

Fauzia Bibi, a local resident, said the five women in her family collected naturally shed hair and sold it to vendors every three months for Rs12,000 to Rs15,000.

Beauty parlour owner Mehreen Abbasi said they previously threw the hair away but now sold it monthly for additional income that helped pay rent and electricity bills.

Customs dealer Saeed Ahmed said he had been exporting such hair to China since 2000 and that the business operated entirely in cash, with Chinese dealers often sending advance payments.

He said that while he initially handled the trade alone, around a dozen customs clearing agents had now entered the business. Vendors can now regularly be heard in city streets announcing purchases of fallen women's hair.

He added that wigs made from Pakistani hair were also sold in Pakistan, though most exports were destined for the Middle East, Europe and the United States.