Standing inside a Hindu temple in Chennai, India, I watch horrified as a two-year-old girl with long, dark tresses has her head shaved. She screams as the clippers buzz around her ears and her hair tumbles to the floor. She is clearly terrified and no doubt has little comprehension of what is happening to her
The pop star Jamelia with Tatiana, an 11-year-old Russian who sold her waist-length hair for just £10 roughly a month’s wages.
"Indeed, until I worked on this BBC investigation, I’m ashamed to admit I’d never once stopped to consider where the human hair I had pinned or sewn into my head had come from. Then I heard from a friend, earlier this year, that the hair used in the extensions are, mostly, taken from children, women or corpses. I was horrified. How did I know I wasn’t wearing a dead person’s hair? And if I was, had they agreed to that before they passed away, or had they simply had it shaved off in a mortuary without their family’s knowledge?"
I watched the program when it was aired on TV some months ago.. Jamelia has a point, and I respect how far she’s gone in standing up to what she believes in.
ReplyDeleteMercy
wowwwwww!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeletei’m never buying human hair extension again…used them only twice anyways….will stick to synthetic if i need to get braids done.thanks for this very insightful post.
Anne T
I am sorry for these children. This is too eye opening. For someone who is sworn off perms and weaves, I am grateful to read this. I just wish Oprah will air a show on this topic. What a ruckus that will cause. I wanted a change from natural hair so I had a weave done about 2 months ago. Let me tell you, it felt so uncomfortable, and painfully tight, that I took it out after 2 weeks. Never again. I will stick to corn rows with synthetic hair if I feel the need for a change. Thanks for this once again
ReplyDeleteMarianne
chris rock just did a documentary called ‘good hair’, coming out next year. i think wearing weaves is a personal choice, i don’t judge, but as for me, natural hair is the way forward.Nothing can pay for these kids.
ReplyDeleteAsha
chick has a point but with everything that has an advantage, comes a disadvantage!
ReplyDeleteAt a point while reading this, i felt bad; but then after a while, i was like OMG! IT IS JUST FREAKING HAIR! IT GROWS BACK! and taking d cultures these girls are from, i’m talkin growth in a matter of weeks.
Now after growing up in 9ja where ur actually mandated by some schools 2 cut your hair! it’s like abeg! o jare! ah! these girls r making thier living off their hair so its not necessarily like a bad thing! i mean they know it’ll grow back.
d main thing that really pissed me off is the profit these hair dealers are making from it! Say what?? that right there is GRAND THEFT!
just like China tho, all these kids in sweat shops r paid peanuts 2 work thier butts off 2 make all these clothes and shoes and we pay lots of money 4 them.
i mea will Jamelia stop wearing clothes 2?? the root of the problem is poverty and until we start addressing that, this hair business thing ain’t going no-where!
Personally tho, ive chosen 2 lay off the weaves a little sha… its just that dealing with black hair is a daily struggle and i do not have time nor sleep 2 spare.
Suzanne
Oh, as for Jamelia, its very cool that she has another side to her other than her boring music…can she perhaps not wear those leather boots… its against animal rights.
ReplyDeleteBaby.
Interesting piece…. But common ladies, surely you all must have know the process to get Human Hair, its general knowledge man.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, this is not going to change anything for me as i will continue to use human hair. This is not worse than the children in the factor in China who loose linbs while making the clothes we wear (louis Vuitton included) or the farmer who gets exploited by Starbucks. It is all the same sin. So for those who will stop wearing weave (its a good thing for the cause) but perhaps you want to stop drinking starbucks and buying clothes too.
Grace Lala