Gimme a head with hair, long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming, steaming, flaxen, waxen
Give me down to there, hair!
Shoulder length, longer (hair!)
Here baby, there mama, Everywhere daddy daddy

Abhi at age 3: Nice hair runs in our Indian family.

-Lyrics from the musical Hair

You know what I love me most about South Asian women? Long, beautiful, black hair. Yep, I’m a hair man. Last Friday Brian (followed by a few others) tipped us off that NPR’s Day to Day ran a story about the hottest beauty trend to hit Los Angeles. “Indian Temple Hair.” As everyone knows, L.A. sets the trends for the rest of the nation to follow. Look out middle-America:

In most big American cities, almost any luxury item can be had for a price — real champagne from France, truffles from Italy, and in Los Angeles, human hair from India. Whether it’s individual clumps or full wefts, true human hair is available in beauty salons across the city, and selling very well.

Take, for example, Vared Valensi. The walls of her salon on a busy corner of Melrose Avenue are plastered with pictures of Valensi with some of her celebrity clients, including Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Tara Reid and a nest of Playboy bunnies. Each one is cute, skinny and has someone else’s hair attached to her head. Valensi put it there.

<

p>This story is absolutely ridic. The interview they do with the woman from the temple in India (where they import this hair from) had me speechless.

<

p>

…so-called “temple hair” comes from India. It is a byproduct of a religious practice many faithful Hindu women have observed for generations. Pilgrims cut off their hair as an offering to the gods. The hair is then cleaned, processed and exported.

Tiripati temple is where most of the Hindu offerings take place. The hair trade is a boon for the temple, now commonly known as the richest temple in India. Much of that money is coming from places like Los Angeles, where advertisements for Indian hair dot utility poles and storefront windows across the city. With demand for Indian hair growing, more and more Indian companies are advertising to Americans directly, hoping to cash in on the trend.

<

p>Ummm. I’m not sure…but isn’t it kind of blasphemous to take hair offered to the Gods…and then turn around and sell it to Tara Reid?

<

p>

For two months, Pushpa’s husband was ill with a high fever. When he finally recovered, she traveled 10 hours by bus to a temple here in southern India to thank Lord Vishnu in the best way she knew: by shaving her head.

Pushpa, who declined to give her last name, had her 32-inch locks cut off by a temple barber, a gesture intended to thank the deity for good fortune. The hair itself headed in a more secular direction: to an auction where hair brokers bid for it. Some strands bought at auction are made into hair extensions, which are sold to Western women for as much as $3,000 for a full head of hair. [Link]

<

p>Damn. That’s pretty cold. Talk about profiting off the most unfortunate. SM commenter Taz, who lives here in L.A., has noticed this new fashion trend also:

Abhi’s mom in her early 30s. Where Abhi inherits his beautiful hair from (although his dad’s hair is pretty nice also).

Every time I drive down La Brea here in LA, I always do a double take when I cross Pico. There is this huge red sign in front of a store in a strip mall that says, “100% Indian Hair.” As a South Asian woman, I find this sign ridiculously strange and wonder just what exactly would happen if I walked into the store. Would they turn me away? Would they kidnap me into the back room for a hair hijacking? Should I start collecting the hair out of my drain and bring it in for some extra money to pay for grad school? What is it about my kind of hair that makes beauty shops so excited about advertising that they have “100% Indian Hair?”…

Why Indian hair? Because our hair is the best. No for real, that’s what the research shows. Indian hair is thicker than European hair and thinner than Chinese hair. Once treated, it is less prone to breaking. The best kind of hair is long and untreated with all the cuticles in the same direction. It is collected in plaits… [Link]

<

p>

There is even a website called MyIndianHair.com!

Do you have big plans for Superbowl Sunday? Do you need to look your absolute best? Well, let MIH help. for a limit time we’re offering a complete Make-over for $1000. This special price includes Hair (including a style of your choice), Make-up application, pedicure, manicure, eyelashes and a start up kit to keep yourself looking beautiful way after Superbowl Sunday is over. Call for an appointment today.

You have to listen to the whole NPR story. It contains a few rather humorous gems that I am not mentioning in this post as incentive for you to listen to the whole thing.