PDA

View Full Version : Article about the hair extension trade



Sarahlabyrinth
November 30th, 2016, 08:19 PM
A most interesting read:

www.nzherald.co.nz/indepth/national/black-gold/

Entangled
November 30th, 2016, 08:52 PM
The whole presentation of that article was fascinating.

Sarahlabyrinth
November 30th, 2016, 08:56 PM
Yes, it really was. Sobering.

littlestarface
November 30th, 2016, 08:57 PM
So sad, that little girl is so beautiful, such a shame she has to cut her hair for other peoples vanity.

Groovy Granny
November 30th, 2016, 09:00 PM
I had seen a report on this years ago on tv; so very sad for these girls :(

Extensions aren't the rage in this area, but it sure increased my awareness!

The thought of using hair in any form.... detached from the roots (even my own).... repulses me.

turtlelover
November 30th, 2016, 11:15 PM
I feel really bad for those girls, too. It is one thing to cut your hair because you WANT to, it is quite another to feel obligated to cut it to help your family's financial situation. No one should be forced to make that decision for that reason.

Flipgirl24
November 30th, 2016, 11:38 PM
Yes this is sad. There is also a place in India where women donate their hair. But many have their hair stolen for money. Watch "Hair" by Chris Rock. It also gives a sobering look at how weaves are made and where the hair comes from. The reasons he states why they straighten their hair is sobering too.

Rebeccalaurenxx
November 30th, 2016, 11:47 PM
Makes me feel bad for wearing extensions for 4 years... :(
I dont anymore, but I wore them due to insecurity... no more.

hayheadsbird
December 1st, 2016, 12:08 AM
I had never actually thought about where extensions might come from before.

sumidha
December 1st, 2016, 05:52 PM
I dunno... It sucks that women and girls are paid so little for their hair, compared to what it's sold for at the end of the supply chain, and it sucks that they feel obligated to sell it, but I guess I agree with the woman they quoted in the article, “If you’re going to think about it, this is kind of down on the scale [of exploitation] as there is no physical violence or anything.” I mean, a Hershey's bar or farmed shrimp is made using literal slave labor. To me the hair coming from India that's cut for religious reasons at temples and then turned around and sold by the priests bothers me more.

Basically every single thing we consume in the first world is created by exploiting other humans, and/or to the detriment of the natural environment, this is just one more example of that.

Flipgirl24
December 1st, 2016, 07:18 PM
In India people will break into houses and cut women's hair off for extensions. There are women who comb and separate hair strands for hours on end for pennies so that we can pay hundreds or thousands for extensions. There are children who have lost hair due to chemo but can't afford a wig. So while women in India toil away for pennies and people get robbed of their hair, vendors are getting rich.

DaveDecker
December 2nd, 2016, 11:52 AM
One of the primary reasons I'm not a fan of the hair donation charities is because much of the hair they receive is sold to the for-profit hair industry.

vampyyri
December 2nd, 2016, 12:55 PM
Wow... this is just awful. I didn't know that they were forced into it!

Cherrys
December 2nd, 2016, 02:49 PM
This was a fascinating read, I'm grateful for this being posted. It's just barbaric and shocking, I'm really at a loss for this. It just seems so petty of people, when put this way. Like, someone is essentially saying, "I would rather that financially unstable families be forced to sacrifice their daughters' hair, with or without consent, than take the time to grow out my own hair." I'm like really riled up about this now. :(

lunasea
December 2nd, 2016, 09:17 PM
When I was growing up in a rural area of the east coast of the USA my grandmother used to tell me about this happening in our neck of the woods. Folks would come by and pay for hair to make wigs. We were poor and she viewed this as a great way to make money. Her attitude was hair grows back but sometimes you really need some cash. I'd be willing to bet the logic is similar where it's happening now. Sad that they get so little of the profit.

turtlelover
December 2nd, 2016, 09:34 PM
It seems even more degrading when they just hack off the hair close to the scalp with little thought to leaving a well shaped, decent haircut to work with afterwards.

plurabelle
December 3rd, 2016, 01:01 AM
The article is wrong when it says hair from Indian temples is "ethically sourced". People do shave their hair at the temples, but that is a sacred, religious ceremony, and they have NO idea that that hair is being resold by the temples to Western people. They are not compensated at all, and the temples as well as the buyers of that hair are exploiting them and trafficking in human body parts. I mean, they wrote in so many words that the hair is shorn for the purpose of "religious sacrifice". It's not meant to be sold for profit. If anything, the Chinese trade is way more ethical because the people there are actually compensated for their hair.

Nothing can make this sordid trade any more ethical. That quote about how you don't think of a cow when you're eating a burger says it all - Western people think about us as animals. They can't do what they do unless they dehumanise us. Their pleasure/vanity is more important than our humanity and our dignity. It's gross. You wouldn't wear other body parts, so why is hair seen as any less grotesque?

The only ethical sort of extension-trade is that which uses synthetic materials. And I've seen synthetic wigs and extensions which look every bit as real as human hair. Plus it's way less expensive. So why choose to go the exploitative route?

(I should add though that it's almost as harmful for the buyers if they happen to be Black women, because they feel pressure to put in extensions, being constantly told that their natural hair is ugly and unacceptable, and that wears down your self-esteem. So it's exploitative all around.)

Flipgirl24
December 4th, 2016, 07:49 PM
The article is wrong when it says hair from Indian temples is "ethically sourced". People do shave their hair at the temples, but that is a sacred, religious ceremony, and they have NO idea that that hair is being resold by the temples to Western people. They are not compensated at all, and the temples as well as the buyers of that hair are exploiting them and trafficking in human body parts. I mean, they wrote in so many words that the hair is shorn for the purpose of "religious sacrifice". It's not meant to be sold for profit. If anything, the Chinese trade is way more ethical because the people there are actually compensated for their hair.

Nothing can make this sordid trade any more ethical. That quote about how you don't think of a cow when you're eating a burger says it all - Western people think about us as animals. They can't do what they do unless they dehumanise us. Their pleasure/vanity is more important than our humanity and our dignity. It's gross. You wouldn't wear other body parts, so why is hair seen as any less grotesque?

The only ethical sort of extension-trade is that which uses synthetic materials. And I've seen synthetic wigs and extensions which look every bit as real as human hair. Plus it's way less expensive. So why choose to go the exploitative route?

(I should add though that it's almost as harmful for the buyers if they happen to be Black women, because they feel pressure to put in extensions, being constantly told that their natural hair is ugly and unacceptable, and that wears down your self-esteem. So it's exploitative all around.)

Well said.

turtlelover
December 4th, 2016, 08:22 PM
The article is wrong when it says hair from Indian temples is "ethically sourced". People do shave their hair at the temples, but that is a sacred, religious ceremony, and they have NO idea that that hair is being resold by the temples to Western people. They are not compensated at all, and the temples as well as the buyers of that hair are exploiting them and trafficking in human body parts. I mean, they wrote in so many words that the hair is shorn for the purpose of "religious sacrifice". It's not meant to be sold for profit. If anything, the Chinese trade is way more ethical because the people there are actually compensated for their hair.

Nothing can make this sordid trade any more ethical. That quote about how you don't think of a cow when you're eating a burger says it all - Western people think about us as animals. They can't do what they do unless they dehumanise us. Their pleasure/vanity is more important than our humanity and our dignity. It's gross. You wouldn't wear other body parts, so why is hair seen as any less grotesque?

The only ethical sort of extension-trade is that which uses synthetic materials. And I've seen synthetic wigs and extensions which look every bit as real as human hair. Plus it's way less expensive. So why choose to go the exploitative route?

(I should add though that it's almost as harmful for the buyers if they happen to be Black women, because they feel pressure to put in extensions, being constantly told that their natural hair is ugly and unacceptable, and that wears down your self-esteem. So it's exploitative all around.)

This makes me feel really bad for donating to Locks of Love, etc., before I really knew the ramifications. :'(

Borgessa
December 4th, 2016, 09:43 PM
I stopped watching early on, it felt like something drastic and horrible was happening, but i'm sure this has happened the world over, to any poor population over the centuries. It is a good way for girls to help put food on the table back in the day, heck prob even some boys. No limbs are lost, no one dies people get fed. I don't see a problem really unless someone is being hurt. Many many bad things happen to little girls and woman the world over, the cutting of ones hair, I don't list among them.

mz_butterfly
December 4th, 2016, 10:04 PM
The article is wrong when it says hair from Indian temples is "ethically sourced". People do shave their hair at the temples, but that is a sacred, religious ceremony, and they have NO idea that that hair is being resold by the temples to Western people. They are not compensated at all, and the temples as well as the buyers of that hair are exploiting them and trafficking in human body parts. I mean, they wrote in so many words that the hair is shorn for the purpose of "religious sacrifice". It's not meant to be sold for profit. If anything, the Chinese trade is way more ethical because the people there are actually compensated for their hair.

Nothing can make this sordid trade any more ethical. That quote about how you don't think of a cow when you're eating a burger says it all - Western people think about us as animals. They can't do what they do unless they dehumanise us. Their pleasure/vanity is more important than our humanity and our dignity. It's gross.
You wouldn't wear other body parts, so why is hair seen as any less grotesque?

The only ethical sort of extension-trade is that which uses synthetic materials. And I've seen synthetic wigs and extensions which look every bit as real as human hair. Plus it's way less expensive. So why choose to go the exploitative route?

(I should add though that it's almost as harmful for the buyers if they happen to be Black women, because they feel pressure to put in extensions, being constantly told that their natural hair is ugly and unacceptable, and that wears down your self-esteem. So it's exploitative all around.)

I agree with everything you said. I just wanted to add that we do indeed use parts of other peoples bodies.

Blood transfusions and plasma. Corneas. Skin Grafts. Organs. They have even done a couple of face transplants. I believe some bones are used in certain surgeries. That said, I find those uses more acceptable than hair.

plurabelle
December 5th, 2016, 05:00 AM
I agree with everything you said. I just wanted to add that we do indeed use parts of other peoples bodies.

Blood transfusions and plasma. Corneas. Skin Grafts. Organs. They have even done a couple of face transplants. I believe some bones are used in certain surgeries. That said, I find those uses more acceptable than hair.

Of course, and I support these life-saving transplants, but this is done with the consent of the person whose parts are being donated. If it's a dead person's body parts, then legally we need to have their consent in writing while they were alive. The hair extension trade is akin to the trafficking of organs either harvested from unconsenting subjects or from poor people who are coerced/forced into it due to circumstances. This trade actually exists, and its victims are the same - poor people in the Third World. Look at the surrogacy industry, and how it uses the wombs of Third World women in order to feed the First World demand for babies. Poor people in Third World countries are also exploited by Western pharmaceutical companies, who use unconsenting and uninformed subjects to test drugs, and then price them out of the market when those drugs go on sale. Dead people in the West have more legal rights than poor people in the Third World.

plurabelle
December 5th, 2016, 05:05 AM
I stopped watching early on, it felt like something drastic and horrible was happening, but i'm sure this has happened the world over, to any poor population over the centuries. It is a good way for girls to help put food on the table back in the day, heck prob even some boys. No limbs are lost, no one dies people get fed. I don't see a problem really unless someone is being hurt. Many many bad things happen to little girls and woman the world over, the cutting of ones hair, I don't list among them.

And yet I'm sure you'd have a problem with someone cutting off your hip-length hair without your consent, or being put into a situation where you're forced to do it. I'm from India, and hair is socially and culturally very important for women. Cutting off the hair we took years to grow is indeed an act of violence, and people ARE being hurt. We should stop supporting these trades and make it so people don't have to make the choice between our hair and putting food on the people.

mz_butterfly
December 5th, 2016, 12:22 PM
Of course, and I support these life-saving transplants, but this is done with the consent of the person whose parts are being donated. If it's a dead person's body parts, then legally we need to have their consent in writing while they were alive. The hair extension trade is akin to the trafficking of organs either harvested from unconsenting subjects or from poor people who are coerced/forced into it due to circumstances. This trade actually exists, and its victims are the same - poor people in the Third World. Look at the surrogacy industry, and how it uses the wombs of Third World women in order to feed the First World demand for babies. Poor people in Third World countries are also exploited by Western pharmaceutical companies, who use unconsenting and uninformed subjects to test drugs, and then price them out of the market when those drugs go on sale.
Dead people in the West have more legal rights than poor people in the Third World.


You're right. It's sad and wrong. I don't understand how anyone could do such things just to make money. Money is truly worthless when you look at the big picture. Human life should be above all but there are a lot of greedy and sick people in the world who do unspeakable things to others.


And yet I'm sure you'd have a problem with someone cutting off your hip-length hair without your consent, or being put into a situation where you're forced to do it. I'm from India, and hair is socially and culturally very important for women. Cutting off the hair we took years to grow is indeed an act of violence, and people ARE being hurt. We should stop supporting these trades and make it so people don't have to make the choice between our hair and putting food on the people.

I would be horrified and devastated if someone cut my hair off, I can only imagine the sorrow these ladies/young girls feel. :(

almost alice
December 5th, 2016, 09:27 PM
What really struck me about this is that I have actually sold my hair and I got close to $200 dollars for it (this was back in the early 90's). That these women aren't getting even half of what I got is just disgusting. I have actually thought about getting extensions, but not now or at least not human hair ones.

For anyone who is interested, they make synthetic fibers now that you can heat style like real hair. The temperature has to be lower, but other than that its basically the same. I have a couple of wigs made out of it and unless people are used to dealing with hair/wigs people have to get super close to tell the difference.

turtlelover
December 5th, 2016, 09:32 PM
Just saw this on Drudge, too.... https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuelan-women-flock-colombia-border-town-sell-hair-185858409.html

Mya
December 6th, 2016, 07:09 AM
I'm all for fair trade and work ethics -- do I really need to say that explicitly? I'm a civilized person and I'd never think trade and work are acceptable under a certain ethical standard. That's even more obvious now that ethic "elasticity" has hit Western countries: now that you had a taste of it you know it's wrong.

Kinda sad that I have to write that premise just because I'm going to express some disagreement with how the topic is being discussed...

I really dislike the overly dramatic tone of the article, pure "white man's burden" style. Of course being forced to cut one own's hair is a violation of human rights and when that happens it's sickening. But for many others who don't mind cutting their own hair, it's a source of good and easy money. Maybe it's better that they starve, as long as they don't make money from things that the Western guilty feeling labels as "exploitative" without even bothering to distinguish between cases?

The problem with Chinese hair sellers being exploited is that Chinese people are exploited in general, because their government lets that happen. Maybe it wouldn't happen if the Chinese government didn't use exploitation as the main attraction of investments by the world's richest pseudo-criminals.

The problem with Indian women being assaulted for hair is that Indian women are assaulted for anything: they are thrown acid at for rejecting a guy, they are raped and the rapists get away with it, they are abused and killed, they get married as children by arrangement, they get stoned to death at the first sign of homosexuality. And this happens because their country is filled with evil bastards who consider women less than nothing.

The Chinese girl is left "almost bald" because her hair was cut really short? That's also what happens in thousands of hair salons daily, and maybe that person will leave the place in tears, the difference is that she paid for it. But somehow the Chinese person who is being paid instead bears the only or the worst exploitation? I mean, the word choice is so malicious!
If the Chinese girl is emotional about her hair she's a victim, but if a Western girl is she's just vain and immoral?

Also look at the stereotypical way the Western buyers are being portrayed: wealthy spoiled Barbies who want to "be sexy". Because the essence of Western women is to be a good looking decoration so that they can get laid, right? Those whores. <--sarcasm
Maybe anyone can do anything with their own bodies instead? Maybe if they do, they do just because they like it and not because they want to seduce the universe?

I don't wear hair extensions (or any real fur/skin by the way), but if there are people who want to sell their own hair and people who want to buy it, why not? As long as it doesn't harm anyone, a new market is good and opens possibilities to personal freedom. This also counts for wombs or anything else, because anyone who makes money puts their own body at somebody else's service someway and there's nothing wrong with it as long as human rights are respected.



Nothing can make this sordid trade any more ethical. That quote about how you don't think of a cow when you're eating a burger says it all - Western people think about us as animals. They can't do what they do unless they dehumanise us. Their pleasure/vanity is more important than our humanity and our dignity. It's gross. You wouldn't wear other body parts, so why is hair seen as any less grotesque?

All the lifelong fight I carry on for human decency, bettering and happiness is useless, because I live in a Western country, thus I'm a horrible person. I don't know, do you mean that?

Most people in Western countries are civilized and are horrified by any violation of human dignity. The people who exploit the third world populations are the same people hated by Westerners. Because they exploit richer countries too: they profit over the idleness of governments and keep countries in check under the inflated weight of finance, they "delocalize", they strip people of their rights. Governments that should guard the safety and dignity of people do nothing. This way, people's hate increases against anything that looks like a threat to them, and then hateful politics and ideologies come claim this loot and become dominant. Thinking that Westerners consider poor people animals at their service is the mirror image of the Westerner that thinks immigrants are rapists who steal natives jobs.

The girl in the interview wasn't comparing people to burgers, she was just saying that she doesn't think about where things come from because there's a sad story for everything nowadays. She's not wrong after all, she's not in charge of verifying the source of every single thing she allows in her life, the people who work with that thing are.



(I should add though that it's almost as harmful for the buyers if they happen to be Black women, because they feel pressure to put in extensions, being constantly told that their natural hair is ugly and unacceptable, and that wears down your self-esteem. So it's exploitative all around.)

So if it's non-black Western people they are spoiled airheads who dehumanize who's poorer than them, if it's black Western people they are being exploited and hurt. Funny how mindlessness and exploitation depend on skin pigmentation.

emptyque
January 3rd, 2017, 07:38 AM
I feel similar to Mya and others. I think the women who work in the sweatshops to make the extensions are more exploited than the girls selling their hair, as it sounds like they may be inhaling chemicals during the dying process. Selling hair has been a fast way for poor women to make money throughout human history (see "The Gift of the Magi"), and it is much safer and less traumatizing than alternative methods for poor women to make fast money--prostitution being the biggest one, although the surrogacy market is also much more troubling than this.

RavenRose
January 3rd, 2017, 08:36 AM
Wow! That was eye opening. I knew that desperate people have sold hair for centuries, but not the extent of the current human hair trade. Like so many beauty things in this world it has a sad origin.

pili
January 3rd, 2017, 10:13 AM
I'm all for fair trade and work ethics -- do I really need to say that explicitly? I'm a civilized person and I'd never think trade and work are acceptable under a certain ethical standard. That's even more obvious now that ethic "elasticity" has hit Western countries: now that you had a taste of it you know it's wrong.

Kinda sad that I have to write that premise just because I'm going to express some disagreement with how the topic is being discussed...

I really dislike the overly dramatic tone of the article, pure "white man's burden" style. Of course being forced to cut one own's hair is a violation of human rights and when that happens it's sickening. But for many others who don't mind cutting their own hair, it's a source of good and easy money. Maybe it's better that they starve, as long as they don't make money from things that the Western guilty feeling labels as "exploitative" without even bothering to distinguish between cases?

The problem with Chinese hair sellers being exploited is that Chinese people are exploited in general, because their government lets that happen. Maybe it wouldn't happen if the Chinese government didn't use exploitation as the main attraction of investments by the world's richest pseudo-criminals.

The problem with Indian women being assaulted for hair is that Indian women are assaulted for anything: they are thrown acid at for rejecting a guy, they are raped and the rapists get away with it, they are abused and killed, they get married as children by arrangement, they get stoned to death at the first sign of homosexuality. And this happens because their country is filled with evil bastards who consider women less than nothing.

The Chinese girl is left "almost bald" because her hair was cut really short? That's also what happens in thousands of hair salons daily, and maybe that person will leave the place in tears, the difference is that she paid for it. But somehow the Chinese person who is being paid instead bears the only or the worst exploitation? I mean, the word choice is so malicious!
If the Chinese girl is emotional about her hair she's a victim, but if a Western girl is she's just vain and immoral?

Also look at the stereotypical way the Western buyers are being portrayed: wealthy spoiled Barbies who want to "be sexy". Because the essence of Western women is to be a good looking decoration so that they can get laid, right? Those whores. <--sarcasm
Maybe anyone can do anything with their own bodies instead? Maybe if they do, they do just because they

The girl in the interview wasn't comparing people to burgers, she was just saying that she doesn't think about where things come from because there's a sad story for everything nowadays. She's not wrong after all, she's not in charge of verifying the source of every single thing she allows in her life, the people who work with that thing are.




So if it's non-black Western people they are spoiled airheads who dehumanize who's poorer than them, if it's black Western people they are being exploited and hurt. Funny how mindlessness and exploitation depend on skin pigmentation.

When you can be fired from your job or suspended from your school for wearing your hair natural? Yes, it is. I agree that while the article's portrale of western white women as airheads is click-bait-y, the struggles of non white women to look white for social acceptance are all too real.

Hairkay
January 3rd, 2017, 02:42 PM
Just saw this on Drudge, too.... https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuelan-women-flock-colombia-border-town-sell-hair-185858409.html


When you can be fired from your job or suspended from your school for wearing your hair natural? Yes, it is. I agree that while the article's portrale of western white women as airheads is click-bait-y, the struggles of non white women to look white for social acceptance are all too real.

Good point. I've seen the link about women selling hair in Venezuela. Some are getting turned away by buyers. The hair has to be thick enough and long enough. Venezuela also has a percentage of type 3 and type 4 hair. There's no demand to buy that sort of hair.

embee
January 3rd, 2017, 04:59 PM
This appears to be a fairly safe way to make some money and help keep your family from starving. The daughter went right along with it, though it made her sad. Hard for me to know how to call that exploitation. It did seem rather over-the-top that she didn't get a halfway decent haircut out of it though, that's poor. Even Locks-of-Love will give a reasonable trim, if I understand correctly.

Many years ago (1960s) I had a false ponytail. It was gorgeous hair, and it never crossed my mind it might be Indian or Chinese. At the time I assumed some woman with wonderful hair-growing genes had found a grand way to make some money. My own hair is not satisfactory for that, being thin and fragile.

How can it be that extensions are more upscale than ones own long hair? Is it the money one must pay? Are time and patience worth nothing? I've always veiwed extensions as fake, when you cannot have the real thing. Good for movie making and such, needing long hair next week. ;)

hanne jensen
January 4th, 2017, 05:23 AM
After reading the article and the posts I'm glad that I've been too much of a cheapskate to get extensions or a wig or hairpiece. I've also read articles about how extensions will ruin hair and damage hair follicles. Yikes! As for the woman is New Zealand, for that kind of money she could get salon deep conditioning and have long hair within 2 years. I'm kind of against the whole instant gratification thing as usually it's at the cost of someone else.

Mya
January 6th, 2017, 02:32 PM
When you can be fired from your job or suspended from your school for wearing your hair natural? Yes, it is. I agree that while the article's portrale of western white women as airheads is click-bait-y, the struggles of non white women to look white for social acceptance are all too real.

Maybe in America, I've never seen/heard it happen where I live. The USA are quite a racist country, but it's not the whole West.

"To look white"? Not only non-white have curly hair. My cousin has type 4 hair and has struggled for a lot in his life for it (he hated it, I guess he got picked on or something). I myself have curly hair that will never look non-frizzy whatever the hair care method, so much that as a child I got called a bush after my first haircut to shoulder/chin length (I mean, I was so happy when I saw it in the mirror, then being mocked for it the day after ruined it all and made me hate it from that moment on...). We are both white, not mixed race at all, it's just the way we are. It's just the way many people are.

Also, hair extensions are not the only option for "hair modification". It's quite a high maintenance option to be fair (in case of permanent extensions, how do you wash the natural hair without it becoming curly and showing over them?). There are cheaper and easier-to-maintain options, like: hair dyes, straightening, blow drying, wigs.

So, no, black women are no exception in the trend of "spending a great amount money on things they don't need" like extensions. Fortunately. It is their, like it is anyone's, right to live in a light-hearted way.

Hairkay
January 6th, 2017, 05:39 PM
Maybe in America, I've never seen/heard it happen where I live. The USA are quite a racist country, but it's not the whole West.

"To look white"? Not only non-white have curly hair. My cousin has type 4 hair and has struggled for a lot in his life for it (he hated it, I guess he got picked on or something). I myself have curly hair that will never look non-frizzy whatever the hair care method, so much that as a child I got called a bush after my first haircut to shoulder/chin length (I mean, I was so happy when I saw it in the mirror, then being mocked for it the day after ruined it all and made me hate it from that moment on...). We are both white, not mixed race at all, it's just the way we are. It's just the way many people are.

Also, hair extensions are not the only option for "hair modification". It's quite a high maintenance option to be fair (in case of permanent extensions, how do you wash the natural hair without it becoming curly and showing over them?). There are cheaper and easier-to-maintain options, like: hair dyes, straightening, blow drying, wigs.

So, no, black women are no exception in the trend of "spending a great amount money on things they don't need" like extensions. Fortunately. It is their, like it is anyone's, right to live in a light-hearted way.

I think you're getting the point of the post mixed up. If you're compelled to use hair stuff because you want to keep or get a job then it's not a light hearted way to live or a choice. It's not just USA that has women trying to conform to one standard. That's happened in the Caribbean and even going on in parts of Africa today. Yes a variety of people do get extensions. It's not a black thing. What is different is the reason why some use extensions and hair pieces. From what I've learnt, people stretch washes just to maintain their hair in a certain look so that the difference between their natural curls does not show. Some have part of their hair or all of it permed and or dyed beforehand to match the hair extensions.

No one mentioned that being curly haired was specific to any race. Your experience of your own hair where you live does not negate others' experiences and realities. Your bushy curls are beautiful, ignore those who can't see that.

Ligeia Noire
January 6th, 2017, 05:51 PM
Well, the article was presented in such a demagogic way, oh the evil, shallow western woman that cares nothing but for her appearance... I bet most people that want extensions do not even know half of what is going on, same thing with locks of love and such but clickbait is the word of the day, it made us feel bad, granted, hair for money it is not pretty but for some of those families it is the only thing that gives them sustenance for a while, if the demand stops a lot of people will be hungry that is for sure. It is not a new thing and if it is not stolen and the person agrees I have nothing against it, of course most of these women have no other choice. In a perfect world, people would be patient and let their hair grow, instead of simply wanting something and wanting it now. And those women would be able to have a decent job and keep their locks. There are tons, and I mean, tons, of videos on youtube of mostly Chinese girls meeting these guys at hotel rooms to cut their hair for money and it is all videotaped to make an extra buck on youtube. Everything is business these days.... it is like complaining about clothing factories on poor countries, when the fair trade stores, at least around where I live, sell a pair of trousers that costs me 2 weeks worth of groceries or more. I wish I could buy fair trade goods only but I simply cannot. It may sound harsh but sometimes I wonder what good does it do to avoid cheap goods that come from certain countries if that would mean they would be out of jobs, bad jobs, sometimes not even jobs, but what other source of money do they have anyway? If the corporations do not want to change it, we certainly have no choice. I was offered three times to cut my hair for money, I declined because I have a job that allows me to do that.