I have an aversion to human hair to begin with, but learning about the conditions in which human hair used to be harvested makes me downright nauseous.
Trade In Human Hair
Tons of human hair are being shipped to the United States from China. The recent war has had an effect of lowering the price being paid for it by American merchants.
After a battle is fought the collectors of human hair feel no repugnancy in clipping from the heads of the dead, and even the wounded, the thick growth of hair with which the race is blessed.
The is a legitimate custom in the Chinese empire, and in other countries, for that matter. It was necessary for the Russian government to intercede in the human hair traffic a few months ago for the reason that cholera victims were scalped for the sake of hair, regardless of the danger of infection.
Where such cases were discovered the hair was burned, but not until much of it had been collected and distributed from the cholera infected sections. This contributed to the spread of the disease, but fortunately the government put an end to the business before much harm was done.
It seems inhuman to think that the man who falls in battle, the woman who is the victim of war’s cruelty, should be robbed of their hair even before a thought is given to the burial of their bodies.
To satisfy the demand of American women, who decorate their heads with borrowed and bought human hair, the trade grows brisk, for today the bloody opportunities are greater than they have been for many years.
The total value of the shipments of human hair from Hong Kong during the present year was $177,794 for the first quarter, #338,619 for the second, and an even greater amount for the third, although the figures have not been officially published.
This will give an idea of what the industry amounts to. The demands of fashion are despotic and so long as fickle dame fashion demands that her daughters shall decorate themselves with hair that is not their own so long will the country be scoured for different shades.
The quality of the Chinese hair is coarse and it has not the same value that the hair of the Caucasian possession, still the process of preparing it for the market is most ingenious. It is softened and bleached and colored to suit any taste. The gruesome features of it is that the dead and dying men and women are stripped of their hair in order that the fad may be gratified. It is uncanny. Till women demand false hair and so long as they do there will be merchants who will supply the demand.
Source: The Hayti Herald. Newspaper. January 11, 1912.
