India is one of the leading exporters of human hair. But, look beyond exports and you will find many opportunities waiting to be explored.
For starters, here are some facts. According to the United Nations trade statistics, China and India exported more than $154 million worth of human hair last year. That is precisely because Asian hair grows the fastest and has the greatest elasticity.
Moreover, Indian hair is considered to be fine, lustrous and free from chemical treatments, making it suitable for manufacturing wigs. India has thousands of hair exporters. But sources are few. The biggest one is Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam in Andhra Pradesh. The hair collected from the tonsuring is reportedly separated into five different varieties. The 600 barbers employed by the temple shave the pilgrims’ heads 24 hours a day. Last year, it auctioned around 80 tonne of hair worth Rs 60 crore.
The hair exported from India is either raw or processed/polished. The profit margins are around 15% and 50% respectively. Not a bad deal considering there is a huge demand for Indian hair in France, UK, US, Canada, and a few other European countries. But, why stop at exports? There’s more to human hair than exports. There are some entrepreneurs who have realized the true potential of hair and are making millions by the same. All we need to do is replicate the model. Find an entrepreneur who dares to think beyond the obvious and discover the oblivion. Here are a few businesses opportunities waiting in the wings.
| Fun Facts |
| An auction house in Dallas by the name of The Heritage Auction House sold some strands of hair collected from Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the slain Argentine socialist revolutionary, for $100,000 in October 2007. |
| The average person has up to 150,000 hairs on her or his head |
Used in Oil Spills
Somewhere in Alabama, 20 years back, a hairstylist was watching television coverage of the massive oil spill in Alaska. He noticed oil-covered otters swimming to shore and how their fur soaked up the oil. This was his cue to something big. The million-dollar question harassing his mind was “could human hair trap and hold spilled oil?” After conducting a home experiment using five pounds of human hair he had found his answer.
Human hair has a quality of adsorbing, rather than absorbing oil. That is, oil does not bond with the hair; instead it accumulates in layers on the hair’s surface. This helps in easy recovery and reuse of the oil by simply squeezing it from the collected bundles. Moreover, oil-saturated bundles of hair can be burned as fuel.
So, Phil McCrory, the hairdresser became a researcher. The efficiency of human hair as an oil adsorbent has been tested and validated by NASA. It is proven by NASA that human hair adsorbs up to five times its weight in oil while not retaining water.
So the idea converted into oil-capturing hair mats, marketed by SmartGrow, a Florida- based company as Ottimats. Ottimats uses recycled human hair that removes oil from water. Ninety-eight percent of the oil extracted by the Ottimats can be recovered. Ottimats has a tensile strength of approximately 38 lbs. and can be used in large-scale petroleum recovery.
So, the point is, why can’t a similar model be applied in India. Why can’t we have our own oil capturing mats? Considering that two major oil choke points of the world, the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Malacca, are on the west and east coasts of India. With the routes being accident-prone, a product that adsorbs oil does have a market. It is estimated that 25,000 pounds of hair in nylon collection bags might be sufficient to adsorb 170,000 gallons of spilled oil. Tests showed that a gallon of oil could be adsorbed in less than two minutes with McCrory’s method. It is also considered a potential cost-saving method. Conventional oil cleanup methods cost approximately $10 to recover a gallon of oil in the US. McCrory’s system costs as little as $2 per gallon and offers the benefit of recovering oil for fuel.
Moreover, the risk of a major oil spill occurring along the west coast of India is considerably higher now, as there has been a significant increase in all types of maritime trade. A major oil spill could cause widespread ecological damage, and cripple or destroy marine commercial operations. Therefore, continued discharge of oil into the sea can pose a potential risk of severe pollution to the sensitive coastal ecosystem.
Horticulture Benefits
A step further from oil spills, SmartGrow manufactures mats that are effective in keeping out weeds and have other horticultural benefits. According to University of Florida scientists, they also increase yield in crops like tomatoes. Blair Blacker, CEO, SmartGrow imports hair from India and China on a regular basis. The hair is loaded into a needle-punch machine. Then, a hopper blows air through the hair to loose it, and the hair strands are then knit into a loose mat. These are then pressed into mats and lastly shipped to farmers and nursery growers.
According to the SmartGrow website, over two million hair mats are in use in the state of Florida. Moreover, Wal-Mart began selling the mats in about 60 stores in central Florida. Dollar General signed on to sell the smaller-size sheets in 1,000 of its stores.
Hair mats save money on pesticides and labor. A single mat of 6.25” is priced at $3.94.
Now considering India, where the share of agriculture in GDP is around 21 percent, it does make a lot of sense to manufacture a product like SmartGrow. Moreover, with a number of corporate players entering into agreements with farmers for major investment plans in agriculture, we have all the reasons to feel positive about a product like this.
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| I used to work at the boutique in the daytime and experiment with hair at nights. I have experimented with all kinds of chemicals, even with soaps like Rin and Lux.
Amit Malhotra
Owner-Savvy Wigs and Hair International |
Manufacturing Wigs and Hair Extensions
Tales of rags to riches always have a warm feel to them. Amit Malhotra, hair exporter and wigs manufacturer in Delhi shares the same kind of hairy-touchy tale. From being the owner of a ladies’ boutique, he has come a long way in the last 15 years. Call it an unusual interest or curiosity, but his “experiments with hair” have paid off. No angel investors or VCs, rather he had a guiding angel in the form of a customer who handed him Rs three lakh on sheer faith for his startup. Today, he exports raw and processed hair in countries across the globe, owns three factories and manufactures customized wigs. His clientele includes a few celebrities as well, whose name he obviously refuses to disclose. He employs 100 workers and even teaches wig making to 40 odd students at Rs 1 lakh each!
Around 75% of his business comes from exports. He manufactures wigs only on order. But he accepts the fact that major money is in wigs and hair extensions as the demand for them is increasing in India.
So the point is, why not manufacture wigs and hair extensions in a big way. The price of a hair extension is Rs 20,000 and that of a wig is Rs 30,000 at the minimum.. And if customization is your USP, the price can go up to lacs! Profit margins are skyrocketing by 100%. Moreover, with more people falling for hair fashion and genuine falling of hair becoming a common problem, there’s reason to be hopeful.
So if you have taken the plunge. Here’s the way ahead.
| Wigs and hair extensions |
Users
Cancer patients, fashion victims, cross dressers, theater actors, aged peopleClients
Wig shops, saloons, hair clinics, direct customers
Features
Capital intensive, knowledge-based, eye for detail/quality |
Source
As mentioned in the beginning, the major source of human hair in India is Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam. Auctions are conducted every three months. If you are buying through a middleman chances are you’ll get a price of Rs 10,000 per kg (30% fluctuations). Apart from that, there are a few other temples, but none comparable to Tirumala, where long hairs are
easily available, which are required for manufacturing wigs. Apart from that you could also tie-up with some local parlour.
Processing
Let’s take a sample quantity—500 kg of hair. A factory would be required to carry the operations. About 100-odd workers would be sufficient. The task includes sorting hair according to size, checking for inconsistencies and rejecting bad hair. The hairs are then washed with chemicals. A few chemicals imported from Hong Kong, cost around Rs 2,000 per litre. These are washed in big drums each costing Rs 2 lakh. Next comes drying the hair that can be done in natural sunlight or through blowers. The hairs are then put through the process of combing where they are detangled and each strand stands apart. You need thousands of iron combs for this. Lastly, the hair goes through intense conditioning and chemical coating to attain natural shine. Now, you can export or sell the hair at 50% profit margins or if you aim a bit higher, manufacture wigs and hair extensions.
Manufacturing
On an average, 50 grams of hair is needed for one extension. The market demand is more for hair extensions. As Amit says, “Of the total manufacturing we do, 75% are hair extensions and 25% are wigs.” He produces wigs, glue-based hair extensions and normal hair extensions. He has 25 machines costing Rs 80 lakh in total. Eighteen of them are for knotting of hair, seven for fixing glue to hair tips. There are 40 workers in the factory. He has also got a hairdresser to design 60-70 odd wig designs.
| Other Uses |
Amino Acid-I-Cysteine used in baked products
Human hair is a raw material source for l-cysteine, an amino acid frequently used in baked goods such as pizza dough and bagelsHairs of Dolls/Soft Toys
Low quality hair is used for making doll hairs and soft toys
Testing
When cosmetic chemists make hair products, they need to test them on the real thing |
