Supply vs. Demand
Human hair used to make hair extensions is imported to Japan in great quantities from China, but the growing demand for extensions by Japanese women has created a supply shortage and a surge in the cost.
The root of the problem is that extensions are discarded by the women who use them for short periods, but it takes years for Chinese women to grow the hair.
Tetsuya Oura, a 29-year-old executive of a trading company in Osaka that imports hair, recalled a scene he once saw in a village in rural China
The village is nestled in a mountainous region about an eight-hour drive from Qingdao, on the Shandong Peninsula. A small, beat-up truck drove between poor households, blasting music. Suddenly a girl jumped in front of the truck, shouting, “Stop!”
She wore no makeup and looked very young. On her head stood a great mass of black hair, arranged in a shape reminiscent of soft-serve ice cream. Her hair, when undone, almost reached the ground.
The driver got out of the truck and began to cut the girl’s hair with scissors.
When he was done, he gave the girl a small amount of money. She was left with a very short hairstyle.
These hair cutters visit villages in China and hand collect hair for brokers. The hair is then bleached, dyed black or brown at processing facilities and exported to Japan.
Harajuku Girls
According to Finance Ministry trade statistics, (Australia), Japan imported 178 tons of dyed hair from China in 2007. In 2002, the figure was only 26 tons. With about 50 grams of hair needed for one extension, enough hair was imported in 2007 to make 3.56 million extensions.
This surge in hair imports follows a spike in the popularity of hair extensions among young women. The impact of Japanese pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki’s use of extensions also has been cited as a reason for the surge.
More and more beauty salons all over the world use hair extensions and offer a wide variety of hair styles possible with them
A 24-year-old woman who works at a boutique recently visited a salon that specializes in extension services in Tokyo’s Harajuku district, where she got her hair extended down to her waist.
She came from Takasaki, traveling 90 minutes by train to come to this salon. Though her real hair comes down to her chest, she wanted longer hair. The bill came to more nearly $100.00, in US dollars
Oura said the price of hair from China has gone up 50 per cent from a year ago.
“It’s completely a seller’s market. And prices are likely to keep going up,” he said.
The amount of hair that can be procured in China has already reached its limit, and supply has not been able to keep up with demand.
Hair grows about two centimeters a month on average. This means 65-centimeter-long extensions take nearly three years to grow.
But fashion can’t wait that long.
Human hair extensions begin to deteriorate after about three months to six months of use, depending on care.
How will this impact the prices of all human hair?
TELL HAIREALITY
