Mom was Right #2 : A Stranger's Strands

Mom was right? Is an aspect of my blog that targets one of my childhood warnings. As everyone who has been raised in a very religious family, I was prohibited to do certain things and watch certain programs.Mom was right? Is an aspect of my blog that targets one of my childhood warnings. As everyone who has been raised in a very religious family, I was prohibited to do certain things and watch certain programs.


Long locks are a popular beauty standard for females all over the world. We all want to be considered attractive be the people we are attracted to. Many woman all over the world try to achieve this goal by added physical accessories. Human hair extensions are a good example. I can't say I haven't tried them myself. But at what cost is this option enabled?

Until I was 17 I often wore synthetic hair extensions in the form of cornrows or braids. In my household "human" hair extensions were rarely used. For some reason my mother believed that a person's essence could linger around their hair. She felt that, because hair grows out of the scalp it is an extension of your body. Therefore using human hair was considered just as weird as using human nails to extend your own.

When watching the documentary "Hair India" the original owners of human hair extensions get a face. Mom's view on how weird the use of this product is, becomes a little more logical

You can check the video here.

Every human being has feelings, characteristics and a life. It may seem far-fetched but I was taught that when using human hair you needed to know were it came from. At the time (between 1995-2001) the people in my community and I didn't know where the human hair came from. Some of it was fake (horse hair) and the real hair was just foreign. Around 2001 the beauty shops started to sell hair that was named after its origin. Once this happened I started to realize that there are living people behind every pack of real human hair. And I didn't want to support the possible abuse that comes with the Indian and Brazilian hair industry.

I wonder if it would make a difference, if every person that uses hair extensions knew how the hair was obtained. Numerous friends use them and know about the industry.

I guess even though beauty is in the eye of the beholder, the industry has enough customers that will buy a facade that caters to the expectations of the West. Don't get me wrong I am not judging anyone, I'm just stating that once the majority of women spend their money elsewhere (for instance on things that will build up their self-esteem) the beauty standards might change.

Enough about what I think... How do you feel bout it?