Dengarkan

Would you sell your hair for some extra money? Would you donate your hair to charity?

In Rangoon women do it every day and it’s earning them a steady profit.

Often it’s to support their families. But increasingly, hair is being donated and the money is used to build bridges, roads or fund social activities for local people.

“Coming to market…with no money! It looks like they’ll have to cut their hair first before shopping. And some would say: “Sister, you hair is short so it won’t sell for much.” But that doesn’t actually matter for some – whether 500 Kyat or a 1000 Kyat, they’d still sell it,” says one seller.

"It’s a way for the sellers to survive and a way for the buyers to make money.”

These people are hair buyers in Rangoon’s Tharkayta township.

The dealing in hair has been on the rise since a trading road was open between Burma and China in 1996.

It meant buyers could trade internationally.

And this year the hair export business is booming.

This buyer says people of all backgrounds are selling their hair.

“It varies, sometimes the poor and sometimes the rich. You go to rich neighbourhood, you get rich people selling their hair and in poor neighbourhood, then it’s poor people.”

The buyers trade in two types of hair, hair that is cut and hair that falls out from brushing  - this is called Ah Kyawt.

Using this row of needles they brush the hair until it is smooth.

Then they cut and band the hair into equal sizes. It’s now ready to be sold to an exporter.

The price for the finished product is around 20 US dollars for less than 1 kilogram.

Burmese women are proud of their long hair.

Traditionally long hair is a sign of beauty.

But for some cutting your hair is worth it for the money, says Ma Tin Tin Htay.

“Buy snacks for the baby, buy food for house and we can use a little bit for other house-hold things.”

Sometimes women are donating their hair to fund local projects like building bridges and roads, or social activities.

Buddhist monk AshinYarzeinna set up a non-government Hair Donation Centre in Rangoon.

Women donated their hair from all over the country and the money was used to fund social projects.

“We’ve been here for just 2 months and a lot people are coming every day. Most of them were between 18 and 30 years old and in one day we had 300-400 people here. Old women came here too. We got over 4,700 US dollars and over 153 kilograms of hair.”

In 2009 women and girls across Burma donated their hair to build the LgweNgaut-Chin Pyit road project at Monywa Township in Sagaing Division.

“We received a lot of hair donations from all over the country and we built and prepared roads and bridges there. We managed to build 15 miles of road. Before, we couldn’t use the road in the rainy season and now we can use it the whole year. We also built 18 concrete bridges, including Golden Hair Bridge.”

The project also provides free education to local villages, and a car service to take patients and pregnant women to the hospital.

“It’s all the money we got from selling the hair donated by women and girls around the country.”

For others it’s purely business. Nearly 2 kilograms of hair at 30 inches long can fetch nearly 500 US dollars.

It’s a nice profit for both the buyers and exporters. Rangoon has 3 main dealers. DawKhin Aye exports the hair to China.

“Now we’re exporting hair to China. India also came and bought from us last year.”

Their main buyer is China but now they export to India, Italy and Korea.

“Italy prefers wrinkled and curly, naturally wrinkled and curly after cutting from head. While Korea prefers straight hair, just between 12 inches and 18 inches.”

The hair trade in Burma is booming and traders are optimistic that it will continue to thrive in the future.