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Photo: Much of the hair is collected at Hindu temples in South India where devotees have their heads shaved. (AP: Aijaz Rahi)Posing as customers, three men entered a little New Delhi workshop, pulled out a gun, and demanded the most valuable thing there — hair.
Key points:
- The robbers left a wig-maker deep in debt
- Hair is big business in India, with wigs and hair extensions exported around the world
- The town of Tirupati collects hundreds of tons of hair every year
They fled half an hour later with 200 kilograms of wigs and raw hair worth more than $US20,000 ($27,157), police said on Thursday.
The men left behind a wig-maker deep in debt.
“People think wigs are cheap but they cost a fortune to make,” Jahangir Hussain told The Indian Express newspaper after the robbery last Friday.
He said he had borrowed more than $US17,000 ($23,000) to buy hair last month from South Indian wholesalers.
“We breathe life into dead hair,” Mr Hussain, who proudly says his wigs can last a decade if they are cared for properly, said.
Hair is big business in India, estimated to bring in more than $US300 million ($407 million) a year, with wigs and hair extensions exported around the world.
Much of the hair is collected at Hindu temples in South India where devotees have their heads shaved as a form of religious sacrifice.
The best-known temple for tonsuring — as the practice is known — in the town of Tirupati collects hundreds of tons of hair every year, auctioning it off for millions of dollars.
AP
Topics: hair, law-crime-and-justice, armed-robbery, crime, india
