The Real Story Behind Where Your Hair Extensions Come From

If you wear hair extensions, chances are you’re pretty picky about what type of hair you wear. You know if you prefer Remy or non-Remy hair, Indian or Brazilian, synthetic or human. You may also believe you can simply look at hair extension packaging to find out its origins. But the truth is, it’s pretty difficult to tell where your hair extensions come from, and there are plenty of manufacturers who are deliberately misleading about where they source their hair from. 

Riqua Hailes, owner of Just Extensions hair extension bar in Los Angeles and The Weave Express in Washington, D.C., knows this firsthand. After noticing inconsistencies in the hair extensions she received from vendors, Hailes decided to dig deeper. She embarked on a journey through China, Cambodia, Malaysia and India and will continue her travels to Brazil and Russia later this year to uncover the long, storied journey hair extensions take before they reach a salon or retail store. Here is her account.

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Separating Fact From Fiction In China

"I started my journey in March 2014. My first stop was China, the largest exporter of human hair in the world. China can reproduce almost anything — and hair is no exception. Chinese hair is often considered cheap in the extensions industry because it isn’t donated hair, so in order to be on the same playing field as other exporters, they will market it as Brazilian or Malaysian hair, which can go for twice the money. 

"China imports fallen hair, also referred to as non-Remy hair, from India. Fallen hair is dead hair that naturally sheds and is collected from hair salons and hairbrushes. Because the hair’s quality has been jeopardized and matting is likely to occur, non-Remy hair is less desirable in the extensions industry. But China collects this hair, cleans it and mislabels it as being from a higher-quality hair extension source like Brazil, Russia or India. 

"If you’re shopping for extensions, and they say they’re shipped from China, it’s probably Chinese hair masquerading as something else. One hair distributor taught me to pay attention to the smell: Fallen hair has a smell of acid and silicone that’s easily recognizable."