Where your hair extensions come from?

Are you curious to know where the hair extensions or weave come from?

India, Brazil, Malaysia, and Peru? Does this come first to your mind?

A. Brazilian - From Brazil B. Indian Remy - From India C. Peruvian - From Peru D. Malaysian - From Malaysia

Most folks will think about the above sources. But this is not true except for Indian Hair. While Brazilian hair is one of the most sold brands on the internet, Brazil hair export is negligible at about 300K US $ in 2015. The US imports 90% of its hair extensions from China. And China imports 85% of its hair from India and 5% from Japan. China imports lower quality fallen hair from India and sales it with fancy names like Brazilian, Peruvian etc. Brazil, Peru or Malaysia do not export any significant amount of hair. Here are some important questions and answers -

1. What is the total US import of natural human and artificial hair? --In 2015, US imported about 1.4 BN $ of hair products which include ~745 MM $ of human hair origin products and ~705 MM $ of synthetic hair products.

2. From which countries US Human origin hair products--imports 89% of its human hair products from China (659 MM $) followed by Indonesia (38 MM $). India hair imports are 17 MM $ and Italy hair imports are at 8.3MM $. The US imports 3% of hair products from the rest of the world combined. Most other countries export less than 1 MM $ to the US. Import from Brazil in 2015 was ~300 K $. Malaysia, Peru, and Brazil are all very small in US imports.

3. Which countries does China import its hair from? In 2014, China imported 85% of its human hair from India. Total import of hair in China was about 245 MM $ of which 187 MM $ of Hair came from India.

Hence, India is the main source of Chinese hair imports followed by Japan. The average cost of Indian hair exported to China is about 72$ per KG. Most of the Indian hair exported at that price is lower quality hair which is fallen hair. It is acid processed in China and converted into a lower quality hair which is than sold with fancy brand names like Brazilian, Peruvian, Malaysian etc. The US imports 89% of its hair from China and almost none from Malaysia, Peru, and Brazil. Directly and indirectly, most of the hair is coming in the US are from India. UN Trade data (ITC tables), May 2016