Hi Xina!!  (waves)
Thanks for the namecheck!
Glad I found your blog – it’s brilliant.  I’m going to add this to mine as well.
 

Hey Xina.  I’ve been trying to tell people about this “trade” for years.  Fantastic post!  I really hope people watch the documentary and will take heed as Jamelia will give it a bit more profile.  Keep up the good work!

I understand that poverty stricken people will have to things that the better off wouldn’t need to consider.  This is something that I think of when it comes to buying cheaper clothes too, I do consider who made them and under what conditions.  Having visited places like Brazil where the rich/poor divide very wide, you see that sometimes a child going out to work isn’t considered an abuse, but rather an opportunity to bring food into the home.  Whilst we in the West might want to campaign against children working, we have to consider what alternative, if any, are we prepared to give them?

So, for me the issue isn’t poor people selling their hair – there are are far more valuable aspects of themselves that they could have sold instead.  The thing that makes me most uncomfortable as a former extension wearer is the fact that some of the hair can be taken from dead people (!)  The thought completely grosses me out.  Nor do I think it’s nice that rubbish dumps would be scoured for discarded hair in hair brushes & combs, because I’ve not always been able to afford pricier brands of human hair.

There are many women who wear hair extensions, like Jamelia, so that they can look and feel smarter – that feeling is greatly undermined when you know where the hair comes from whether from poor people selling their hair (which I always assumed anyway) or from mortuaries, death beds and rubbish dumps.

All good points Peebee. I just think that it is better to look at what we can do to tackle poverty rather than focusing on the bad effects that result from people being poor.

Colin.
I fully understand and respect what you are saying.  My comments were not intended to attack you personally, rather the industry which exploits a bad situation, as  stated above.  Your points are as valid as anyone elses on here.
There are many such industries in existance, some of which grab the headlines more than others.  That’s probably unfair, but we don’t have any control over the media.  Having certain profile within the celeb/fashion/music industry simply gives Jamelia’s docu a bit more weight in it’s message to enable people to think about the “price” of keeping up with a trend or making a particular lifestyle choice.  We all could do better in terms of the things we consume, it’s all about gathering information and putting it into action once we’ve made our choice.  There is probably a reason why Jamelia didn’t make a documentary about prostitution, sweatshops, fast food outlets or fat people….namely, that she didn’t go out there to make that particular documentary! Does that mean she doesn’t care about the plight of sex workers?  Does the fact that we haven’t debated prostitution on here mean that we don’t care?  Of course not.  Topics of inequality and injustice are not exclusive of each other. Attacking Jamelia for choosing to make this documentary over other issues makes little sense.  We were talking hair business because that’s what the thread (and the documentary) is about.  Kinda simple really.  There is no hate here, in fact, no-one has stated a particular position on women choosing to wear weaves, so to take it personally, means the points raised above were seriously missed.  My own personal issue (stated clearly above) is with big business exploiting poor people on any level.  People are free to agree or disagree with that.  No-one was on anyone’s case.
It is all about business and choice at the end of the day.  Take prostitution, as an example.  If I were to use prostitutes, I could justify my own use of them and argue that the women who engage in the trade do it willingly(some sex workers say they do it because it’s fun and it gives them freedom of choice), and are simply putting food on their table, so in some way I’m helping them.  Would that argument wash?  Why not, if the woman does not feel she is being exploited?  Why can’t I fly that particular flag?  I’m sure I don’t need to explain power imbalance in business relationships to anyone here. (For the record, I don’t use prostitutes, just illustrating a point)
There are businesses I choose not to patronise or do business with because of a particular stance they make.  I personally choose to use Nature’s Parlour because I endorse it’s ethos in terms of the stock it will supply to the public, and because it promotes a value I have chosen for me and my family, and which is why I will choose continue our business relationship.  Again it’s a choice, which I’m in the position to make.  I don’t think Xina or Nature’s Parlour has in any way stated that they’re “against” weaves (neither have I), so to steer the debate that way is wide of the mark.
Where or how individuals choose to spend their cash is their own affair.  I do not make assumptions about anyone else’s position on my own spending choices in order to defend them.
In peace.