Hey Hair – we go!

When it comes to hair, we become extra cautious. A woman beautifies herself with many things but hair being the vital, caring is a must. While getting ready for an event, managing the hair turns out to be a major issue. It is our hair that frames our faces and accentuates our look. So definitely hairs play an important role. But “Hair” is far more than Alia Bhatt’s silky hair been flaunted even after a tiring day or the reporter bragging her strong hair in the crime scene. Gone are the days of Rapunzel’s long hair being an identity of her beauty. Now hair is more than a body part, it’s a business.

When you think of industries being transformed by technology, you’re probably not thinking of hair. However, from the materials used in wigs, hairpieces, hair extensions, hair oils, and shampoos to the way we use them in our everyday life, technology is making over the industry. The fact really hits home that we spend four times more on researching our hair than we do on diseases such as malaria. An amazing fact is that India exports about 4000 tons of hair for mannequins, wigs and hair extensions, mainly for young women. According to the commerce ministry, India is one of the biggest players in the human hair industry with an income of $8000 million annually. Waste human hair is another potentiality that can make the barber rich. A group of researchers has found out that human hair is an excellent medium for separating oil from water. However, the separation process was found efficient only at laboratory scale. Proving the Downward Filtration theory of Macaulay to be right, the hair sphere, from the industry, spread down to the hawkers who often can be heard screaming loud on your colony “Chul bikri korben?“( Will you sell your hair in exchange for a bowl?)

Hair, apart from commerce, deals with religion as well. Many Hindus who visit Tirumala Venkateswara temple in Tirupati get their head tonsured and offer their hair to Lord Venkateswara. Tonsuring to please God is an age-old tradition at the Vaishnavite in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. Tonsure or Shaving hair as an offering for Lord represents a real sacrifice of material beauty and giving up false-ego in the way of shaving their hair as the sacrifice to please Supreme Lord. The Brahmotsavam of 2016 saw 1500 barbers which include 277 women who shave off the hairs of nearly 34 lakh devotees of which 1.7 lakes were women. Since 2011, the temple authority ordered to cut hair free of cost, as they began the hair-business seriously and it was a major source of revenue.

Talking about the technological advancements in the hair sector, in Japan, robots can shampoo your hair. The shampoo robot scans your head, determines how best to apply pressure, and then gets to work with its eight “fingers.”

Hair which covers our head, which is the case of our brain, has a connection with a mental disorder as well. Trichotillomania, also known as a hair-pulling disorder, is an impulse control disorder characterized by a long term urge that results in the pulling out of one’s hair.

Hair plays a vital role in medical science. The very statement can be validated from your common CID and Crime Patrol knowledge, where hairs are used to test the DNA. The core structure of human hair can reveal information about everything that had ever been present in the bloodstream, including the drugs.

Thus, hairs are proved to be very useful both as a body part and also after its detachment from the human body. It also serves the fashion industry in the form of wigs, hair extensions, and brushes, hairs also use pesticides and agricultural manures. So next time when you get your hair cut, even if you don’t have an identification mark on your hair, but be sure they will be re-used  “Baal baal bach gaye…“