The Hair Industry's Dark Side

The Hair Industry's Dark Side

Top of Mind with Julie Rose

Sliding or Deciding, Goat Silk, Saving Asian Elephants

Episode: Sliding or Deciding, Goat Silk, Saving Asian Elephants

  • Feb 7, 2019 11:00 pm
  • 12:55 mins

(Originally aired October 10, 2018) Guest: Dan Choi, Founder and Owner of Remy New York Human hair is a billion-dollar industry globally–and we’re not talking about styling or coloring it. We’re just talking about the buying and selling of hair itself. When a Hollywood star suddenly grows luxurious long locks overnight, it’s thanks to extensions made of real human hair cut off someone else’s head. The trouble is that even the fanciest salons don’t really know where the extensions and wigs they’re using have come from. Common unethical sourcing practices include collecting hair from barbershop floors and exploiting desperately poor women in Asia and India. Entrepreneur Dan Choi’s aims to set a “fair trade standard” for hair. His company is called Remy New York and he commonly pays women five or ten times what a typical hair trader would for their ponytail. Choi joined me a few months ago to talk about the dark side of the hair industry.