Many people ask me if Brazilian hair is real and then ask me
do we sell it? My response is yes
and no. First, it must be
understood that Brazilian hair is not just hair from Brazil, but in fact
includes hair from various countries throughout Central and South America. The term “Brazilian” was coined as the
popular description of all of these types of hair, and I cannot tell you why
other than Brazil is the largest source of this hair.
Second, unfortunately, there are some textures of Indian
hair that look and feel similarly to Brazilian hair, so many if not most
dealers of Brazilian hair are in fact just selling Indian hair at a
premium. That is not to say,
like some prominent individuals in our industry claim, that ALL BRAZILIAN hair
is just Indian hair imported into Brazil then exported as Brazilian hair.
The problem with Brazilian hair and the sourcing of it is if
you don’t know someone who is involved in a sourcing operation, you would have
no idea how its done, or that it is done at all. Most sourcing operations are niche operations that travel
from town to town offering money to woman for their hair. Many times, the woman know when the
“harvesters” are arriving and show up at the location / villages in town with
their hair. So unfortunately, the
level of supply and pricing is not nearly as stable / consistent as Indian and
Chinese hair and the ethics of the sourcing are not as clear as with Indian
Temple hair. Which brings me to
another point, the price.
Furthermore, believe it or not Brazilian women are very
vain, possibly more than American women so only poor women who need money will
allow their long luscious locks to be removed from their head, in fact, many
Brazilian women add extensions to make their hair even more irresistible. But as with everything in our industry,
people have decided they want Brazilian and so most companies lie and sell
their Indian hair Brazilian hair, or even worse, think the hair they bought to
resell to you was Brazilian when it wasn’t. Many companies take cheaper Indian hair that is courser, and
then manipulate the texture by using softeners to give it that soft feel that
the Brazilian and the best Indian hair has. I'm not saying the hair is not real or that it’s
fake. That bundle of hair may
surely be 100% human hair, but most likely it’s not Brazilian and it may not
even be virgin. In fact, that
Brazilian hair you saw that one day that felt so amazingly soft was probably
top of the line silky Indian Virgin Remy hair.
Fact is that most of hair is actually Indian. The other ten
percent is those very few women of different cultural backgrounds that do sell
their hair and that 10% will run you anywhere from $160 a bundle and up,
because its so scarce. I'm not saying don't buy that beautiful curly
“Brazilian” advertised hair, it is gorgeous to the eye but make a sound and
educated decision. Don't allow these companies to sell you a dream.
So in conclusion,Brazilian
hair is real, it is very expensive and it’s VERY
difficult to tell the real thing from the knock-off unless you REALLY know your
hair.
