Priyanka, age 36, mother of two, head completely shaved, sits in her small metal home, waiting for a pot of water to boil over an open stovetop. One of her children is out in search of scrap metal, while her baby sleeps on a thin mat, behind a sullen curtain.
“Selling my hair does not sadden me at all,” says Priyanka. “Now I can feed my family and have a new way to express myself through colorful headscarves.” Last week, she made $50 by allowing a hair scout to shave her head clean.
“My mother used to always tell me my hair was so pretty,” she smiles, “Calling me her little girl.” After a pause, she adds, “Now someone else gets to enjoy that beauty. I am so honored to give this woman confidence in herself, the same confidence my hair used to give me. And the gift they have given me in return? Now I can buy my children this bag of rice to eat,” motioning to the bag next to the stovetop, “After I pull the maggots out, LOL.”
The water boiling, she takes the pot from the stovetop and pours the tea into two colorful plastic cups with handles like the tin cups used by gold diggers in California in the 1940s. Gold will be the color this hair is dyed before being shipped to Los Angeles for American woman Christie, 43, to clip into her hair as extensions, before running to do errands.