How many times, as a child, did you try counting the hair on your head? What was the maximum number you reached: 50? 100? A thousand? The wig makers of Vadapalani deal in numbers thousand times that. “Each wig has anywhere upwards of 5 lakh to 10 lakh strands depending on its size and quality,” says Vinoth Kumar, son of KV Sekar who owns a wig shop in Vadapalani.
Kumar is relatively new to this field of work unlike his father who’s been a hairdresser for the Tamil film industry for over 40 years. Behind him, hangs a candid picture of MGR in his dressing room, getting his hair done.“My father got it from a friend of his. He had to convince him a lot,” he says.
Like many others in this area, Kumar, having watched his father work for the 27 years of his life, has taken up this job to supplement his dreams of being a movie star. Pointing to a mannequin with a thin head of hair, he says, “It took me two days to stitch this wig, it’s still not complete. Experts can finish a wig in three to four days.” Kumar and his father stitch every single strand of hair, thinner than thread, onto the cloth of the wig. “This wig would have a lakh holes in it,” he says.
If you were to trace the roots of all this hair, it would go back to Venkateswara temple in Tirupati, according to Kumar. “There are brokers who take batches of hair from Tirupati and other holy places for tonsure and sell them to wig manufacturing factories,” he says. From there, after being cut to batches of equal size, the best quality material is exported to various European countries, Singapore, Malaysia and even countries in Africa. The rest is sold to wig shops like his.
And then there are the more direct sources. “We get hair from beauty parlours around the city too. Some of the locals know this and they cut their own hair to bring it to us. For 100 grams of hair, we will give you 10 bucks,” he says.
But only certain type of hair is accepted. “Hair like mine,” he says pointing to the wild wiry bush on top of his head, “would never be bought.” Curly hair is not only difficult to measure, but also difficult to stitch. The synthetic hair, made from nylon and acrylic, sells at a cheaper rate.
While it is generally black hair that’s bought, its colour can be changed by using fabric dye. “If you want a curly wig, after stitching, you can curl the strands around an iron rod and boil them to give it shape,” says Kumar. Once stitched, the hair has to be washed with “a beauty parlour shampoo”.
“Synthetic hair sells at a maximum of ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 — for the highest quality — and a minimum of ₹3,000. Those are used in movies and rented out for festivals or cultural programmes,” he says. On the other hand, natural hair is much costlier: 20 inches of hair cost ₹25,000 to ₹50,000. “But natural hair wig is more convenient. It can be worn like a cap and doesn't heat the head,” he claims.
According to Kumar, a majority of customers are people with cancer, who’ve lost their hair. “A few doctors recommended their patients to come here, because our rates are affordable. The high-end wig shops begin selling at ₹70,000,” he says.
The money is why Kumar got into this business in the first place. “Being an actor is expensive. I’ve gone to over 30 auditions so far and only rich people with connections to the producer or the director get in,” he complains. His dream, however, is to enter the Guiness World Record for the maximum number of thumb push-ups. “Registering for it costs hundreds of dollars,” he says. Till then, he is resigned to stitching hair onto wigs, strand by strand.
