Ontelly

Jamelia: Whose Hair Is It Anyway?

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Pop singer Jamelia investigates the hair extension industry. Real human hair extensions are becoming as much a part of girls' beauty regimes as fake tans. From celebrities to schoolgirls, women will spend anything from 20 to 2,000 pounds to clip, glue or sew another girl's hair on to their heads. As a result of a massive recent increase in popularity, the human hair industry has exploded with an estimated 65 million pounds being spent every year on extensions in the UK alone. Jamelia travels in search of the girls whose hair goes into the product. She follows a trail of hair back to its roots, on an international road trip from exclusive London salons to a dingy Moscow apartment where men trade human ponytails for cash to the hair-sacrificing temples of southern India. Jamelia even has her own extensions analysed using ground-breaking forensic techniques, to try and track down the woman whose hair she wore on a recent TV appearance. Jamelia's journey brings her face to face with some of her worst fears when she witnesses bunches of hair being shaved from toddlers' heads and meets a 13-year old flogging her hair in exchange for pocket money.