The Wig Capitol of the World

[Randy W]

The city of Xuchang is widely recognized as the wig capital of the world. With more than 300,000 of its residents making a living at various points in the supply chain, the city produces half of the world’s wigs, supplying more than 120 countries. 

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Black Gold: The Fate of the Wig Capital of the World
The long, black hair of young girls in Xuchang was once the lifeline for many families.

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The business dates back as far as the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). According to local records, during the reign of Emperor Jiajing of Ming (1521-1567), people here began to make wigs for singing troupes. Later, a local man named Bai Xi befriended a merchant who’d come from Germany to buy human hair, and together they opened the country’s first “hair bank.” They bought hair from rural merchants, combed it, tied it into bundles, and sold it abroad.

These days, however, it’s getting harder.

 . . .

But Mengge was unwilling to sell. Although collectors offer flat rates to villagers, they give factories different rates based on the weight and length of the hair. An additional few centimeters can mean up to several hundred yuan in profit, so collectors usually comb the hair at the top of the head forward to expose the roots and make the cut there, where the hair is longest and healthiest.

This makes it easy to spot the hair-selling girls in the schoolyard: They all sport choppy layers and have patches of their scalp exposed, making them look like mangy dogs. Sometimes, kids jokingly refer to them as laitou, a term for those suffering from favus, a fungal infection of the scalp.