Ethically Sourced Human Hair | Encelia Hair
Wearing another person's hair has a personal and unsettling quality to it.
Many of us are curious as to who we are wearing. Unfortunately, tracing the origins of most human hair on the market is difficult. Because there are no laws or standards in place, sourcing human hair remains one of the most dangerous aspects of the hair industry. We've all heard horrible, terrifying stories, but consumers and buyers have little power to change the situation.
I realized I had to act after reading this CNN, Black Gold article. Over 2 million Uyghurs have been forced into labor in Xinjiang, China, and are being imprisoned in internment camps doing activities like ventilating (knotting) wigs.
This story had such an influence on me that I decided to stop working with China and look for an ethical human hair factory. It has taken me eight months but today I am proud to share this update with all of you!
Peaceful Human Hair
In this blog post, I discussed how the act of tonsuring produces the most peaceful shave and therefore the most peaceful hair we can wear.
We only use Indian Temple Hair, which is purchased directly from the temples. Our hair is pure, clean meaning it is free of silicones, textile dyes so it can easily be customized. Finally, it is very high quality, known as Remy hair, which means that the cuticle has been preserved. The hair is super soft, moves, and looks incredibly realistic!
Economic Opportunity for Women In India | Safe & Fair Labor
As I write this portion of this blog post, I need you to know that it was never my attention to create a "social company" but that is what Encelia is becoming. Honestly, I simply just wanted to find a factory that I could trust and that would make my products. But trust is an incredibly difficult thing to achieve, add the distance from the US to India and who knows. Right? Honestly, anything could happen! After learning about what was happening to the Uyghur community, I knew I had to figure this out. It was absolutely critical for me to find a factory that I could trust so I set out to find one that only worked with Indian Temple hair. If I couldn't do this, I was literally going to shut the business down.
Weeks turned into months and I honestly wasn't getting anywhere and then it happened. I found a partner, which is female-owned. The factory that I work with employs women in India whose only source of income prior to making wigs was making tobacco products. These women were working 10-12 days because their daily quota is so high and they are only paid $5/day. As heartbreaking as this is, it gets worse. Many of these women are making these tobacco products in their homes or in small poorly ventilated rooms which are causing many to get cancer along with other illnesses. The founder of the factory that I work with learned about this and has spent the last 20 years trying to provide these women with an alternative income. She has had her own heartbreaks along the way and we both truly believe our paths were meant to cross. I feel incredibly grateful to stand next to her. In fact, there are so many women needing work that instead of thinking about selling wigs I shifting to how to I provide more work to support these women. Life has a strange way of working out. As the founder of Encelia, I can't explain how much peace it gives me to know that the Encelia wigs are beautiful from end to end!
Ethically Sourced | Economic Advancement of Women | Serving The Hair Loss Community | Giving Back - Encelia is truly becoming one amazing hair loss utopia! I feel so blessed to be part of it! I can't wait for you all to see the actual product!
Much love,
Allison
