This past October, Dafina Memberr of Sunny's Hair & Wigs traveled to India. On a beauty mission we interviewed her on her experience sourcing Indian hair for Sunny's Hair & Wigs
Q. What prompted you to travel to India?
A. Sunny's has been purchasing Indian hair for over 8 years and we have a great relationship with our vendors in India and we felt that it was time to solidify our understanding of the process of collecting and wefting the hair. India's also an amazing country with a dense and rich history so it was good to be able to travel for business and for fun.
Q. What part of India did you travel to?
A. I traveled throughout India. We started in Mumbai and then I traveled bymyself to a very very remote part of India to visit the factory. It required two additional plane trips once I was in Mumbai and then a two hour car drive.
Q. What were your most lasting impressions of India?
A. India was just a very calming place to visit. Although I expected to be overwhelmed by the amount of people and the density in which they live it wasn't. What was more incredible to me is how deep the roots of the religion and culture are. We visited caves that had carvings from the year 400 A.D. depicting various gods in Hindu culture that are still relevant now. That was incredible especially coming from a country that is so new relatively.
Q. With all the recent attention focused on Good Hair do you think the film accurately depicts the hair industry?
A. It's weird because Good Hair hits so close to home as a film because I grew up working in the family business and it does show how much of our lives our hair can consume, especially as black women. But, as always when there is a comedic angle to films certain things can be embellished or exaggerated for effect. I didn't love the part about the girl getting her hair cut off in the movie theater. Most Indians I spoke to don't know anything about a black market trade
Q. What surprised you the most about your trip?
A. The factory employs over 1500 women. It was intriguing to see how in such a remote part of India a demand for a rather obscure product has created an employment opportunity for women of all ages. It was so nice to see the groups of women working together of all ages. I remember learning about globalization in school. It's often presented as this awful process but it was nice to see a positive side of globalization. I was pleased to see that manufacturing jobs that are typically male jobs were benefiting women.
Q. How is the hair collected?
There is a temple in Tiraputi, and in fear of completely misrepresenting the history I will say that it's a beautiful story and practice in which people donate their hair to show thanks to the gods of the temple and it's their way of helping the god of that particular temple repay his debts that he took on to have a dowry to give for his wife. But as I said... a lot is lost in my understanding of the story.
Any tips that you learned about beauty from India?
I was astonished at how much effort women put into having beautiful hair. I always assumed it was genetic but women use a lot of Aruyvedic products such as oils with Amla, Shikakai, and Bhringraj oil on their scalp and hair to moisturize and condition their hair before washing. Overall, there isn't a lot of chemical processing and heat styling so women have healthy hair.
Q. So what regimen's would you suggest to women who use Indian hair to continue the maintenance regime?
That's a great question. I recommend to stop using such harsh shampoos. Many women in India do not use shampoos but rather use Neem and Shikakai,powders diluted in a water bottle or fruit vinegars to shampoo their hair. This protects the strands from stripping it of its natural oils. I'd also recommend to not go overboard with heat once you purchase the hair. Hair is hair and it is fragile. So if you use heat make sure you deep condition the hair and especially use a thermal protectant.
Any other general beauty tips?
Oh no...you are opening a Pandora's box. I went to a natural spa called Nirmal Herbal. And by natural everything was fresh and edible. The cucumbers and potatoes they put on my eyes had to be cut within two hours in order to used. The almond scrub was freshly ground almonds. I have never had such a "natural" glow from a spa experience ever.
My tip is to look around you for natural solutions to skin and beauty. I think we tend to discount natural solutions in the US.
Stay tuned to Sunny's Blog for more about Natural Hair Solutions!
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