Inside Gangji, the Home of China's Wig Industry

While many of Anhui’s workers have migrated to the cities for work, this corner of the province is enjoying a boom from processing human hair.

By Liu Jiawei

About an hour’s drive northeast of Fuyang City in Anhui province lies a newly erected stone tablet. On it is written: “Gangji, the land of human hair, welcomes you.”

“Don’t just forget about the hair you get cut off. In our eyes, it’s black gold,” says Yang Zhou, who runs a hair processing workshop in Gangji. One kilogram of rough-processed hair can fetch between 5,000 yuan and 10,000 yuan ($725-1,450). The hair industry in the area is already well developed, with almost every family earning a living by processing human hair.

According to a local hair industry management committee, in 2015 Taihe County — where Gangji is located — boasted over 400 processing companies, 1,280 family-run manufacturing workshops, and nearly 100,000 total employees.

In the last few years, more and more people have gone into the hair industry, and competition has become fierce. Yang Zhou’s workshop now specializes solely in preliminary processing. This involves collecting and sorting the hair, tying it into bundles, and selling it on to larger factories. The factories in turn are responsible for deep processing and exports. Prices for locks of rough-processed hair vary according to length — the longer they are, the more you can charge. A cut of hair 2 meters long can command over 10,000 yuan, as it can be made into handicrafts.

A worker handling hair at a wig workshop in Gangji, Anhui province, Nov. 5, 2016. Liu Jiawei/Sixth Tone

Yang Zhou, who has been in the business for years, feels that original hair is now much harder to come by. Currently, purchasers generally collect longer braids from hairdressers in India and Southeast Asia. Domestically, only Xinjiang provides hair of the ideal length. “Of the hair that I’ve handled, the best stuff comes from China,” Yang says. “Burmese and Indian hair comes next. But now, as people’s living conditions are getting better, if you’ve got long hair you’ll probably get it treated or permed. It’s very rare to see a cut of untreated Chinese hair — so whenever one finds its way to the market, it’s practically priceless.”

Today, hair processing in Gangji is already a well-oiled system. The original product is brought in, washed and sterilized, sewn and dyed, and then exported all over the world.

Since the first hair processing plant was established in Taihe in the year 2000, the industry has become a key employer in the community. By 2015, a dozen hair industry companies had moved to Gangji Industrial Park.

Local residents say that in Gangji and the 10-kilometer area around it, people are no longer choosing to move away in search of work. Young and old alike have gone into the hair processing industry, and the village’s retired generation will even throw themselves into labor-intensive work like collecting and sorting of raw materials. Sorting 500 grams of hair earns them 25 yuan ($3.60). Older people can manage about 250 grams of hair per day, which is good for a monthly income of 600 to 700 yuan.

September and October are the peak months for hair purchasers. At this time, buyers travel as far as Southeast Asia in search of hair. The first generation of buyers have managed to work their way out of poverty, but as countries continue to develop domestic production centers for the world’s hair products, it remains unclear whether the people of Gangji will be able to sustain their relative prosperity.

But Yang, who has been in the business for over 20 years, wants things to stay just the way they are. His son will turn 15 this year. When Yang asked him if he wanted to take over the family business, his son refused, saying he wanted to study and look for work in a big city instead.

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(Header image: A worker holds out a hair sample at a wig factory in Gangji, Anhui province, Nov. 5, 2016. Liu Jiawei/Sixth Tone)