A REPORT BY XINHUA REFERRED TO LONG, UNTREATED CHINESE HAIR AS “BLACK GOLD”

and asked about my hair a dozen times each time I went there,” she recalls.

Zeng tells TWOC that she and her daughter have sold their hair several times, usually waiting several years in between each time for it to grow back. Back then, their hair likely ended up in North America and Europe—rebecca was even listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2003, mainly on the strength of its US exports—with little chance of being sold in wigs at home.

“Those of us in the industry agree that the domestic false hair market changed in the year 2000,” says Wang, who started out by helping with his father’s wig business in northeastern China in the 1990s. “In the 90s, one hairpiece retailed for 3,000 to 4,000 yuan, and there were few buyers in China, mostly high-income individuals.”