The paper traces Indian hair across the heads and hands of the people who made globalized Indian markets. It begins at South India temples, where pilgrims, barbers, temple officials, and even judges wove complex meanings for hair offered to Hindu gods. It then moves into government, where in 1965-66, Indian officials transformed hair into a state monopoly. And it examines the establishment of a state-owned and -operated wig factory in Chennai as a global hair hub – relying on Indian labor, Hong Kong technical expertise, and a US$23 million contract with a US wigmaker.
It also argues that globalized Indian hair markets were a product of US government interventions, especially the 1965 US embargo on Chinese communist hair, which boosted demand for Indian hair (since non-aligned Indian hair was safe for US import); along with US help in connecting India to a “free world” trading network running through South Korea and Hong Kong. It follows Indian hair into factories in Kowloon and Seoul, asking how East Asian wig workers understood their work with Indian hair.
Finally, it examines how markets were shaped by wig wearers and marketers themselves when they slotted Indian hair into a racialized hierarchy of quality, lauded by supporters as wavy and “Caucasian” but demeaned by detractors as coarse and “Asiatic.” In sum, this paper argues that global Indian hair markets were shaped by local meanings and imperial forces; yet also were constructed by individuals, from Indian pilgrims to Hong Kong factory workers to Black American wig-wearers.