[Media Report] ‘Hairy Negotiations’ (Africans and Chinese trading human hair in Guangzhou)

At a Guangzhou market for human hair,  Sam Piranty discovers differences between African and Chinese approaches to negotiation. – from The WitsJournalism China Africa Reporting Project 

Never have I been confronted by so much hair. Walking into the International Beauty Market in downtown Guangzhou, one is immediately surrounded by locks from, supposedly, India, Peru and Brazil. In fact, much of this hair, labelled otherwise, is Chinese or not human hair at all. Chinese traders sit on stools, bunching the recently-delivered hair together into fringes, curls and four-foot long straight extensions. There are no Chinese buyers here though, every buyer is from Africa. Nigerians, Ghanaians, Congolese, South Africans, Angolans and Ugandans scour the impressive hall for the best price hair extensions available. The hair extension industry in China is big business as it is one of the cheapest places in the world to source human hair. As much of Europe and North America refuses to work with many Chinese hair traders due to questions over its sourcing and quality, the industry offers the many African migrant traders arriving in Guangzhou another lucrative business opportunity. – KEEP READING HERE