For decades, Nairobi’s poor have scavenged through heaps of rubbish at the city’s vast Dandora dumpsite. But recently, they have been joined by some of the city’s hairdressers, in search for used human hair they can sell on to their customers as Covid-19 takes its toll on businesses.
Second-hand hair extensions are nothing new in Kenya’s capital. But with the country reeling from the economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis, demand for used hair is growing, says hairdresser Julia Wania.
For Wania, scavenging for discarded human-hair extensions is a way to cut costs and offer a cheaper service to cash-strapped customers.
"You pick the hair according to the state you find it in, and decide whether it's good or not good enough. Some you just see and know they are not good enough and you leave them,” she told Reuters.
The hair is found among the around 850 tonnes waste the ends up in Dandora daily and has lately included facemasks and rubber gloves as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"First thing after getting the hair from wherever I get it is to wash the hair and make it neat,” says Wania.
“But when a client picks it, I always wash the hair again when they are here to their satisfaction. Because it gets even cleaner when I go piece by piece as opposed to washing in a bunch. So I prefer a customer to pick and I wash again."
The Dandora dump opened in 1975 and now covers an area of over 30 acres. It has been labelled a severe health hazard by environmental groups with those who live near and scavenge at the dump exposed to dangerous toxins and air pollution from burning waste.
But searching the rubbish for food or items to sell helps support an estimated 3,000 families.
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