Hair and There

Before the days when his father was making wigs for Max Factor, wig-makers “would buy hair from nunneries,” says Del Roberts, owner of Del Roberts, Celebrity House, a custom wig-making salon in Tarzana. Roberts’ clients expect the same kind of look that only real hair can bring, so where does he get his raw material?

The second-generation wig-maker has found it in the shifting political winds of the 20th century, in the new capitalism of the old Soviet Union.

Before the Communist countries opened up, Italy supplied Bob Roberts and then Del with dark hair, while Scandinavia was the primary source for natural blond. Prices for the scarcer blond hair were often high--$150 to $200 an ounce--while brown hair cost $14 to $16. “The brokers wanted astronomical prices. If we didn’t want to pay the price, we would take the lightest hair we could get and bleach it.”

The economic picture changed in the mid-’80s, when markets in Romania, Yugoslavia and Russia developed. All business, though, had to be done through the Kremlin. That changed with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and now the major supplier is Ukraine.

“When the Eastern bloc opened,” Roberts says, “it was easier to get natural blonds, brunets and wavy hair.” The quality was better too. “A lot of the women didn’t use dyes, permanent solutions or do a lot extra to their hair.”

What about buying from women here? Roberts shakes his head. “Young girls are fooling around with their hair more than ever before. Every time you do some process with it, there’s damage.” His advice to interested donors: “First do no harm.”

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Del Roberts, Celebrity House, (800) 229-9627.