VietNamNet Bridge - Each trans-Indochina trip of people of Hong Da village takes at least 20 days or a month-long to purchase hair. Each trip they collect several dozens of kilograms of beautiful hair, earning tens of millions dong of profit.

Starting up with scrap trade, people in Hong Da Commune, Tam Nong district, Phu Tho province then became hair traders since profit from this product is higher than from scraps. When the local source of hair gradually became exhausted, they came to Laos and Cambodia to buy hair.

"Hong Da will surely occupy the top position in the number of passports among communes in Phu Tho province, with about 200 passports granted by provincial policy agency to our people,” said Mr. Pham Manh Hung, the commune chairman.

Hung said the local government questioned why so many Hong Da people applied for the passport and sent police officers to the commune for investigation.

According to Hung, Hong Da people ride motorbikes from Phu Tho to all provinces of Laos and Cambodia to buy hair. Some relatives of Mr. Hung also do this job. Those who go to Laos and Cambodia have to hire an interpreter.

Of the 400 local people trading hair, up to 200 have been to Laos and Cambodia to buy hair. They usually ride motorbike in pairs. Each trip is at least 20 days or a month-long.

"It is easier to buy hair in Laos and Cambodia because local people do not think that hair is a very important part of the body like the Vietnamese," a hair trader said.

According to some hair traders, they earned big profit from trips to Laos or Cambodia. With several tens of kilos of good hair, they can earn tens of million dong.

In this commune, officials also work as hair trader. Mr. Phan Van Thom, who has worked at the commune people’s committee for 15 years has just returned from a trip to Cambodia. His wife, Phan Thi Than, is still in Laos with her friends to purchase hair. Previously, they also were scrap traders like other villagers.

Thom pulled out a box of hair in the closet and said: "This box contains about 15 kg of nice hair. A kilo of hair is priced VND5.8 million so this box is worth VND87 million ($4,300)." He said honestly that income from this job is about VND7-8 million per month on average.

Like Thom, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Quang, who is a Party official, went to Laos and Cambodia several times to buy hair. He said each trip brought about a lot of experience.

According to Quang, in 1997 – 2008, his family traded scraps and then hair. His wife - Phan Thi Hong -also follows her husband to go abroad to buy hair. In this commune, many other officials and their families are hair traders. Some hair traders have become bosses of big hair collecting agents and become VND billionaires.

One of the biggest hair traders in Hong Da is Mr. Tuu and his wife – Mrs. Hung. The couple has capital and relations with some fashion companies, so they set up a hair agent and become one of the biggest hair agents in the commune. The spacious villa owned by the couple is evidence for their enrichment of this business.

Ms. Phan Thi Luc - one of the first hair traders in Hong Da – said her family has nearly 500sq.m of field, not enough for her family. Their major job is trading hair. Luc and her husband went around to buy hair to sell to agents. Hair of low quality is priced VND2 million ($90) and beautiful hair is priced up to VND6 million per kilo.

Luc said hair trading is not easy because it is difficult to persuade people to sell hair. Sometimes they were threatened by the husbands whose wives were persuaded to sell their hair.

And the price of hair trade in Hong Da is really expensive when two people died and dozens of others were injured in accidents.

Le Ha