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See what’s in Pro →Nearly all commercial hair extensions pass through a handful of cities. Xuchang in Henan Province, China — the industry’s “Hair Capital of the World” — holds the largest concentration of human-hair processing factories anywhere. Guangzhou is the southern trading and export hub, strong on finished wigs and fast logistics. Qingdao in Shandong specializes in lace wigs and hair systems. Chennai in Tamil Nadu is the temple-hair capital, the source of India’s raw remy hair. And Hanoi is the gateway to northern Vietnam’s raw hair, prized for strong single-donor bundles. The Pro guides above break down each city’s specialties and the documented suppliers we track there.
The hub you buy from largely determines what kind of hair you get. Temple and village-collected hair from India and Vietnam is usually sold raw or remy — cuticles intact and running the same direction — so it tangles less and takes color like natural hair. Much of the volume moving through the Chinese processing hubs is collected hair that has been acid-bathed and silicone-coated to look uniform; it is dramatically cheaper per bundle and fine for many products, but it behaves differently after a few washes. Neither is a scam — they are different products at different prices, and the pricing benchmarks show the spread. Problems start when processed hair is sold at raw prices, which is exactly what our vendor signal reports are built to catch.
Whatever the hub: order samples first and wash-test them, ask for a live video call from the factory floor rather than a showroom reel, get the MOQ and incoterms in writing, and keep the first paid order small enough that losing it entirely wouldn’t kill you. If you import to the US, human hair and articles made of it enter under headings 6703 and 6704 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, so you can look up duty rates before you commit. The launch optimizer runs the resulting economics for you, and our methodology explains exactly what our supplier documentation does and doesn’t verify.
Hair tonsured (ritually shaved) by devotees at South Indian temples and sold on by the temples. Because it is cut in one session from a single person, the cuticles stay intact and aligned — which is why 'raw temple hair' commands a premium over collected, processed hair.
It depends on the product. Raw single-donor bundles point you to Chennai or Hanoi; finished wigs, lace pieces, and processed extensions at scale point you to the Chinese hubs. The Pro guides pair each hub with documented suppliers so you can compare real quotes instead of guessing.
Many do, but minimum order quantities vary enormously — from a few bundles to hundreds of units. Ask the MOQ before anything else, and treat a supplier who won't state one in writing as a red flag.
Each hub's specialties, the notable facts that matter for negotiation, and the key suppliers we've documented there, cross-linked to our supplier directory.
Want the full hub guides and supplier lists? Get started with Inches Pro →
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