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Photos: Women sell hair as another way to get by in Venezuela

In Venezuela, women selling hair for money to buy food and medicines is emerging as just another way to get by in the face of a projected 10 million percent inflation rate. Increasing numbers of women in poor neighbourhoods are selling their hair for use in wigs and extensions as the demands of daily survival force them to abandon the kind of self-care long an obsession with a country known globally for its success in beauty pageants. Seven Miss Universe winners have been Venezuelans, as have six Miss Worlds.

Updated on: May 02, 2019 12:01 PM IST

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Valery Diaz sits still as she gets her hair cut to sell at a beauty salon in Caracas. The 16-year-old student was paid $100 for the shorn hair, money she’ll use to help her family and buy a cellphone at a time when Venezuela’s sharp economic decline has led to shortages of food and medicine, and hyperinflation has made salaries nearly worthless. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

Updated on May 02, 2019 12:01 PM

Valery Diaz sits still as she gets her hair cut to sell at a beauty salon in Caracas. The 16-year-old student was paid $100 for the shorn hair, money she’ll use to help her family and buy a cellphone at a time when Venezuela’s sharp economic decline has led to shortages of food and medicine, and hyperinflation has made salaries nearly worthless. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

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Valery Diaz covers her face as she gets her hair cut off. Díaz covered her eyes and held her breath before looking in a hair salon mirror to see herself without much of the long dark hair that used to frame her face. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

Updated on May 02, 2019 12:01 PM

Valery Diaz covers her face as she gets her hair cut off. Díaz covered her eyes and held her breath before looking in a hair salon mirror to see herself without much of the long dark hair that used to frame her face. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

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Natural hair that was sold for money and then bleached, sits on a table at a beauty salon in Caracas. Increasing numbers of women in poor neighbourhoods are selling their hair for use in wigs and extensions as the demands of daily survival force them to abandon the kind of self-care long an obsession with a country known globally for its success in beauty pageants. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

Updated on May 02, 2019 12:01 PM

Natural hair that was sold for money and then bleached, sits on a table at a beauty salon in Caracas. Increasing numbers of women in poor neighbourhoods are selling their hair for use in wigs and extensions as the demands of daily survival force them to abandon the kind of self-care long an obsession with a country known globally for its success in beauty pageants. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

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A beauty salon sits empty in Caracas. Some women now turn to dishwashing soap to clean their hair amid unbridled hyperinflation that prevents them from acquiring shampoo selling well above the monthly minimum wage, now equivalent to just a few dollars. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

Updated on May 02, 2019 12:01 PM

A beauty salon sits empty in Caracas. Some women now turn to dishwashing soap to clean their hair amid unbridled hyperinflation that prevents them from acquiring shampoo selling well above the monthly minimum wage, now equivalent to just a few dollars. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

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Carolina Dejan wears a necklace featuring the word “Beauty” at a beauty salon where she is getting extensions using real hair from women who sold theirs. Many have to adapt to make personal care products last longer, with no sign of an end to a crisis that has pushed more than 3 million Venezuelans — one-tenth of the population — to leave the country in recent years. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

Updated on May 02, 2019 12:01 PM

Carolina Dejan wears a necklace featuring the word “Beauty” at a beauty salon where she is getting extensions using real hair from women who sold theirs. Many have to adapt to make personal care products last longer, with no sign of an end to a crisis that has pushed more than 3 million Venezuelans — one-tenth of the population — to leave the country in recent years. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

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Manicurist Maria Trinidad Tobar waits for customers at a beauty salon in Caracas. Tobar said Venezuelan women no longer prioritize getting made up, but instead focus on buying food in a country where the IMF predicts hyperinflation will reach 10,000,000% this year. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

Updated on May 02, 2019 12:01 PM

Manicurist Maria Trinidad Tobar waits for customers at a beauty salon in Caracas. Tobar said Venezuelan women no longer prioritize getting made up, but instead focus on buying food in a country where the IMF predicts hyperinflation will reach 10,000,000% this year. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

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Hair dresser Rosevel Velazquez attends a customer at her beauty salon, which she runs out of her home in Caracas. Some salon workers have started bartering hair stylings, manicures and pedicures for food at a time when Venezuela’s sharp economic decline has led to shortages of food and medicine, and made salaries nearly worthless. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

Updated on May 02, 2019 12:01 PM

Hair dresser Rosevel Velazquez attends a customer at her beauty salon, which she runs out of her home in Caracas. Some salon workers have started bartering hair stylings, manicures and pedicures for food at a time when Venezuela’s sharp economic decline has led to shortages of food and medicine, and made salaries nearly worthless. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

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Liz Vargas and her niece Camila Vargas bathe on the skirt of a mountain in Avila National Park in Caracas. Vargas said she hasn’t had running water at home for the previous 15 days, alluding to frequent water shortages caused by nationwide blackouts that shut off water pumps. This was the first time she’d come to bathe where she used to swim for fun. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

Updated on May 02, 2019 12:01 PM

Liz Vargas and her niece Camila Vargas bathe on the skirt of a mountain in Avila National Park in Caracas. Vargas said she hasn’t had running water at home for the previous 15 days, alluding to frequent water shortages caused by nationwide blackouts that shut off water pumps. This was the first time she’d come to bathe where she used to swim for fun. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

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A woman wearing makeup and with her hair straightened walks through the subway in Caracas. Local shops that sell beauty products are also reinventing themselves to stay afloat. International cosmetics brands have disappeared from storefronts, replaced by cheaper goods from China as well as locally made products that use honey and other ingredients. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

Updated on May 02, 2019 12:01 PM

A woman wearing makeup and with her hair straightened walks through the subway in Caracas. Local shops that sell beauty products are also reinventing themselves to stay afloat. International cosmetics brands have disappeared from storefronts, replaced by cheaper goods from China as well as locally made products that use honey and other ingredients. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

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Valery Diaz poses for a photo before getting a section of it cut off. Her mother, Yeny Gomez, laughed nervously and tried to buoy her daughter’s spirits. “You don’t notice it,” Gomez, a 43-year-old teacher, said of the drastic haircut. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

Updated on May 02, 2019 12:01 PM

Valery Diaz poses for a photo before getting a section of it cut off. Her mother, Yeny Gomez, laughed nervously and tried to buoy her daughter’s spirits. “You don’t notice it,” Gomez, a 43-year-old teacher, said of the drastic haircut. (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

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Valery Diaz holds the hair she had cut off. Despite sacrificing her hair, Diaz said she still tries to buy cosmetics, using money she earns from making and selling bracelets. Diaz said she still dreams of becoming a Miss Venezuela someday, when “my hair grows again.” (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

Updated on May 02, 2019 12:01 PM

Valery Diaz holds the hair she had cut off. Despite sacrificing her hair, Diaz said she still tries to buy cosmetics, using money she earns from making and selling bracelets. Diaz said she still dreams of becoming a Miss Venezuela someday, when “my hair grows again.” (Natacha Pisarenko / AP)

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