It’s happened to all of us who fancy human hair extensions. You’re looking over a new potential purchase, maybe a Euro clip-in set, maybe some I-tip prebonded hair, and then you realize: This hair used to belong to another human being. The next thought you have is the question a lot of people are too afraid to ask. “Where does extension hair come from?”

Are they from dead people? Do junkies cut off hair of unsuspecting victims in the dark of movie theaters and sell it to support their habits? Is someone sweeping up the leftover cuttings off hairstylists floors and making them uniform colors? Are they from girls that tried to catch up on the Brittney Spears head-shaving trend only to realize it wasn’t a trend at all, and figured they may as well get something out of their mistake? Turns out, it’s none of these.

No, hair extensions don’t come from anything so sinister, morbid or Snopes-esque. The truth actually isn’t scary at all. Extension comes from women that willingly sell their hair to collectors, mainly in three parts of the world: China, Russia and India. The Chinese and Russian women are often from small villages, and they sell their hair to private collectors that come to visit their remote locations. They get money for their hair, sometimes a whole month’s salary!

Things go down a little different in India. Women cut off their hair after a life-changing event, like a funeral or a wedding. They then donate their hair to the local temple, who then sells the hair to private collectors.

For all cases, once the hair is collected, it is thoroughly cleaned, and most often colored and permed. It then is sewn into wefts, made in to tipped hair, or sometimes left as bulk. After packaging, it’s on the way to stores for extension enthusiasts and hair architects to purchase. Now you know. And knowing is half the battle! (G.I. Joooooooooooeeeeeeeee)