Hair theft has been a recurrent problem in various parts of the world where human hair is in demand, either for commercial products such as wigs and hairpieces, or for sexual fetishes. As hair has a high commercial value – in the mid-19th century it was regarded as worth twice its weight in silver – opportunist thieves have targeted long-haired women, and less commonly men and children, with the aim of stealing their hair. Hair thieves have typically sought either to surreptitiously cut off hair in public places, or have mugged people and shorn their heads. The crime of hair theft has been widely reported in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australasia over the course of at least 300 years.
Hair as a commodity
After a thousand-year abeyance, wigs came back into fashion in western Europe from the 16th century onwards, boosted in particular by King Louis XIV of France in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Hair came to be seen in Western countries as a means of publicly displaying the wearer's high status, and ability to engage in conspicuous consumption. A burgeoning trade in hair products included all the tools needed to maintain elaborate hairstyles – curling sticks, crimping irons, creams, soaps, oils, brushes, pins, and so on. The increasing ornateness of formal hairstyles required many to supplement their natural hair with extensions, or to use wigs instead, created by commercial wig-makers.
This created a highly profitable market in human hair, which was said in the mid-19th century to be worth twice its weight in silver. In 1851, of hair was imported from France to England, with a value of £3,621 (£ today). The Hairdressers' Journal reported in May 1863, that a hundred tons of hair a year was being sold in Parisian markets. Not all hair was created equal; female hair from northern Italy and Spain was especially prized for its glossiness, black colour, and curly texture. It retailed at a price of 10–12 shillings per ounce (worth about £43/€50/$67 in 2013 prices), rising to £1 per ounce (about £87/€101/$136) for very long hair. A "hair harvest" was held annually in the poorer villages of Italy, where local girls sold their hair to wig-makers. One observer of a hair harvesting event reported seeing "several girls, sheared, one after the other like sheep, and as many more standing ready for the shears, with their caps in their hands, and their long hair combed out, and hanging down to their waists."
Hair crime
The value of human hair has meant that for several centuries, criminals have seen hair as worth stealing. As a result, women in a number of countries have found themselves at risk of being mugged, and their hair shorn off by hair thieves. As The Hairdressers' Journal put it in 1863, "Even in the present day, it has happened over and over again that a good crop of hair has been laid in wait for, and shorn from the trembling victim, who has been only too glad to get free with but the loss of her hair." An American newspaper reported in 1869 that demand for hair of unusual colours and shades was behind an outbreak of hair theft in New York City, where "the tresses dangling behind the head" were "easy prey." A few months later, a letter to The Times reported that hair thieves were at work in London too:
It was not only women who were at risk. It was said that during the 18th century, the demand for hair in England was so great that in some places, children were forbidden to venture out alone, lest they fall victim to hair thieves. The Jacksonville Weekly Sentinel reported on 3 September 1869 that on their arrival at San Francisco, "eighty arrived Chinamen had their handsome pig-tails cut off by hair thieves." The Evening Independent of St Petersburg, Florida reported in September 1913:
Women in Wellington, New Zealand were targeted on the streets by an opportunist hair thief in 1914. According to a victim interviewed by the Grey River Argus, "For the life of me I couldn't tell you exactly when or where I lost my hair. I didn't feel anything at all [...] when opposite Te Aro House, my friend said: 'Oh, someone's cut your hair off!' I laughed and said it was nonsense, but I found it was only too true."