(Associated Press)
Fabiola Sanchez April 22, 2019
CARACAS, Venezuela — Valery 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.
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.
Increasing numbers of women in poor neighborhoods 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.
Some women are washing their hair with dishwashing liquid because they can’t afford to buy shampoo that costs more than the minimum monthly salary, now equivalent to just a few dollars. 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.
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