“Feather hair extensions, do you know they come from a chickens arse…?”

Posted on 26th August 2011 at 7:47pm.

So this feather hair extension trend is clearly huge, and every article I read references Miley Cyrus, Kesha and Steven Tyler as being instrumental in the trend taking off,  although im sure they have very talented stylists that are actually behind the look,  high five stylists….but has anyone considered the issues behind the look, or if they don’t give a shit about the issues, have they stopped to think what they are actually doing…….wearing feathers, from a roosters arse…….IN YOUR HAIR!

Firstly though lets not all hate on Kesha,  (she does have jesus on her neck-a-luss after all),  and she was on twitter not long ago saying how the person she gets her feathers and bones?!? (grim) from is actually animal friendly, which I am going to assume means ethical, and not just that she has a dog and walks it every day….

Anyways back to the point, personally I don’t like feather hair extensions, or feathers in general really, I just don’t like the look,  but as a hair extensionist, budding business enthusiast and owner of an online hair extension shop, I wanted to see if I could source some of these very popular accessories for sale, when I actually started to look around for these feather extensions I was reminded of what had initially stopped me from sourcing them to sell on the site in the first place, which is the rather horrible, ever so slightly gross aspects to mass farming and production that has made me the vegetarian turned free range supporter that I am today. 

The feathers in question were initially being used in the fly fishing industry, so the problems with cruelty have always been there, and will always be there, but as my main issue is with mass production and battery farming, the rise in demand is concerning, and if anyone out there now thinks that considering this breeding was going on anyway for fishing,  its ok to do it  for hair accessories, then maybe this might concern you as it did me...These extensions are now so in demand that the farms and the sellers cannot keep up,  one website is even telling people that they have been overwhelmed by demand they cannot cope with orders and ask for emails instead of calls for their rooster saddles, (in case you forgot, that means bums girls, rooster bums).  The demand is also reflected in the price of the feathers with costs rising from about $50 a saddle to over $500 a saddle, as you can imagine the fly fisherman are very upset by this, but they can write their own stroppy article bashing fashion if they want.

Until I started researching these feathers I had no idea that there are feather extensions which are considered the “right” kind, and that not just any old feather will do. The kind that are considered the “right kind” for hair extensions are specifically rooster saddle feathers, “right” because they can be washed and styled with your own hair, they have the added bonus of being very colourful and they last for a long time, which is what you want with hair extensions. However,  these benefits limit the kind of feathers that people will buy and puts more pressure on the industry to produce significantly higher quantities of rooster feathers from just one type of bird.  Kristen Jackson, who makes the fabulous wigs that Katy Perry uses in her videos is also ethically against the use of these feather extensions, and from her research into the area, she found that one farm was sending out “65,000 pelts……weekly”, this is a HUGE amount of feathers which means a huge amount of birds are needed to contribute, this to me seems excessive, and in turn generates an even higher death toll and increases the amount of waste.

Have a read of this if you want to see what she says…

You would be very (I was going to say stupid, but maybe people really just don’t know so ill go with naïve). You would be very naive to think that there is no cruelty involved in retrieving feathers, and I’d suggest that people should ask themselves if they are happy to wear something, that has been taken from an animal bred purely to die,  for its assests to then be used as an orniment in your hair? This is a genuine question for you to think about,  are you ok with that?......In an age where we are being told to support local produce and more and more people are becoming against mass farming and production in general, whether it be because they are against cruelty or because they are in support of local trade, I cant help but feel that this is a step backwards.

If you still cant see it, think about this….Do you think that the feathers just fall out? I mean you can see from the sheer amount of pelts being shipped out this is impossible,  or maybe you think that the feathers are just plucked out and afterwards the bird is free to run around and enjoy a happy life on the farm, albeit bald with a breeze blowing round its poor naked arse.  This is not the case, as with every farming industry there are cruel methods (see Hugh’s chicken run) and more ethical methods, but here’s a few basics from the crueller methods of feather farming for your consideration, in list form, I like lists….

1) Roosters are not primarily bred for food they are bred for their feathers.

2) Birds are euthanized, feathers are plucked and the carcass is thrown away, usually used for compost – do you see what I mean about waste?

3) Birds only live for about a year whilst the feathers grow good and long, then they are euthanized, it seems that they are even genetically modified to produce longer, brighter coloured feathers.

This is all very wasteful and to me raises similar issues as shark finning which is illegal for the most part but has been EU regulated since 2003, I wonder if  the volume of feathers being produced at the moment will eventually lead to a call for regulation? PETA – what’s your opinion?

So what is the solution then?...Well there are companies out there that provide ethically gathered feathers if you really really want to use the feather extensions, but I think its all a bit wrong, especially when you can get synthetic ones on Amazon and Ebay that are animal cruelty free altogether.  I suppose there is also the idea that fashion is always changing and that in a few months maybe the trend will have passed, but I cant shake the feeling that we are supposed to be moving forward on the mass production front,  and I cant help feeling slightly let down because I was sure that we were progressing away from the crueller farming practises, out of a global mass market and into a supporting local produce arena, clearly this isn’t the case,  and now I just think that Jamie Oliver has brain washed me, damn you Jamie! Seriously though,  these practises are outdated, think about the general consensus about fur these days, we are all so much more informed, but because this is new, I don’t think people have thought about it properly, all im asking is for you to have a little think about it and go with synthetic feathers.

As a little aside, I am very aware that there are hundreds of cruel industries out there, and im sure people will read this and be desperate to comment on other cruel farming issues, or even on the hair industry, or make stupid comments like ‘oh well I bet you wear leather shoes”, but as always, everyone is different and everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and there are ethical versions of pretty much everything, however in an industry such as fashion, in particular hair extensions, where there are already some questionable practices going on, do we really need to add feather farming into the mix?

Personally im with Beyonce….its all about the glitter/tinsel extensions she had in at the Grammy’s and no roosters have to get a cold arse in the process.

So think on people, individuals do make the difference, do a little research into where you buy from and everyone’s a winner, ha!…..winner winner chicken dinner, in fact, (couldn’t resist that).

Rachel @unbeweavable

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