Gopala Amma is frantic to turn around her family's terrible fortune. They are in peril of losing the one room they share off a little back road in the Chennai suburb of Param Bur.
Amma buckles down as a cleaner yet is attempting to bring home the bacon. Her spouse has lost his occupation and has started to drink vigorously, while her eldest child is falling flat in his studies. This has provoked Amma to consider approaching the Hindu divine beings for help.
"I have chosen to go to the sanctuary at Tirutanni and shave my hair. That way, the divine beings will favor me and my family," she says.
This won't be only a clip however a full head shave - each of the 81cm (32in) of her long wavy locks will go. By yielding something so lovely to the divine beings, by shedding her inner self, she trusts they will favor her with good fortunes consequently.
Human hair is profitable in India. A significant number of Amma's female neighbors gather hair from their brushes to offer or trade to the hair authorities who come once every month on bikes calling for "brush waste".
They either exchange the hair for pots or are given a couple of rupees, contingent upon the weight. The authorities then offer it to the industrial facilities.
However, brush waste hair tangles. Shaved hair is all the more exceedingly esteemed on the grounds that keeps on falling normally, as it did on the first proprietor's head, and can be utilized to make a similar wig.
From Hollywood to the UK to South Africa, the most broadly utilized human hair is Indian, as its composition looks like Caucasian hair, which the hairdressing business regards alluring.
To India, the business sector is worth more than $250m (£175m) every year. A kilo of shaved hair gets up to $130 (£91), so a long head of hair, for example, Amma's - which comes to around 160g (6oz) - will be worth about $20 (£14).
Be that as it may, for Amma this is not imperative.
The act of hair-shaving - or "tonsuring" as it is termed when accomplished for religious reasons - is connected with an old Hindu myth.
There are a few forms of the myth yet they focus on the god Vishnu, who was hit on the head with a hatchet, making him lose an area of his hair. The heavenly attendant Neela Devi then offered a lock of her hair as a substitution, and Vishnu was grateful to the point that he from there on allowed wishes to any individual who offered their hair as a penance.
Picture inscription Whole families here and there offer their hair to Vishnu
The southern conditions of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are the place most hair tonsuring in India happens. Two of the principle Hindu sanctuaries, in the towns of Tirutanni and Tirupati, gather huge amounts of human hair consistently.
As the hair stylist was shaving I felt my issues lifting without end
Around the sanctuary mixes, in long corridors known as Kalyankattan or "spots of joy", many hair stylists wearing white sit in columns, with explorers at their feet.
"I feel very bashful having no hair however I am cheerful," clarifies one traveler who has recently had her head shaved at Tirutanni.
Favorable days might be decided for the custom. One family is praising the folks' 29 years of upbeat marriage. For another, it could be an infection in the family or an example of misfortune that brings them here.
For Amma, who is 36, it is her final resort. Her spouse's drinking has gotten to be unremitting. She is resolved not to lose her home and trusts this is the best way to turn around her fortune.
"The divine beings will favor me in the event that I do this," she says as she ascensions the sanctuary's strides.
Taking a seat leg over leg before the hair stylist with her head twisted forward, Amma grins. The hairdresser wets the crown of her head and takes his extremely sharp edge, gradually scratching at her skull. Her hair scarcely achieves the ground before it is gotten together and put into a lockable blue barrel.
Hair merchants gather the barrels each week. Numerous sanctuaries structure contracts with brokers, while others hold barters, offering it to the most astounding bidder.
Tirupati sanctuary, the biggest authority of human hair on the planet - furthermore the most went by heavenly place on the planet, with a normal of 100,000 travelers for each day - nets a normal $3m (£2.1m) a year from this exchange.
The cash is utilized for magnanimous work, schools and keeping up the sanctuary grounds.
The hairdressers themselves are paid for their inconvenience - 15 rupees (20c or 16p) per shave.
The shaving procedure is speedy, and those displaying their hair to the divine beings simply take a seat, put their heads in the hands of the hairdressers and afterward go.
A while later, be that as it may, they visit the sanctuary to demonstrate their crisply shaved scalps to the divine beings, so they can be honored for their penance.
Amma takes a gander at herself in the mirror and chuckles at her changed appearance. She touches her head and says she loves the vibe.
"As the stylist was shaving I felt my issues lifting without end. Presently things are going to show signs of improvement."
She says she doesn't know where her hair will go. Informed that dealers offer it to make wigs and augmentations everywhere throughout the world, she chuckles once more.
"On the off chance that it makes another person look delightful then I am cheerful," Amma says, before taking off of the sanctuary and starting her trip home, to check whether her life will change.
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