Better keep your locks on lock-down, ladies! A disturbing new trend is on the rise– hair thievery. Robberies have been committed at several beauty supply stores across the nation over the past few months. But these thieves aren’t after the cash register. In fact, in one incident that took place in Chicago, the cash register was left undisturbed! What these beauty bandits are making out with is the human hair used for extensions.

Now, unless you’re familiar with the cost of human hair extensions, you might be asking yourself why on earth criminals would decide to target beauty supply stores for theft. When it comes to hair extensions, not all are created equal. These thieves specifically target Indian remi hair. Remi hair is the most sought-after and valuable hair on the market. Each time one of these stores is robbed, thousands of dollars in merchandise gets taken. The value of the merchandise stolen from the latest hit in the Atlanta area is almost $68,000. A salon in Houston was robbed of $150,000 worth of hair!

The thieves are most likely reselling their stolen goods on the street or to unsavory salons, similar to bootleg DVDs or the stuff at the swap meet that “fell off the truck”. So far there are no leads, despite video evidence at more than one of the break-ins. It is not clear if this is a well-traveled crew or if the first group of crooks inspired others, but I am hopeful this will all be over soon!