4- Rabbi Bohm says that most of the Indianhair used for sheitels is not sourced from the temple, rather from hair combings. This is not true, as the hair combings are non-remi hair, and almost all sheitels are remi hair as was already pointed out.
5- Also Rabbi Bohm indeed claims to know the story of their Avoda Zara loosing hair, but he claims that the say that the reason for tonsure is to make themselves bald similar to their Avoda Zara. Well, I have seen the story in countless places [I found a link to a PDF file with all the sources in the Mareh Makom page for show 167], and I have yet to see even one place that interpreted the way Rabbi Bohm said, so I challenge him to show us some of his “overwhelming majority of sources”
6- Rabbi Bohm also claimed that only black hair comes from India, this is not true since they treat the black hair with an osmosis bath, which naturally changes the color without removing any of the cuticles. This is not to be confused with dyed hair, as this hair is much higher quality and lasts much longer. There is one company called Great Lengths that only buys temple hair from India and yet they have every color and shade of remi hair available.
7- You keep mentioning Emma Tarlo as the one who researched the topic of Hindu hair for 30 years. Well, not exactly. She is an anthropologist, but mostly studied the code of dress by Muslims, and spent 3 years researching hair in all the religions. But this is not important.
What is important is whether she has any neemanus lhalacha. If she was masiach lfi tumo it would be one thing, but all she is, is a liberal jew who is very bothered that the Rabbis should dare interfere with the way women wish to dress. This is extremely clear in her book many times. When contacted by email to request info, she wrote explicitly “I sincerely hope that Jewish women will not be prevented from wearing wigs on the basis of mis-information” She also said in a recorded phone conversation: “…How terrible it would be if the poor Indian people would lose their income from the hair- how they need it so badly.”
So first of all, she is not masiach lfi tumo, so zero neemanus. Secondly, she clearly has an agenda. And to top it, in various places she is soiser what she now claims.
For example, in her book she writes: (of course she didn’t mention this at all in her interview):
“…the official legend behind tonsuring at Tirumala. According to this tale, recounted on the temple’s website, the god Venkatateswara was wounded on the head by a blow from the axe of a cowherd. The injury left him with a bald patch which was soon covered by hair given by Princess Neela Devi, who cut some locks from her own head. Touched by the gesture, Venateswara declared that from that day on devotees would be tonsured at the site and their hair would be dedicated to Neela Devi.”
She also wrote: (p. 78)
Hair is a woman’s beauty,’ a woman with shoulder-length hair tells us as we step outside. ‘When she gives it to God, her beauty goes straight to him.’
She also wrote extensively that china does not import comb waste, since it is illegal, rather it all goes to Myanmar. now she was suddenly choizer, and all the hair in china from india is non remi hair.
In an interview with BBC [Untangling where your hair extensions really come from, 11/1/2016]: “In terms of marketing it’s up to the integrity of traders all the way along the line to specify what hair is what. Quite a lot of mislabelling goes on and often the people buying it don’t ask questions anyway.”
She also says there: “Hair from India was a staple supply for wig makers in Orthodox Jewish communities across Europe, the US and Israel – until 2004”
What happened? Sheforgot to mention that it was really brush hair??
She also mentions in her book: (p. 101).
‘It was a really bad time for us,’ George Cherian of Raj Hair Intl tells me in India. ‘The Jews were important clients because they bought good quality remy hair, which is what we were getting from temples. In India, women love their hair and would never sell it. Instead they donate it. But the rabbis made a fuss, and that was the end of that.’
She also writes: (pg 102-103)
As another Indian trader tells me, ‘I sell the hair as Indian but what the buyers do in their own countries, we cannot say. Those rabbis made it very difficult for Jewish women when they introduced the ban on Indian hair. Nowadays, hair has to travel a very long way before it gets to them!’ It is not inconceivable that some of the hair sold in Europe as ‘Brazilian’ or ‘Ukrainian’ began life on Indian heads.
Basically, when she wrote her book she was masiach lfi tumo and didn’t understand the ramifications of her words and she was very clear that sheitels did once use temple hair, and that the official reason for tonsure is that story. But when she understands the toikef of her words and is not masiach lfi tumo, her tune switches, v’al zeh neemar, keivan shehigid shuv aino choizer umagid.