Already subject to appalling levels of street crime, Venezuelans now have something new to fear: muggers who cut their hair. Members of the scissor-wielding street gangs are called piranas, after the flesh-eating fish. The gangs sell the stolen hair to salons that braid it in this oil-rich, beauty-obsessed country. Some heartbroken women have given up and cut off their long hair as a precautionary measure to donate it to children losing their hair to cancer. Vanessa Castillo wept as her beautiful, long, jet-black hair was cut off for charity. “It’s better to give it to children with cancer than to have it stolen by the piranas,” she said, sniffling. She was speaking at a “Donate Your Hair for Children” day at a beauty salon. “Has it come to this? That there are people who steal your hair is a form of chaos,” said Castillo, a 26-year-old dentistry student. Alarm bells went off in Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second-largest city, last month when complaints began about hair-stealing commandos made up of men and women. Braids sold to salons as hair extensions can fetch up to $1,000, depending on how long, thick and healthy the hair is. “It’s one thing to give it away because you want it, and another thing for people to beat you to take it away,” said hairdresser Milagros Genao as she cut Castillo’s locks. Castillo was joined by hundreds of women and some men at the charity event at a Caracas hair salon. The hair cutters were led by Ivo Contreras, a famous stylist who has done Miss Venezuela’s hair and makes wigs for children with cancer. Venezuelans are so angry that the government has intervened, but only after the media reported harrowing stories of women in Maracaibo being beaten and stripped of their flowing manes. President Nicolás Maduro declared war on the Pirana gangs and ordered an investigation into “mafias that cut young women’s hair.” “What kind of way is this to mistreat young women? Young women are sacred,” he said. The conspiracy-theorist leader blamed the hair thefts on a “psychological war across the country” orchestrated by Colombian and Venezuelan opposition figures based in Miami. Oddly, no one has yet gone to the police to make a formal complaint. But police are on guard, monitoring squares and streets in Maracaibo. Press reports say there have been cases of hair thefts in other cities, such as Caracas and Valencia. “Many women have come to donate their hair for fear of being abused on the streets, as they are in danger. It is a new way of mistreating women. We are asking the authorities to punish this,” said hairdresser Contreras. He said a woman recently showed up at his salon with an injury to her back. “They wanted to cut it off, but she preferred to come and have it cut off herself,” he said. Some women in Maracaibo and Caracas are taking precautions. “I tried not to put myself in danger,” said Ivon Galindo, a 27-year-old computer technician with long brown hair. Women like her and Castillo – when she was still unshorn – wear their hair tied in a bun or hidden under hats. “When someone steals your hair, it’s like they’re mutilating your body,” Galindo said. Nearby, Castillo stood up and looked at her new short hairstyle in a mirror the hairdresser handed her. “Something is missing, but in my heart I feel good. I feel pretty with my new look,” she said.
