In a 1,700-square-meter building, dozens of middle-aged women sorted through mountains of artificial hair. Any tangled hair was brushed with a nail until it became straight and tidy. Such were the activities at the Dewi Sri wig and sanggul (hair bun) factory in Glatik, East Java.

"The wavy hair is used for sangguls and sanggul hairpieces, the straight hair for wigs," said Edi Suprapto, Dewi Sri's head of production, who has worked there since 2003. S