Not Just Religious Women: The “Secret” of Israel’s Richest Women

They cost tens of thousands of shekels, come from virgin hair purchased in Europe, and have gone from a religious symbol to the most coveted luxury item in the closets of businesswomen and celebrities. Haya Branfman, owner of an international wig empire, explains why women today are selling designer bags to buy hair, how Kim Kardashian is connected to it, and the moving mission that restores confidence to women with cancer.

When a senior producer in the film industry in Los Angeles opened her closet, Haya Branfman expected to see a collection of bags or shoes. Instead, she found a row of carefully arranged wigs, each for a different look, a different event and a different mood. If wigs were once identified almost exclusively with religious women or with medical struggles, in recent years they have become a sought-after fashion item. What was once a niche product has become part of global beauty culture, with clients moving between Jerusalem, New York and Los Angeles.

Haya Branfman, owner of the wig empire Branfman Wigs, runs the family business alongside her three sisters and divides her time between the branches in New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem. To her, the change the industry is undergoing is nothing short of a revolution. "This is truly a fascinating topic," Haya begins in a conversation from New York, where she manages the American branches of the family brand. "It is amazing to see the change that has taken place from year to year. I see it all over the world, not just in Israel. Even when we are in the United States, there are clients who are not from the religious world at all. They buy wigs as an accessory, as a fashion item."

According to her, the shift is clearly visible in sales data as well. "If five years ago the market was 10% nonreligious women and 90% religious women, today the trend is already 70% religious and 30% nonreligious, and I assume it will just keep growing. You have no idea how crazy this is."

One of the moments when Haya realized just how far the phenomenon had crossed borders came during a visit to that same producer in Los Angeles. "She is not religious at all, and when she opened the closet for me, I was shocked. She simply has wigs there the way she has shoes. A real wig closet," she recalls. "I have clients who already have ten wigs in the closet and just change them every day. For example, I have a client who is a very big real estate woman in the United States who told me, ‘For business meetings I’ll wear the shorter wigs, and when I go out with friends for a casual look I wear the long ones.’ In the end it is a statement, you choose a wig to convey something, just like you choose the shoe that matches your look."

Photo: Private

"Selling the Gucci for a Wig"

If in the past a designer bag or luxury watch were the clearest status symbols, today some women prefer to invest their money in hair. "Today someone said to me, ‘I’m selling the Gucci bag I have and coming to buy the wig,’" Haya says. "It is even more important to them than brands."

She explains that for many women, the wig has become a luxury product in every sense. "It is considered a luxury item, an expensive fashion item that everyone wants in the closet. It has become a dream for many women. I hear phrases all the time like, ‘My husband said he would buy me a diamond, and I told him no, not diamonds and nothing, just a wig.’ It is a dream for so many women, it has become something wow."

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When talking about wow, one is also talking about amounts that, as can be understood, can rise quickly. "There are very significant differences," Haya explains. "Let’s start with the cheapest, which you can buy on AliExpress for $100, and that is not even hair, but something synthetic, those are Purim wigs. A good, quality wig starts at 20,000 shekels and up, and that is the price for a short wig, and it goes up depending on the length and color. The lighter the hair, the more insane the demand worldwide and the more expensive it is. When someone wants length that goes past the waist and a very light color, prices can also reach $20,000."

Behind the high prices lies a huge international raw-material market. The quality of the hair, as Branfman explains, is the main factor determining a wig’s value. "We bring in light hair from Europe, from countries like Russia and Ukraine. We buy it by weight, for thousands of dollars per kilo. Darker hair comes from Brazil, and in my opinion that is where the best hair is."

The key, she explains, is using what is known as virgin hair. "The expertise is knowing how to choose hair that has undergone no processing, no dyeing, no chemical treatments and no straightening. The most virgin possible. There are entire countries like Ukraine where this is the main livelihood, they grow hair, sell it and make a living from it."

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Not Just Religious Women

According to Branfman, one of the main reasons for the field’s breakthrough among secular women is the exposure it received through celebrities and social media. "I always wanted to break the boundaries of the religious world. It took time, but then the celebrities came."

The list of clients and projects that have passed through the company includes quite a few familiar names. "We have used celebrities like Titi Aynaw, Tahuonia, we made extensions for Eden Alene for Eurovision, and there are Nasreen, Eden Ben Zaken and Irit Rahamim who make it accessible and normalize it."

But in her view, the ones who set the biggest trends are the international stars. "The clearest example is Kim Kardashian. She wore a shoulder-length light wig at the Met Gala, and the next day we already created a model like that. We have to keep producing more because of the demand," Haya laughs. "A wig like that, like Kim Kardashian’s, costs around 30,000 to 35,000 shekels."

One of the reasons many women avoided wigs in the past was the fear of an artificial look. But according to Branfman, technology has completely changed the rules of the game. "Wigs used to be very heavy and not natural. Today there is a method called ‘toplace’, a very thin fabric and a natural sewing method that is less intimidating for nonreligious women. Slowly, people are breaking this myth that it looks wiggy and heavy. Today the innovation is so advanced that it is really hard to tell there is a wig on the head, even for a professional. You can wear it for 12 hours a day, wash it at home and do everything with it."

Photo: Sali Ben Ari

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"This Is My Mission"

Alongside the world of luxury and high prices, Branfman also dedicates part of her business activity to women coping with cancer. "The department is called ‘My Original.’ We make a wig from the client’s own hair before chemotherapy treatments. She comes to us before the hair falls out, we remove it, and within three hours create a wig from her own hair."

"It is a mission, the department operates nonprofit and the clients pay only cost price. They leave the salon at the end of the day the same way they entered in the morning, and the professor at the hospital asks, ‘How is it possible that your hair did not fall out?’ It allows them to go through the treatments with a lighter heart."