BOTTOM LINE : Wigged Out

Giovanni & Son trades in a natural resource that’s in no danger of depletion--as long as there are people. Giovanni & Son buys and sells human hair.

Run by Steve Mirizzi and his wife, Lisa, the firm sells about 200 pounds of hair a year. That’s the equivalent of 800 heads of perfect hair (a head of 14-inch-long hair weighs about 4 ounces.)

The toughest part of the trade is tracking down tresses. Most of their hair comes from Italy, where Steve travels several times a year to meet with his suppliers, who come up with bushels of hair from the country’s salons and convents. Convents? “When a lady becomes a nun,” says Lisa, “the church orders her to cut her hair and our factory buys it from the church.”

But the firm, founded in 1940 by Steve’s grandfather, also buys from individuals. “It has to be virgin hair, really long, that’s never been colored or processed,” Lisa says. “We pay about $6 an ounce”--barely enough, O. Henry fans, to buy a watch fob.

After sterilizing and sorting the hair, they sell it to wigmakers and salons for $21 an ounce and up. Especially long hair can go for $60 an ounce.

“We’re filling a need for everybody from beauty-seekers to people who are going through chemotherapy,” Steve says. But they’ve had requests from people with other, stranger needs. “One guy called wanting a hairpiece made from pubic hair,” Lisa says. “I just got off the phone really fast.”