WE’RE FINDING WAYS TO DO MORE THAN JUST SURVIVE
Thriving
Who Moved The Key to Our Future Lies in Our Past By Lew Hutchinson, Invisions of Connecticut, Middlebury, CT past 15 years or so, we have Fbeenor theworking on a business model centered around “disposable hair.” This has been most apparent in men’s hair replacement, but it has also found it’s way into women’s hair replacement. We have rightly focused on creating the best look that we can possibly create. But with current market realities – extending into the future as far as the eye can see – it is clear that we may need a hard reset and refocus our efforts on providing the best look we can that will last for a longer period of time. The days of 26 heads of hair for a client are simply no longer realistic. There are two fundamental reasons for this. In the first place, we simply won’t be able to get that much hair. But secondly, prices of hair will continue to rise, and that in turn means that clients simply won’t be able to afford that much hair.
Long Lead Times – Higher Prices The current state of the hair industry, from what we understand, is that there are fewer and fewer ventilators to make our hair systems, so delivery times are getting longer and longer. Plus, the fees for ventilators have gone up. A lot of this work has been done in China, and China is not a third-world country anymore. The costs of manufacturing as a result are going up, and they will continue to go up.
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What this means is that as we look to our future, it is clear that both in terms of being successful in our businesses and meeting our clients’ needs and expectations, we need to be able to provide hair systems that are going to last longer and look great at the same time.
Being Honest with Clients Until recently, I had a client who would come in every two weeks and get new hair. But over the past few years, the cost of hair has continued to rise. The hair companies were great and we were still able to get the hair. But with the continuing rise in prices, even though my client grudgingly went along with it, I had to have a honest, transparent conversation with him when the pandemic hit and let him know that he should get more use out of his hair and that we would like to design the hair, going forward, a bit differently so we could get more longevity out of it. At first, he looked at me like I must be the worst salesperson in the world because I am telling him to go with less hair and actually spend less money. But in the long run he definitely understood, and it’s been a better situation for him. And we haven’t run out of hair for him because we were able to order ahead and get the hair in for him. It ended up being a good situation. So, thinking long term, we have to make some of these decisions so we can keep our clients happy and give them the product and service they deserve. And that means in many ways going back to basics.
Everything Old is New Again Many in today’s hair replacement industry have come of age professionally in the disposable hair era. But what we need to do now is go back to basics and learn (or relearn) the fundamental sum of the essential art and craftsmanship that has gone by the wayside in recent years. When was the last time you walked into a shoe repair shop? You don’t hear about them much anymore. In the same way we don’t hear that much about in-house ventilators either. But it is clear that the art of ventilating – being able to manually add hair back into a client’s hair system – is an art that will once again become a mainstay for studios so we can effectively prolong the life of our client’s hair systems and keep them as satisfied clients. Similarly, the art of good tailoring will find it’s way back into studios as well.
Teamwork and Education In today’s market, we need to have transparent conversations both with our technicians and staff as well as our clients to keep them informed and let them know what’s going on in the hair world. They will appreciate our honesty and will get on board with us and do their part. It goes without saying that delivering great looking, long lasting hair with each client is what will set us apart from our competition. And that means ongoing training so our technicians have the skill levels and craftsmanship necessary
