Who Moved Our Chairs

Who Moved

The Key to Our Future Lies in Our Past

By Lew Hutchinson, Invisions of Connecticut, Middlebury, CT

For the past 15 years or so, we have been working 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.

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

Our Chairs?

to make it as easy as possible for our clients to take care of their hair between appointments.

This also includes educating our clients – even those who have been with us for 20 years – on how to take care of their hair properly to make it last. Impress upon your clients that they need to purchase the products that we sell that are good for the hair. This may mean reinforcing to each client how to best maintain their hair – even simple things like how to brush the hair properly so their system won’t lose hair.

Looking to the Future

Looking ahead, I honestly think things will get a bit better. We should be able to get hair a little more quickly, but I don’t think we are going to see custom hair coming back in six to eight weeks. The new normal may be 12-14 weeks, so we need to plan accordingly. I also believe that hair prices will begin to even out a little once we get past the pandemic. But that being said, I would be prepared to see some more increases in the future. And we need to be prepared to have those conversations honestly and transparently with our clients.

We have been used to doing things the same way for a long time and had a great run with it, like in the book “Who Moved My Cheese.” Instead of cheese our salon chairs and stations have under gone transformations as well as many of the ways we do business. Remember, in his 1998 book, Dr. Spencer Johnson offers a shrewd look of how business owners can become too comfortable with the status quo after we’ve tasted success. But in our world, the cheese has been moved so we have to be nimble and adjust and make changes, or we will not survive.