A new discovery

Posted by Nathalie on February 13, 2008

A new client of mine (thanks Tammy) mentioned a website I’ve never seen before. I checked it out and from my first look, I must say that I’m really impressed. They have a LARGE selection of colors, textures, and hair types. They even have a MySpace page!

I dug around a little more online and found that this company is based out of Lincolnwood, Illinois. I didn’t find many bad reviews except for one rip-off report from a client that received the wrong color hair in the mail. I also saw a few people complaining about the site’s return policy.

I’ll try and buy some hair from them soon. I’ll tell you how it went!

Have any of you ever purchased hair from this site? Have you been happy with your purchases?

Hair Supply Stores… pay attention

Posted by Nathalie on August 29, 2007

I was poking around on roshini.net and found a video by blackhairdvd.com discussing the black hair care market and where our money REALLY goes. The opening lines are as follows….

“African American women spend billions every year on hair products.
Even though they only make up 10% of the American Population, they buy 70% of all wigs and extensions purchased in the United States.”

Many of us use/buy our hair products without taking any consideration as to where they came from, but after watching the videos below, I’ve decided to look closer at how I spend my money, at least when it comes to buying black hair care products.

————– Part Two : Link
————– Part Two : Link
————– Part Three : Link
————– Part Four : Link

Out of all of the millions that are being spent by the black community on hair care products and extensions, only a fraction is coming back in. And where is it going? To the Koreans of all people. Not to say that it’s a bad thing for any group to be successful entrepreneurs, but the methods in which the Koreans are going about it are almost unethical in my eyes. They have an easy time taking our money for many reasons:

• Opening a store for them is not hard on their wallets because most of them are located in low-income, cheaper properties of the urban community (The section of town that need economical help the most)
• They have a tight network of wholesalers and distributors and work together to make sure that <i>we</i> do not get any substantial part of this market.
• Although there is a small percentage of black-owned hair supply stores, they are not any type of threat to the Korean-owned stores because of their capability to charge less for their products, and therefore, gain more clients.

With all that’s going on right now, this really isn’t a big deal to the most of us. But to the honest, hard working black entrepreneur who’s trying to get into a market geared towards their people, this is really devastating. The vast amounts of jobs that could be available in lower-income, urban communities are being compromised as well.

Bobsa.org (Black Owned Beauty Supply Association) is a group geared towards gaining some of the control of the black hair care/beauty supply market in the United States. They provide an interesting list of Black Hair care distributors and also have a good list of beauty supply stores that are black-owned.

When making your next purchase of hair extensions, or black hair care products, please be conscious of where you’re purchasing from and where those hard-earned dollars really go.

Where do we get hair?

Posted by Nathalie on May 10, 2007

My clients come from all over the place. Some are new to Orlando, some have been here forever. Some get their hair done every week, and I ‘break the cherry‘ for a few too. There are so many common questions that people ask, but the first one I wanted to address is:

Where should I get my hair from?

Now, in the future, this site will have a full listing (plus ratings) of hair supply stores all over the place. For now, I’ll just have to spotlight the few that I know of in the Orlando Area.

Answer #1, no, Sally’s is NOT an option, not for the most part. They are overpriced (for example, a $0.99 jumbo pack of hair could cost you $1.99 and up at Sally’s) and they don’t have the greatest selection for ethnic hair either. There’s a wonderful chain of hair supply stores in the Miami/Lauderdale area called Deco Drive which I LOVE, but too bad, they are not here in Orlando. So….

I mainly go to #1 Beauty Supply (Check here for the YellowPages info). It’s located at: 2700 N Orange Blossom Trl, Orlando, FL 32804.

Although it’s not the most beautiful location, the customer service is pretty good and they have a big selection of wigs / tracks / human hair / ponytails…well, just about anything you can think of putting on your head, they’ve got it. I’m very picky on the hair I purchase (especially when buying for micros) and they’ve got some quality brands (Beverly Johnson, Bijoux, Milky Way, etc).

Feel free to post a comment on your favorite hair supply store. I know there are plenty out there, I’m just too lazy to search! LOL

Also, if you’ve had a bad experience at a hair supply store, feel free to blast them at your leisure.