Wigs, Weave on is Everyday Business
You can hardly walk past any female nowadays, young or old, who is not wearing one form of hairpieces or another.
Some come in attachments, some in weave on and others in wigs, and they come in various labels and brands.
Human hair wig is popular among regular users of wigs who prefer a natural look; they are made with the best quality hair that is collected to achieve the texture and colour required.
They are more versatile and can be blow-dried, permed and styled in different ways. The cuticle is left intact thus maintaining the colour.
While the attachments are normally used for African braids, weave on are sewn to the hair for a lasting effect.
These hairpieces also come in various colours, lengths and textures, which females adorn to look more beautiful, glamorous and contemporary.
If you think only blacks wear them to look like Europeans, you would be wrong because even the whites, Arabs and Asians wear them if only to look different for a while.
For this reason, shops selling these hairpieces usually attract the most customers and more are springing up on a daily basis.
Mrs. Chineye Ugwodike, who runs a shop that deals in a number of items including hair additions, cosmetics and sundry item, says with weave on, you must make daily sales.
Prices range from N270 to above N3,000, depending on the quality and brand. Those tagged human hair are usually more expensive, as they were supposedly made from natural human hairs. Others are either synthetic (Chinese) or horsetails.
She says, Although the profit is not much because the gain per pack is not more than N20 or N50, but you are bound to break even with the turn over. There is no day we don’t sell weave on because people are making different hairstyles everyday.
For those who are interested in the business, there are two levels: as a dealer or as a retailer.
As a dealer, you need as much as N1m, while as a retailer, with even N50,000 you can start off , even if by selling at the corner of a shop.
The advantage in this type of business is that you don’t need any particular kind of skill to start off; all you need is to be sure of your source of supply.
Besides, it is not a business that will wear in the nearest future, according to a Lagos-based retailer of the products, Mrs. Yetunde Eniola. She says, I cannot foresee a time that people will not wear weave on or wigs even children and men, especially those in the showbiz and entertainment, also wear them.
Describing the business as highly competitive, she advises that people should not expect too much gain from the business, but rather concentrate on the volume and turnover.
Eniola, who has been in the business for two years, says she has no regrets, even though she originally wanted to be travelling to Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, to be bringing in goods, which has not worked out.
She says that even if that works out, she would still keep the weave on business because she plans to make it big enough to own a label or brand of her own.
These days, there are almost a thousand and one of such labels, says Ugwodike, a masters degree holder in Mass Communication, which she describes as a welcome development. She says the issue of labels has also become a challenge in terms of making a choice.
Among the popular labels are Expression, Amigo, Diana, Darling. Due to the popularity of some of the brands, some marketers have started repacking some brands in the fast-moving labels, which takes only the discerning eyes to differentiate.
Due to brand proliferations, some dealers have begun to specialise in particular labels, while the retailers are advised to pick bits of all the available brands for wider choice for customers.
Speaking on other challenges of the business, Ugwodike says the younger customers are more difficult to deal with than the older and mature ones.
According to her, The younger ladies have their minds fixed on particular labels, based on their stylists’ recommendations. If they come and ask for a particular label and you don’t have it, they will prefer not to buy another label.
But for the mature ones, once you don’t have their first choice, you can convince them to buy another label, which is of equal quality. Also, you can guide them on which brand to buy to save some cost.
Also, colour combination is another challenge, as some colours are hard to find, and it is only when you have bits of many variety that you can get the desired colour in another.
By Clara Nwachukwu