Nov
28I am assured you have wondered what the reality is about the prices of wigs made from European human hair. From store to supermarket you will find a great variation in prices – anywhere from 300 USD to as high as 10.000 USD (!). So permit me take you through every step of the procedure of producing high quality handmade wigs, and show the true costs.
Firstly, take the acquisition of hair. The charge of hair for one wig (0,2 to 0,4 kg) varies from 30 to 40 USD throughout most Eastern European countries. There is small variation there, but an important additional charge is incurred by high-quality wig-makers who collect hair in an appropriate and well-controlled manner. The important wig-makers visit hairdressers and keeping for the hair themselves, using no middleman. They do not buy hair from wholesalers because wholesalers blend hair, because it is so period-consuming to get well good hair. One only has to discover a girl among hairdresser’s clients that has good-looking, fit hair and who wants it cut. The hairdresser be able to offer a free service to such a girl and really pay her for her hair – and clearly together sides benefit from such a transaction. But this shows that, by its very nature, acquisition of excellent-quality hair cannot be a simple huge-scale automatic practice. That explains why outside of Eastern Europe the value of acquiring fine quality hair is skyrocketing – not because the hair in itself is expensive, but because of its rarity. It is not easy to imagine a large-scale cheap procedure of acquiring high quality human hair in European countries.
Second, take the other materials used in making wigs. These are not expensive and their costs do not exceed 50 USD for a typical wig. These are the materials used to produce a cap. More and more wig-makers are now buying ready-made caps, so called “monofilament”, which are gaining recognition and their value is not very high.
Third, take the labor involved in making high quality handmade wigs. This is the main value factor. Handmade wig wants at slightest a week to be created by an qualified specialist worker. It takes a week of not easy work, with each hair being knitted to the cap with a very short crochet-needle or glued with a private glue. In the case of long hair, the production time could be two to three weeks. Honest wig-makers knit hair with a double-knot which makes the construction much more durable but wants some extra work-time. Depending on the type of wig, length of hair and type of cap the charge of labor is from 150 to 300 USD.
Lastly, you cannot forget other typical industry costs – investment’s amortization, management costs, taxes, insurances, rent, and profit. Altogether, the price of a handmade human hair wig made from European hair cannot be lower than 500-600 USD even for the shortest hair. There is no upper limit and it just depends on how much a client is willing to pay, but before you pay 1000 USD or else more for your wig remember the exact costs of its creation.
And now for a true mystery. Why are European human hair wigs not made in China where labor costs are much lower than in Poland, Russia, or the Czech Republic? The main reason is no good quality European human hair available in huge enough quantities to make profitable huge-scale production in China possible. This is because wig-makers in Eastern European countries are buying all of the available hair for their own production. Surprising? – but that is how it is. And that is why largely of wigs created in China are made of Asian hair or else blended hair commonly available on a wholesale market.
