What's going on with prices? (Past 1 year)

asalvez66

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I've gotten quite proficient at extending/at-home-repairing my systems/toupees for the past 2 years, so I probably only purchased 1 in 2020 and maybe 1 in 2019. (For background, I've been wearing since 2016 and the prices were the same from 2016-2020 essentially) I only wanted to peek at the market today for the first time in a year and noticed the prices for general 'hair systems/toupees' have skyrocketed like crazy. I won't name names, because I don't want to seem like I'm trying to shill or advertise. But one of my suppliers used to be $160-180 USD per stock unit. They're now around $250 USD per stock. My 2nd supplier was $190 USD and now they're $280 USD.

I know the pandemic has changed markets a lot. And don't get me wrong, I'm utterly willing to pay the premium. (Although I'm a bit worried where the trend in price will be in the future.) I was just wondering if anyone here knew as for exactly why the sudden price hike across most suppliers? I tried searching the forums here but I couldn't find much mention on it. I'm also baffled at how active and bolstering this community is now. It used to be so slow here just 4 years ago but so many people in this community now which is awesome!

(Originally posted this on men's hairloss general but realized most of that are men who are still mostly bio and still fighting to keep it and realized this is a far better topic area to post)
 

BaldBearded

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I have explained this in a number of posts, but I will explain it again.

All of the Chinese manufacturers used to send ALL of their lace knotting and their skin injecting and v-looping to North Korea. Some of them maintained a small local staff for special highly complex orders and rush orders.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the border with North Korea has been closed. After a few months systems in progress were finally released to China, but no hair goods are allowed in.

Because there was no idea of when this would change we (Hair System suppliers) were told "oh customs will open soon". We heard that for months and months.

Because of this, and having no disaster plan... the Chinese manufacturers did not try and ramp up local capacity until much later when the supply of stock units dwindled to almost nothing.

So why the drastic price increase? This is not considered "good work". It is low paying, and not easy. It's not a job for unskilled workers. New workers need to ramp up time. Also, the pay is low... so they know it is a captive market and have been demanding more and more money. Also, I believe that a lot of this is "piece work" meaning you get paid by the piece and not the hour. Because of this, they are both refusing to do full lace systems that take more time and demanding more and more money as time goes by.

I will also let you know that many of the companies are NOT passing on the full increases to their customers.
 

Fanjeera

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This place was quiet yeah 5 years ago and I even stopped posting because I was here alone. Don't know what happened at one moment: best of the forums right now imo.
 

JohnathonNY

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From the looks of it, I'll be spending maybe 900$ a year on hair systems (considering I'm completely DIY except for the haircut).
 

hair4meTomorrow

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If they aren't doing full lace then will they do lace fronts?

Can I just do my tape attachments?

I like having that much of my scalp exposed and unbounded with my lace piece.
 

hair4meTomorrow

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Also this is the forum that works best on mobile. Toplace just doesn't at all, and nwl isn't bad and has activity.
 

asalvez66

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I have explained this in a number of posts, but I will explain it again.

All of the Chinese manufacturers used to send ALL of their lace knotting and their skin injecting and v-looping to North Korea. Some of them maintained a small local staff for special highly complex orders and rush orders.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the border with North Korea has been closed. After a few months systems in progress were finally released to China, but no hair goods are allowed in.

Because there was no idea of when this would change we (Hair System suppliers) were told "oh customs will open soon". We heard that for months and months.

Because of this, and having no disaster plan... the Chinese manufacturers did not try and ramp up local capacity until much later when the supply of stock units dwindled to almost nothing.

So why the drastic price increase? This is not considered "good work". It is low paying, and not easy. It's not a job for unskilled workers. New workers need to ramp up time. Also, the pay is low... so they know it is a captive market and have been demanding more and more money. Also, I believe that a lot of this is "piece work" meaning you get paid by the piece and not the hour. Because of this, they are both refusing to do full lace systems that take more time and demanding more and more money as time goes by.

I will also let you know that many of the companies are NOT passing on the full increases to their customers.
Thank you so much. This is exactly the answer I was looking for. Let's hope this gets at least a little alleviated over time.
 
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asalvez66

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This place was quiet yeah 5 years ago and I even stopped posting because I was here alone. Don't know what happened at one moment: best of the forums right now imo.
I have some guided guesses.

Big hair loss companies have been insanely successful at pushing hair restoration/preservation products accessibility super well. Obviously like keeps etc.

There's borderline a cure for hairloss now. Combined with classic methods and dermarolling/microneedling, people have been getting phenomenal results. If I wasn't making the switch to systems/pieces in 2016 but instead today, id definitely gone the microneedling route and combined with maybe guidance of systems. Actually, I might start minoxidil in some areas where I'd just like thicker bio hair that's thinned over time like my sides, lol. But anyway, the guess for that is the fact general is 1000% of men just doing that. Many of them are young and has just come to realization of the world and treatment of hairloss. So glad treatment is so openly embraced now.
 

Fanjeera

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I have some guided guesses.

Big hair loss companies have been insanely successful at pushing hair restoration/preservation products accessibility super well. Obviously like keeps etc.

There's borderline a cure for hairloss now. Combined with classic methods and dermarolling/microneedling, people have been getting phenomenal results. If I wasn't making the switch to systems/pieces in 2016 but instead today, id definitely gone the microneedling route and combined with maybe guidance of systems. Actually, I might start minoxidil in some areas where I'd just like thicker bio hair that's thinned over time like my sides, lol. But anyway, the guess for that is the fact general is 1000% of men just doing that. Many of them are young and has just come to realization of the world and treatment of hairloss. So glad treatment is so openly embraced now.
I'm talking about this subforum. This forum as a whole has been active since the beginning of the century, but this subforum was quiet.
 
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