Synthetic hair business is about quality

When I meet Fiona Nagirinya at her shop in Kabalagala, she is wrapping synthetic hair around head mannequins. She straightens the one she completes with a hair comb and strategically positions it well on the display boards spread all over the shop.

Looking around the shop, it is a variety of different hair pieces; from those that are coloured in brown and maroon, to those in single colours, mainly black. There are also those that are sealed and well displayed. It is a business Nagirinya has run under the Sash Hair Collection that came to life in 2019.   

“I drew my inspiration into the hair business because I love hair. In my charity organisation, Draw a Smile, I mostly work around issues to do with women. I thought of something in form of a business that also targets women and hair was my immediate thought because I love it and I am passionate about it,” says Nagirinya.  

As if loving synthetic hair was not enough, Nagirinya was already buying and importing hair from her friends in China for personal use. Starting Sash Hair collections, was easy because the foundation had already been laid as far as sourcing was concerned. The focus had now shifted to expanding sources for the products.

Marketing through friends

Starting out in 2019, Nagirinya rode first on friends to create market for her products. These posed with different hair pieces during photo shoots to get photos to post on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. She believes in the fact that friends around her or anyone else have different audiences and was convinced that if she joined hands with them to market her business, it would reach a bigger audience. True friends should be able to play a big role in advertising your business especially when it comes to marketing.

Sourcing for the hair   

Because synthetic hair is not manufactured in Uganda, Nagirinya says she sources it from countries such as India and China. But in the current Covid-19 pandemic that has led to closure of some outlets, she is selling what is available.

“I already had stock before the outbreak of coronavirus. I was not so much affected when it comes to having something to put out for customers. It has been a trying moment especially with rent payments for the business. Regardless of whether the shop was closed or open, I still have to pay rent,” she says.

Starting a hair business

At a time she started out, Nagirinya says she needed capital of Shs50m. This was divided into securing premises to operate from and pay rent in advance but also have different collections of good quality hair to put up for sale.

“Many people sell hair in the city centre and in salons but it is the quality of the hair and where I source it from that sells the Sash Hair collection. I sell it at a reasonable price that does not have to be too expensive even when I import it,” she explains.     

According to Nagirinya, it is costly to import synthetic hair. And since it is considered a luxury, it is charged high taxes by Uganda Revenue Authority. A single piece, she notes, is charged $4 (about Shs15,000) and that this is a lot of money. Her customers do not plait one hair piece but rather use two or three or even more depending on the hair style you are plaiting.

Much as she sometimes breaks even and makes profits, she also at times makes losses especially during the Covid-19 period where many people didn’t see expenditures on hair as important.

“Regardless, I open the shop to make sales because if I do not make sales, the landlord will not want to know if I made a sale or not. They will expect their rent. Sometimes I end up selling at a low price because I want the products to move,” she notes.  

Business values

In any business, Nagirinya says customer care is very important. You have to be available for customers and if you are unable to, have a very good shop attendant with capability of speaking various languages but also welcoming. It keeps customers walking into the shop even when they cannot afford what you offer for sale. Most people look at a shop they suspect could be selling expensive items and fear to enter because they perceive it as expensive but that when you are welcoming to them, they end up buying.

Also, the relationship between you as the business owner and your employees has to be a close one. Nagirinya has one employee and her mother who sometimes help in running the shop.

“I treat the two very close and this makes them run the business like their own. Some employees are all about earning that if you are not observant, some may bring in their own products to make their own sales that is a risk and threat to your business. You have to have employees you can trust,” Nagirinya advises.

Marketing 

With exception of the website, www.sashhaircollection.com, other marketing avenues Nagirinya uses to publicise and sell her products include social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram. These, she says are the main point of people knowing about the products. “Not everyone is going to walk into the shop at Kabalagala but many will look at it online and make a decision to visit the shop. Most sales come in from social media because many people do not have time to come to the shop at Kabalagala. All they do is look at something online, contact us and we deliver. There are also customers who want particular hair pieces but cannot find them locally. They give me the description and I import it for them,” She says.  

Profits 

In a good month, Nagirinya says she makes profits worth Shs5m. In two to five years, she intends to have a number of branches and outlets in different parts of the country. She is still in the process of establishing relationships and widening the market base by supplying to customers as far as Jinja, Mbale and Mbarara and other further districts. This is to ensure that her customers do not have to travel to Kampala to get what they want.  

“Regardless of the fact that she runs a website, there is a way visiting a physical shop allows you see a number of products compared to just seeing and liking something online and ordering for it. In Kampala, I intend to have a number of places because there are customers who stay as far as Najeera and I find crossing the city centre to Kabalagala a challenge,” she explains.

Customers

Nagirinya’s customer base is a mixture of people from all categories. There are corporates that prefer hair with no colour and a category of young people who love blonde multi-coloured hair. The fact that prices are reasonable makes it affordable by people across all categories.

Prices range from Shs50,000 to Shs900,000. If you want a special wig, for instance the long ones that stretch upto the waist area, these cost Shs1.5m. Nagirinya has also noticed that many dealers sell pieces worth Shs500,000 to Shs800,000 because of where they operate from. This price, she opines, is unreasonable because so many dealers cheat when it comes to synthetic hair. They know what women will want to wear and certain things they cannot go without and see this as an advantage to cheat customers.  

Dynamics 

In the hair business, the density and texture of the hair piece helps you determine whether a particular piece is of good quality or fake. Processed hair, Ferguson explains, is in most cases coloured and not 100 percent human at the edge but human at the roots where it starts from. Some of it is a mixture of both human and processed hair. Original hair holds together while the substandard one falls out when you slide your hand through it.  

Business advice

In any business, Nagirinya advises you to have the will to give it 100 per cent. No one has the vision of the business except yourself. You might think of something and entrust it with someone else’s hands and they mess it up.

“In business, be ready to lose, to win and do not expect everything to be perfect. You have to love what you are starting because you need the drive of waking up every morning to do what you love the most, not like you’ve been forced out of bed. Once you have a negative attitude, it will reflect on everything in the business,” she adds.  

“When you are getting into the business, you need to be patient. Sometimes you will hear stories that it will work out when you invest certain things, beyond money. Do not be so profit or money oriented. Think about doing something people love and make them happy and satisfied by good quality products. Bad quality products reflect later and this will either build or break your business at the end of the day. Your current customers are the same people that bring in different customers,” Nagirinya concludes.