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Forum
-> Fashion and Beauty
-> Sheitels & Tichels
Why are Sheitels so expensive? Option A or B?
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| A) Perfectly justified |
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15% |
[ 7 ] |
| B) A complete rip-off |
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84% |
[ 37 ] |
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| Total Votes : 44 |
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mindelepop
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 Sun, Nov 05 2017, 7:00 am
Why are sheitels so expensive. And why does the cost keep going up far more than inflation? Is it:
A) Perfectly justified. Hair quality is very high in these recent sheitels, and as people get used to buying better and better hair, the price goes up and up. Also the increased demand with not-much-increased supply pushes prices up.
B) A complete rip-off. Someone is making a packet by forcing even not well off families to vastly overpay and pocketing huge profits.
I'd like to grumble that B is true. However there is a lot of competition between different brands and different sheitel machers, enough that price fixing would be very difficult, because someone new would always come along and undercut the market to get all the custom.
New sheitel brands are always popping up as well as machers, and after the introductory period when they're presumably not getting a profit (or working at a loss) the prices always go up when people begin to rely on them, to similar prices to the established brands/machers. If it could reasonably be sold for less, you'd expect some of them to realise they can make more by lowering their prices and the increased sales will more than compensate for the lower profit.
On the other hand, if hair really cost even a quarter of the cost of sheitels, you'd expect a lot of non jews to be happy to sell their hair. Think students trying to finance college - just grow the hair for a year or two and then cut it short, hey presto $500. Lots of methods for speeding up hair growth too, so a great way of supplementing income!
The only thing I can think of is that there is someone who controls a large portion of the market, e.g. the middleman who buys the hair from all the various sources and then sells the hair on. If there are several such middlemen, they would at least be in a position to fix prices, as no-one new is about to come along and start cutting the price, as its a hard business to get into. So the hair source doesn't get much, supply stays low, demand carries on growing BH, and these peoples profits keep growing.
Doesn't seem to be a thread about specifically this yet... Anyone know anything about this, as I'm working purely from conjecture? If anyone has suggestions for what should be done please tell us in a separate thread! Thanks!
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ra_mom
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 8:40 am
It's a combination of things. Some of which are:
-There are so many middlemen that need to make parnasa from that one wig
-30 women can come in and spend 30 hours of the shaitelmacher's time picking wigs and then only 1 buys a wig and that sale is the only one bringing in income from those 30 hours. The price of the wig also includes 2 cuts and wash and dry along with fixing it up if there are any problems down the line.
Yes there are some shaitelmachers that are very popular and make tons of sales but that's after many years of blood and sweat where they didn't make.
All this doesn't make the unaffordablity any easier to swallow.  And I'm definitely not happy about it and I wear wigs for more years than I should because of it.
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BadTichelDay
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 9:04 am
Let me be a troll devil on this - I'm just wearing an elegant grey headscarf with a leopard pattern. Cost 30 NIS -about 10 $ 
edit: hope no one feels offended - I guess a lot of people can't really choose what to wear and have to go by community standards.
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Motherhood
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 9:18 am
[quote="ra_mom"]It's a combination of things. Some of which are:
-There are so many middlemen that need to make parnasa from that one wig
Totally agree with that! Too many middle-men from when you get the hair till you buy the sheitel from th shaitel macher.
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asmileaday
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 9:23 am
[quote="Motherhood"] | ra_mom wrote: | It's a combination of things. Some of which are:
-There are so many middlemen that need to make parnasa from that one wig
Totally agree with that! Too many middle-men from when you get the hair till you buy the sheitel from th shaitel macher. |
Well you can buy from aliexpress and cut out the middleman. But then you are the one investing and risking the money. And you'd still have to pay for a cut and set. At the end of the day it's not really worth it. Especially if you end up with a lemon.
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Motherhood
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 9:26 am
| asmileaday wrote: | | Well you can buy from aliexpress and cut out the middleman. But then you are the one investing and risking the money. And you'd still have to pay for a cut and set. At the end of the day it's not really worth it. Especially if you end up with a lemon. |
agree. How about the shaitel macher investing and risking the money, getting a hang of which sheitels are good, and then sell them. Still wouldnt cost as much as it does now... For all the risks involved, she'd charge $1000, but still doesnt come close to the prices today!
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asmileaday
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 9:28 am
And yes sheitelmachers do make a nice markup usually. But that's because of the amount of time and skill invested when selling a piece.
Unless you are a top name sheitelmacher that sells many wigs a day you ain't raking it in.
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asmileaday
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 9:30 am
| Motherhood wrote: | | agree. How about the shaitel macher investing and risking the money, getting a hang of which sheitels are good, and then sell them. Still wouldnt cost as much as it does now... For all the risks involved, she'd charge $1000, but still doesnt come close to the prices today! |
Your average sheitalmacher doesn't have that kind of funds to invest.
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doctorima
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 9:32 am
| BadTichelDay wrote: | Let me be a troll devil on this - I'm just wearing an elegant grey headscarf with a leopard pattern. Cost 30 NIS -about 10 $
edit: hope no one feels offended - I guess a lot of people can't really choose what to wear and have to go by community standards. |
I'm not sure I want to emulate the hair covering practices of somebody named BadTichelDay. 
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asmileaday
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 9:33 am
| doctorima wrote: | | I'm not sure I want to emulate the hair covering practices of somebody named BadTichelDay. |
Too funny!
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TranquilityAndPeace
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 9:34 am
I doubt a woman can get $500 out of growing her hairs for two years. It takes at least 5 women's long ponies to make a wig. So that would mean the cost of the hair for one wig would be $2,500. Plus the net and the middlemen and the labor and the marketing. The insurance, the location of the salon, paying taxes as a self employed person is double, equipment and furniture and the shampoos and conditioners that have to be constantly replaced.
I imagine that women in poor locations are probably getting less than $100 for their hair.
The hair purchasers buy cases of hair sold by weight. Then they have to sort through the low quality dry hair, the nits and lice, clean it, process it.
I don't think most people in the industry are making millions. There's lots of steps and lots of costs. Supply and demand keeps the prices as they are.
The ones earning a lot probably worked very hard to build up a good reputation and give good customer service and sell a lot wholesale to other salons.
The same as most other small businesses. The ones who make a lot have hustled a lot. The rest get by or go out of business.
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asmileaday
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 9:43 am
Tranquillity and peace great post!
I sometimes wonder how wigs are so cheap given all that's involved in the process!
Clients don't realize it.
They come, choose a wig, shell out 2k bucks and think wow that was a quick 2k earned for the sheitalmacher!
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monseymom25
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 10:02 am
| Quote: | | Someone is making a packet by forcing even not well off families to vastly overpay |
And btw no one is twisting anyone's arm. People have plenty of options for buying sheitals of ranges of quality in all different price ranges.
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asmileaday
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 10:06 am
| monseymom25 wrote: | | Quote: | | Someone is making a packet by forcing even not well off families to vastly overpay |
And btw no one is twisting anyone's arm. People have plenty of options for buying sheitals of ranges of quality in all different price ranges. |
Yes but as usual people want the best quality the nicest wigs without having to pay the price. 
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TranquilityAndPeace
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 10:15 am
| asmileaday wrote: | | Yes but as usual people want the best quality the nicest wigs without having to pay the price. |
You can get lucky, often with new businesses. Or business owners who are not smart about their business plan, and care more about looking busy than making a profit!
Most of the time, you get what you pay for.
As a photographer, I see the same thing in my industry. People think I clicked the shutter button for an hour or two and collect hundreds of dollars. There are so many behind the scenes expenses that clients cannot begin to imagine!
I spoke to the owner of a frum children's clothing boutique and she told me that she has not yet been able to pay her suppliers for the season. And people kvetch about the pricing of her clothing.
Most small business owners are being savvy about charging what they can, while retaining their clientele. Good for them! It's a challenging balance.
If a sheitel macher lowers her pricing substantially, she will definitely get more sales. But those sales cost more hours of work, more products to buy, more customer service, more bookkeeping work, more hours for which to pay the staff, and less sleep!!! So it often doesn't make sense!
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Bnei Berak 10
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 10:37 am
Customer usually only see the price they are paying. Business owners know that from what you paid they need to deduct: payment to suppliers, salaries to employees, taxes, rent of wig saloon, marketing material etc etc.
I strongly believe that with sheitels you get what you pay for.
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IMHopinion
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 10:51 am
Never mind a new Sheitels. I don’t buy that often.
But why is a simple wash and set average $50-100?
I’m so annoyed at these prices m. Wigs need to be reset so often.
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mommy3b2c
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 10:56 am
| BadTichelDay wrote: | Let me be a troll devil on this - I'm just wearing an elegant grey headscarf with a leopard pattern. Cost 30 NIS -about 10 $
edit: hope no one feels offended - I guess a lot of people can't really choose what to wear and have to go by community standards. |
Or maybe some people don't want to wear a headscarf. My community doesn't make me wear anything. I like aheitels.
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Bnei Berak 10
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 11:15 am
| IMHopinion wrote: | Never mind a new Sheitels. I don’t buy that often.
But why is a simple wash and set average $50-100?
I’m so annoyed at these prices m. Wigs need to be reset so often. |
50-100 bucks?! Are you serious??  THAT is a total robbery in broad daylight!!
Where do you live?
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BH5745
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Sun, Nov 05 2017, 11:31 am
| IMHopinion wrote: | Never mind a new Sheitels. I don’t buy that often.
But why is a simple wash and set average $50-100?
I’m so annoyed at these prices m. Wigs need to be reset so often. |
Yes you're right! A friend recommended I learn to wash and set my own sheitel. After watching tutorials (Binah Wigs has a good one) I began washing/conditioning, air drying and then heat styling (curling) my own sheitel. You can save thousands of dollars on a few years of washing and setting your own.
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