Just as I was putting conditioner on what remains of my hair, a sudden thought struck me.
What a huge market the hair industry is.
HIGHLY COMPETITIVE INDUSTRY:
Walk into any supermarket and you will see 15 or 20 feet of shelves full of hair products. Dozens of companies vie for shelf space and are constantly waging a war with rival companies to gain a bigger piece of the pie. It does not just stop with shampoo and conditioner. Now there is an endless parade of moisturizers and hair enrichment products. Most of which demand very high retail prices.
HAIR ACCESSORIES:
Of course after the shampoos and conditioners all sorts of hair accessories are necessary to manage all that long flowing, glistening hair. Brushes, combs and vanity sets can be found in pretty well every bathroom. Not to mention hair dryers, curlers, gels, creams, and sprays.
THE HAIR COLOR MARKET:
Almost a product line of its own is the market for hair coloring. Blondes want to be brunettes and brunettes want to be redheads. Sooner or later they all want to have black hair and all the colors in between. For the very daring, there is blue and green and pink. Then of course there are the formulas for men who want their greying hair to stay black, brown or blonde.
HAIR SALONS:
What a huge industry this is. Beauty parlors are found in pretty well every town and city in the world. Women will pay top dollar to have all that hair styled just the way they want it. Not only that, they will buy shampooing and conditioning product from salons that are most likely two and three times the price of the local supermarket or big box drug store. Barber shops are going the way of the dinosaur and have given way to the lower cost, high volume hair cutting chains. Also, many beauty salons cater to just about as many men as women.
HAIR LOSS INDUSTRY:
Just in case you are losing your hair there is an entire industry off-shoot that will help(or at least try)to grow your hair back. This brings about an array of hair loss creams, lotions and procedures. And to think all of this is in the name of vanity.
THINK OF THE CONSEQUENCES:
Just think if the next generation of human beings were born hairless. Bald. Everyone. As it is, those in the hair industry must shudder every time they see groups of people become bald in the name of some charity. Just think of the money bald people must save. And well, the money the hair industry must lose.
Without hair, billions of dollars would be lost. As would thousands of jobs. But on the other hand, all that money people would save would be spent elsewhere. Maybe grocery shelves would have rows of bald head buffing products. I'm sure they would come up with something. There is always a way to attack a persons vanity and separate that person from their money.
BALD WOMEN?
There is a sameness about bald women. It seems that they lose so much of their identity as compared to men. For women, their hair is such a big part of their visual and sexual appeal. Was that Brittany Spears I just saw with all her hair shaved off? Boy, does she ever look ordinary. There is just no other way to describe Brittany with no hair. Ordinary.
Personally, I hope women always have their hair. Long, flowing hair. Brown, blonde, black or red hair. Cute short hair. Waist length hair. Straight or culy hair. Pink and blue punk hair.
Any kind of hair. I don't really care. All I know for sure is a world full of bald women sure would be boring.
Is anyone going through a tough time leaving a hair salon? My girlfriend is. I realized how cutthroat this business can be when worlds collide. It can be extremely difficult because of the debate over who \"owns\" clients, the work involved in moving those clients to a new location and the inevitable resentment for a former employee looking to better themselves by starting their own business.
Many salon owners feel that if a client walks through their doors, they are almost the property of that salon; NOT TRUE! The person(s) performing services such as those in the cosmetology industry are up to the discretion of the customer. If a client is comfortable with a beautician and feels that they have established a good relationship with that person, they will be inclined to follow that person as long as the change is within reason for the customer.
For a person in the beauty industry, change is inevitable. Nobody walks into a salon to cut hair and retires from the same location 50 years later unless they are a statistical anomaly. Therefore, anyone owning such a business should be prepared for the occasional quitting or \"moving on\" of any employee. To not be prepared for such an event is foolish. It is also foolish to let one person become the main source of revenue without offering that person any type of benefit or small perk such as direct deposit.
Not offering any benefit or fringe benefit to a valued employee will ultimately result in the departure of that person. Sadly, many ex-bosses find themselves desperate in such a situation and resort to tactics that are unbecoming of a business owner. Former employers may slash prices drastically although it could be detrimental to their bottom line. Some people have even been known to contact The Department of Health, Fire Department, and building inspectors in a feeble attempt to stall the opening of a business opened by a former employee. Such tactics only stall progress for determined individuals and actually help them become more savvy in the dog eat dog world of looking good.
Please take what I\'ve written into consideration. If you are a shining star in a dark corner of our universe , remember - change is inevitable and with change comes a few bumps in the road. I\'ve learned that it\'s all about how you handle the bumps; especially the bumps on your forehead that were put there by your former employee who is looking down at you as you as you writhe on the pavement while asking god how this could have happened. Don\'t ask him for anything now....... he\'s not happy with you lately.
Woody U. Havtasayfayoself