I am assured you have wondered what the fact is about the prices of wigs made from European human hair. From supermarket to supermarket you will discover a great variation in prices – anywhere from 300 USD to as high as 10.000 USD (!). So let me take you through each step of the procedure of producing high quality handmade wigs, and show the exact costs.

Firstly, take the acquisition of hair. The cost of hair for one wig (0,2 to 0,4 kg) varies from 30 to 40 USD throughout most Eastern European countries. There is short variation there, but an top additional charge is incurred by high-quality wig-makers who collect hair in an appropriate and effectively-controlled method. 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 time-consuming to get efficiently good hair. One just has to discover a girl among hairdresser’s clients that has good-looking, vigorous hair and who wants it cut. The hairdresser can offer a free service to such a girl and actually pay her for her hair – and clearly together sides profit from such a transaction. But this shows that, by its very nature, acquisition of fine-quality hair cannot be a simple big-scale automatic procedure. That explains why outside of Eastern Europe the fee of acquiring fine quality hair is skyrocketing – not because the hair in itself is expensive, but because of its rarity. It is hard 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 prepared-made caps, so called “monofilament”, which are gaining fame and their charge is not very high.

Third, take the labor involved in making high quality handmade wigs. This is the main cost factor. Handmade wig wishes at least a week to be produced by an experienced professional worker. It takes a week of hard work, with each hair being knitted to the cap with a very small crochet-needle otherwise glued with a private glue. In the case of long hair, the production period could be two to three weeks. Reputable wig-makers knit hair with a double-knot which makes the construction much more durable but requests any extra work-time. Depending on the type of wig, length of hair and type of cap the value 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 charge 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 simply depends on how much a consumer is willing to pay, but before you pay 1000 USD or more for your wig remember the real 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 excellent quality European human hair available in large sufficient quantities to make profitable great-scale production in China possible. This is because wig-makers in Eastern European countries are buying everything of the available hair for their own production. Surprising? – but that is how it is. And that is why most of wigs produced in China are made of Asian hair otherwise blended hair widely available on a wholesale market.

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