Are home hair cutters helping or hurting the pro haircut business?
2020 and the corona virus pandemic has impacted haircut behavior. We have seen this before. In 2008 when the economy tanked home haircuts took off. They were back at it again this year. Pro haircutters were howling about it. But is it the menace they make it out to be?
Perhaps not.
Here are my thoughts on home haircutting and its impact on the pro hair cut business.
1. Home haircutting is not new and it is not going away. People have always done it. There will always be a market segment for it. The size of the segment is constantly in flux.
2. Home haircuts is huge. Perhaps 10% of the American population. Maybe as much as 32.8 million individuals giving it a shot. The market is big enough to make a business of it for anyone wishing to find an opportunity within it. The market is still small enough that you still have enough people to cut in the USA without these folks impacting your chair or shop or entire hair cutting chain. Can you find 400 clients within the remaining 295,200,000 people?
3. These were never your clients anyway. Home hair cutters are not choosing between you or them. They are choosing between them or nothing. You are not and were not ever an option for them anyway.
4. Home hair cutters are not competing for salon or barbershop clients. They guy who wants a barbershop experience will not opt for mom instead. The woman looking for a salon experience will not let her husband or best friend give it a shot.
5. Hair cutting is really not that easy. Home hair cutters are really not that good. Some can get by but most, at best, just get by.
6. If a hone haircut is really an alternative to the experience you provide that says a lot more about you then it does about that home haircut. Doesn’t it?
7. Your best bet is to offer to be a source of support. Reach out to and embrace home hair cutters. Let them know who you are and that you are not competition. You are expertise and assistance. You just might earn the opportunity to do the fixes when things do not go so well. You will create opportunities for the sale of products. You are a pre-existing relationship when the make the jump to going pro and then need a job.
Do not fear home hair cutting. Embrace all forms of hair enthusiasm and experimentation. No matter how it goes it is an opportunity for you at best and a non-issue at the least.
How do YOU feel about home haircutters? Let’s talk about it.
