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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 goyim 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!
@Gavriel
In developing nations, females do grow and sell hair for income.
Here in the USA, I know many young ladies, including my 3 youngest daughters (when single) who grew their hair long, so the minimum 8″ could be cut and donated to ‘Locks for love’…an organization that makes wigs for cancer patients who have lost their hair from chemotherapy treatments.
Youngest daughter, had extremely long, thick and fats growing hair. She did this about 6 times from the age of 12 on. When she had her hair cut before her wedding this summer, 26″ was cut into 3 hanks to donate.you can buy 40 sheitels from the goyim but they dont last long. when you pay $$$$ for a sheitel you are getting for years to come
Hashem is punishing users of human-hair sheitels:
On the other hand, if hair really cost even a quarter of the cost of sheitels, you’d expect a lot of goyim 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.
Maybe a lot of the cost is in the labor.
Buy your wife sheitels from Paula Young.
I should buy my wife’s sheitels? Joseph, are you married?
Many years ago, my wife bought sheitels from Paula Young. Some were human hair, which IIRC were around $100. She’s definitely not a vain or materialistic person, but today she wouldn’t buy from them. I think now she usually gets sheitels from a gemach, and she keeps them for several years.
Here’s a reason to buy from an expensive sheitel macher: she’s probably supporting her husband in kollel. Think of your purchase as a Yissocher/Zevulun relationship.
Of course synthetics are cheapest, but they don’t last very long, and you still have to pay a pretty penny if you want optimal styling (and maybe add highlights as well). But it’s definitely the most kosher option.
One of the ways to cut costs on human-hair wigs is to buy shorter ones. And there’s a major tznius bonus to boot. Length is a major part of wigs’ prohibitive cost. Hair doesn’t grow all that fast if you’re talking feet, not inches.
YY: Why’d she stop buying from them?
They’re laborious to make, and they take more than one head of hair to make, because the density needs to be higher than a regular head of hair to hide the cap of the wig.
Also, it’s difficult to grow hair long enough to cut enough for a long wig while still having any hair left on your own head. Most hair wears at the tips about as fast as it can grow once it reaches a certain length. So you either need someone who grows unusually long hair, or who is willing to cut their hair extremely short. So, the cost of the hair can get high, particularly if you want it in more European textures and colors.
Shorter wigs are obviously cheaper, but they’re still not exactly cheap.
YY?
I have a brilliant idea, what about wearing a tichel or a kerchif?
I haven’t asked her. I don’t tell her what to wear (which maybe belongs in the topic on avoiding divorce). I’m guessing that she didn’t like the way they looked. I also seem to remember they didn’t last long.
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