How to start Hair Extension Business in Nigeria

 How to start a hair extension business in Nigeria and make a profit

According to recent research, it is estimated that Africa’s hair extension market is currently worth over $6 billion a year and growing quite rapidly.

This is really a huge market, especially when one considers the growing preference for human hair, wigs, and weaves among many contemporary African women young and old.

Even with the recent natural hair movement that has seen many African women going back to growing their naturally kinky hair, hair extension remains a convenient alternative for women who rock the hair extensions while growing their natural hair underneath simultaneously.

For many women, hair weaves and extensions are an essential commodity, not a luxury. It is an item equally as important as their clothing or makeup.

Many women find human hair and weave very handy. It serves them anytime, any day, comes rain come sunshine, thus, a must-have.

If you are looking to start a business here in Nigeria, the hair extension business is one of the most lucrative businesses in Nigeria right now.

For reasons I have stated above and for the fact that the human hair and weaves business is very profitable, I will strongly recommend this business for you.

How to start hair extension business in Nigeria

In my conversation with a lot of young Nigerians, I observed that a lot of people are interested in starting a business in Nigeria. But the challenge is that they have no idea what business they should start.

They may have a long list of potential businesses to start but they are not sure how profitable the businesses are and exactly what it takes to start and grow them in terms of numbers.

In this post, I will explain the details about starting a very unique business – a hair extension business. This hair extension and wigs business is highly profitable, scalable and the best part, you can start it with as little as 300k or less.

Now, let get started.

Steps to starting your hair extension business

1. Learn about the hair extension business
2. Carry out a market survey for the Hair extension business
3. Find out the pain point of your potential customers
4. Know your numbers and costs
5. Find a reliable hair extension supplier
6. Add related products to your hair extension line
7. Get the word out there
8. Invest in marketing

How to start a hair extension business in Nigeria

1. Learn about hair extension business and industry

If you want to start and grow a successful hair extension business in Nigeria, you have to know your onions.

If you naturally a fashionable woman, then, it’s likely you already know about weaves and hair extensions in their different sizes and shapes. But, then, there is more to the business than meets the eyes.

So, I’ll suggest you roll your sleeves and learn the pros and cons of the business.

The different types of hair extensions there are – Brazilian, Peruvian, etc, their different sizes and texture and colours; the different hair attachments like the extension attachment and its variants, colours, and sizes, etc.

As in every other business, there are some technicalities of the hair extension business like how to distinguish one hair type from another. Get familiar with the human hair extension industry as a whole.

2. Carry out a market survey for the Hair extension business

Doing a market survey before investing in your hair extension business is very important. Your survey will help you define who your ideal customers are, where to find them, what they want, and how many they are.

Your survey will help you find answers to important questions around the number of potential customers who will be buying from you.

How to reach them and how much you will need to invest in the business to meet the need of a segment of your target market to start with.

Investing in your hair business without answering some of these important questions may amount to pouring water in a basket, so make sure to carry out your survey before parting with your hard-earned money.

You may simply design a simple questionnaire and send it to your potential buyers to fill.

Their answers would give you a clue as to how much they are willing to part with to buy a hair extension; the average number they would buy in a year or six months, their preferred type of hair, their preferred inches, colours, etc.

3. Find out the pain point of your potential customers

If you want to start hair extension business in Nigeria and be successful at it, you need to satisfy a need of a certain group of people.

People don’t buy hair extensions (or even anything) because they love the seller or because the package is awesome. People buy because they NEED the hair extension.

So, if what you are selling does not meet people’s needs or solve their pain points, then, you can as well close shop already. No amount of marketing can make people buy hair extensions that they don’t need. After all, it comes at a cost to them.

If your potential buyers need human hair that ranges between 30-50k and you are selling yours for 200k-500k, then you need to look for a new set of customers who need this type of hair and sell for them.

The point I’m trying to make is that you should sell hair that meets the needs of your customers, not just what you feel is best for you to stock.

How to start a hair extension business in Nigeria     

4. Know your numbers and cost of your wig and hair extension business

Another step you need to take before starting your hair extension business in Lagos or any part of Nigeria is to count your cost and give numbers to them.

What types of hair would you need to stock in varieties and how many pieces of each would you need to buy? How much would it cost? How about the logistics of getting your hair extension imported from China to Nigeria?

What would the margin be if you bought from China directly? What would the margin be if you bought from a wholesaler here in Nigeria?

Would it still be profitable enough for you? How much would you need minimum to buy a few pieces of each type of hair that your potential customers need? Etc.

You need to figure all these out and know your numbers before approaching a wholesaler here in Nigeria or making your order from Alibaba.com for hair from China or any other legit website where you can import hair from China from.

China and India are the two main countries manufacturing human hair extensions in the world. So, you can either get from these two places.

Peruvian, Brazilian, and all other hair are just branded names, China and India are the two countries exporting hair to other countries in the world, especially, Africa.

However, most Indian hair companies now have outlets in Africa and Nigeria so, no need to import from India again.

But as for China, you could import from China and sell at a good price here in Nigeria. You do not need to travel all the way to China by yourself.

You could mini-import using websites like 1688 or Alibaba.com, or others. But make sure you use a legit mini-importation website to order your human hair products and any other items from China to Nigeria.

5. Find a reliable hair and wig extension supplier

One of the most important steps in starting your own hair extension business is to find a reliable hair extension supplier.

As I hinted at in the point above, you could either get your hair directly from China, or if you don’t have enough capital, for now, you could buy from hair suppliers or wholesalers here in Nigeria.

There are some hair dealers and suppliers who would be willing to sell to you at a reasonable price whereby, you would still be able to cash-out when you sell to your customers or even other retailers.

But I’ll advise that you have a goal of importing from China eventually someday. That way, you get good in bulk at a much cheaper rate, sell for a reasonable price to your customers while also smiling to the bank with a cool profit margin.

If you want to import from China directly, you may want to see this post on how to do mini-importation from China to Nigeria. But if you want to start with Nigerian suppliers for now, here is a list of hair extension and wig suppliers in Nigeria.

6. Add related items to your hair extension line

There are some other items that you could add to your human hair extension business like bands for weaves, needles, weave on oil, weave on a stick, hair treatments, human hair treatment, edges control, and so on.

Why it is important to add these items to your hair business is that it can draw people in such that they would be able to see hair extensions that you have and possibly patronize you.

Besides, it will also bring in some cash alongside which is not a bad idea.

How to start a hair extension business in Nigeria

7. Get the word out there

Once you’ve decided to start your hair extension business, it’s time to start telling people about it.

Let your friends, families, colleagues, neighbours, and everyone you come across know that you are into the hair extension business and you have beautiful stuff.

The power of word-of-mouth advertising is often underrated.

With word of mouth, your message spreads easily and you never know where your message would get as quickly as possible and the sales it will bring eventually.

So, never lose an opportunity to tell everyone and anyone you meet about your business, no matter how awkward it may feel.

And that’s how you can quickly grow your hair business in Nigeria. Remember, your word of mouth must also be backed with quality products that give value to customers’ money.

8. Invest in marketing/advertisement.

If you really want your hair extension business to grow and scale, word of mouth alone will not cut it. You would have to invest in advertisements and other forms of marketing.

Happily, this is the era of digital marketing and social media has made things very easy.

I can assure you that no matter who your target market is, they hang out of some social media platform be it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or even Instagram.

Why not spend some money on digital marketing, I.e. Google ads and/or Facebook ads, etc.?

Digital marketing doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg, in fact, it’s far cheaper than traditional marketing and it’s very easy to track the success of your ad.

You’ll also want to invest in your channel of distribution so that your product is effectively available for people to buy where ever they need it.

Rounding up

So, there you have it. Those are the few important steps you need to take when starting a hair extension business in Nigeria.

As usual, if there is anything I left out in this article, let me know in the comment session. Also, let me know if there is anything you want me to talk about in the blog or our YouTube channel.

Do well by following us on our YouTube channel, we have awesome content there and other social media platforms too.

Below are some other frequently asked questions about starting a hair business in Nigeria

Where do Nigerian Hair sellers buy from?

Nigerian hair sellers who are suppliers buy their hair extensions from China largely. For those who are Nigerian hair sellers – retailers, they buy from Nigerian suppliers. If you cannot afford to buy your products in bulk from China, you can find good deals with Nigerian hair suppliers.

How much does a hair vendor cost?

Hair vendor cost depends on your budget and the type of hair extension you want to deal in. You could start with 500k or more if you want to go into real human hair. On the other hand, you could start with less than 500k, it all depends on your budget.

How much does it cost to start a hair business in Nigeria?

Hair vendor cost depends on your budget and the type of hair extension you want to deal in. You could start with 500k or more if you want to go into real human hair. On the other hand, you could start with less than 500k, it all depends on your budget.