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How the pandemic has the global wig business hanging by a thread
- From India to China, North Korea and the United States, buyers and sellers of hair products are grappling with supply disruptions thrown up by the coronavirus
- Shortages are driving up costs that the smallest businesses are least able to afford
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American hair salon owner Nik Smith-Serrano has been desperate for any signs that a border half a world away will reopen soon.
Smith-Serrano’s Azul Hair Collection salon in Atlanta, Georgia, is running out of stock of premium lace wigs, which are usually assembled by hand in North Korea, a major manufacturing hub for Chinese companies.
Since borders around the world began closing to try to contain the coronavirus pandemic, it has become almost impossible to ship the materials for the wigs, including human hair, to North Korea, while stocks in North Korea cannot be shipped out, vendors in China say.
The trade flow has dried up, and prices have soared, and many worry that a devastating second wave of pandemic in India, the major source of human hair used in wigs and extensions, could further drive supply-chain woes.
“When the borders were closed in January last year, my vendors [in China] were telling me to stock as much as you can right now,” Smith-Serrano said.
“They said at that time that March could be better, and then maybe by August things might be back to normal, and that was in 2020 and we are still at the same position as the cost is going up.”
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