Hair is the opportunity to restore profits

Importance of hair care has totally increased and one can actually enjoy the fun of combing their hair till eternity. The hair care and hair restoration industry has now made a big grip on India and is surely making people look young and confident than ever. Let’s know more about the well-paid opportunities in this sector and how India is becoming an acknowledged name in terms of hair restoration services.

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir have gone for it and so has Shane Warne, Saurav Ganguly and many more biggies. The hair transplant and restoration sector is flooded with heavy endorsements and services consumed by the celebrities. This surely assures the common man to go in for the services in India and also, gives a self-belief to the entrepreneurs to invest in the brands available in India. In 2010, the global hair restoration industry was worth $1.9 billion and India contributed 14 per cent of that, according to a 2012 report by Francorp. The market grew at an average rate of 22 per cent over the past three years and is expected to grow by 37 per cent between 2012 and 2015. Not just in metro cities, such services are now available in tier-I and II cities also. With the growing stress levels and falling hair problems, the opportunities in hair restoration industry have gone even higher.

Direct Hair Implantation (DHI) Medical group is headquartered in Greece and committed to restore confidence of the people who are suffering from baldness. As a part of its clientele; DHI has many renowned doctors, newscasters and celebrities.  USA’s renowned MAX Hair Studio also specialises in surgical and non-surgical hair re-growth procedures and extensions for men and women. More than 64 per cent of men above 35 years face baldness issues due to several reasons like pollution, water contamination and hereditary in India. Anindam Samanta, Head Operations, India & Asia Pacific, MAX Hair Studio opines: “We are a complete hair replacement expert in surgical and cosmetic that specialise in rejuvenating, replacing and remodeling your hair style just the way you had dreamt of. We have the most equipped hair studios with all the latest technologies and treatment methods. The hair studio is known for its hygiene, professionalism, privacy and customer care.”

Another brand, Advanced Hair Studio (AHS) was started in the 1970s in the USA. The 2.4 billion dollar company is renowned across the world for the best infrastructure with the state-of-art facilities in hair replacement and hair re-growth industry. AHS launched its operations in India in 2007 and offers same facilities, experience to the Indian customers through its seven studios spread across India–Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ludhiana and Ahmedabad. The company offers two clinical and two cosmetic procedures along with a wide range of products and medications for all hair loss related problems in all these studios.

Preference for India

As per DHI spokesperson, Delhi and Mumbai are the most preferred cities for hair restoration but other metros like Bengaluru, Kolkata and tier-I cities are also picking up and gaining popularity. There was a time when people used to travel overseas for such treatments but now scenario has totally changed.Sanket Shah, Chief Executive Officer, Advanced Hair Studio, India Sub Continent & The Middle East, said: “Cricketer Gautam Gambhir is a testimony to the truth that coming to Advanced Hair Studio leads to complete satisfaction, delivering results suited one’s age, face type, personality, profession, and aspirations/expectations.”

Target group

Rising stress levels, late night working hours, lack of exercise and many other factors have lead to the hair fall problem in the early 20’s age group too. As per experts, young clientele (early 20’s and 30’s) is increasing in the hair restoration centres. Samanta of MAX Hair Studio points out: “The target group requires some instant and permanent solution at very affordable prices. We deal with the pain area of the customer providing solutions to all kinds of hair problems under one roof.”

Challenges

Just like other industries, even hair restoration sector witnesses certain challenges and has prepared itself to overcome them soon. As per DHI spokesperson, the biggest challenge is that there are no defined protocols in this industry. Clients are not fully aware about the techniques and treatments used in hair restoration. When clients come to us they are emotionally vulnerable since their hair loss has affected their confidence. A lot of doctors take advantage of it and make false promises for results but at the end results don’t come because doctors do not know the correct way of doing it. Secondly, India is a price sensitive market, hair restoration is offered at cheap prices to lure the clients. It is a medical procedure where only advance techniques and practices can guarantee good results but we have seen that clients also compromise on quality over prices and prefer older techniques for hair restoration and then regret on their decisions.  

Expansion plans

DHI has 18 clinics out of which 13 are run by the franchisees. It is currently present at 17 cities in India. In 2014-15, it plans to open clinics at four to five more locations such as Patna, Bhubaneswar and Jammu. MAX Hair Studio has two centres in Chennai and Hyderabad. The brand soon plans to open franchise centres in Bengaluru and Coimbatore. MAX also has ongoing international projects in South Africa. AHS carries a vision to open studios in all metro and mega cities of Indian-Sub continent and The Middle East.

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