Part 2: Pro's And Con's Of Trending Service Niches

Hello, my friend. Welcome back to the Modern Hairstylist Podcast. This is gonna be a part two of talking about trending service niches and specializations in the industry right now, and talking about the pros and cons of each of them. I have a lot of experience in analyzing a lot of these with my current, uh, people, because I preach to specializing and niching down all the time.

And you'll see a recurring theme if you listen to part one, that, like, a lot of these guys will get- make a lot of money, and they'll get a lot of clients very quickly, and the reason why is because they're specializing. And so specializing can be very powerful, but each specialty comes with its own unique pros and cons, and that's why I wanna talk about with these unique trending ones, what the pros and cons of each of them are, so that way you can decide for yourself if it's the right one for you to niche into, or if it's currently the one that you have now, give you more things to consider in what is next for you or what you need to look out for. If you didn't listen to part one, highly recommend that you listen to part one right now, so go back, come back here. In the last episode, we went all over head spas, curly hair specialists, extensions, and in this episode we're gonna be going into toppers, men's toppers, gray transformation, and trichology/hair loss specialists.

We're gonna be talking about the pros and cons of each, 'cause I see a lot of it right now and a lot of people getting into it. So Jodi, I'm having a little bit of a difficult time figuring out if this can live as a specialty on its own, versus if it has to always be paired with extensions to be feasible. I think where my tea is with this is, like, from a marketing perspective, I'm trying to figure out, like, the split between this from a marketing perspective as a specialty, versus, like, an actual operational services that you offer perspective, right? Because it's like, if you offer toppers as a part of your extension business, you have more solutions for people, right?

And that allows you to, to take care of more people and not say no to as many people, versus, like, if it just toppers itself and you're marketing as toppers itself, you're then, like, speaking to a more direct clientele. But I want to hear what your thoughts are. There is a lot of, like, solution awareness, I think, in the extension world to begin with, and I think there's so many different ways to go. Like, if you're someone whose extension business is, like, more about, like, adding density and, like, you know, like, solution based versus, like, I want a whole bunch of length, and you find a lot of your clientele is coming to you because they're concerned about, like, thickness and all of that, this would be a really great natural, like, evolution.

And I think if you were marketing more towards, like, you know, the, the pain points of, like, that thinning hair or, like, not having the density you want or having those, um, like, that thinning on the top, I feel like you probably could, but I think you're right in the sense that it likely, in order to be really effective, would have to be paired, because I think a lot of the time toppers are paired with, like, adding a little bit more density in other places as well. So I think that the pros here, as we've already illustrated, is that you're offering more diverse range of services. You're able to offer more solutions to this person. I think that people are willing to pay for toppers very much so in an even more serious way.

Because normally when people want toppers, it's because they have a little bit... It's more of a, it's more than just I want more length or fullness. It's I have, like, balding at my scalp, and that's embarrassing. You know?

I think it's a little bit more of an intense pain point, and that's where, like, we make the switch from extensions just being a, quote-unquote, "luxury service" to this feeling more like a necessity to the person, particularly if they have to be presentable in one way or another to their jobs, for their jobs. And if that's how this person feels and their perceived value of, like, this, I feel like you can charge more for it and people are going to be, uh, in high demand for it. This creates really large, big transformations, so that's very powerful for the thing that you're doing for people. It's very passion, uh, can be very passion driven, and also that creates really great before and afters.

Uh, and that creates more social proof, that creates more striking marketing, as we've kind of illustrated in part one. So again, go listen to part one, 'cause it sets us up really well for this episode and what, everything I'm talking about here. I think the cons here is when you have a more intense, when you have a more intense, uh, insecurity, then you are going to have more sensitive, uh, uh, feelings about it, more emotional weight around it, so you're gonna be dealing with a lot more emotional things. You're gonna be dealing with people who have cancer.

You're gonna be dealing with people who have medical issues, who went through traumatic experiences. Their hair was a big part of that. Hair is already intrinsically a huge part of somebody's identity before they go through the trauma, uh, in, in their life, right? So then they get to you, and they've already gone through a lot, so they want to be, they, you need, they need to be trusting of you.

You need to be willing to be able to hear what they are going to, to dump on you. I think that's a lot. I think that's a lot. Um, I also think that you're gonna be speaking to, with this, you're gonna be speaking to, if you decide to kind of go all in on toppers as the, uh, the specialty, it's a much more specific clientele and you have to do a little bit more research, and you have to be very specific in your pain points and the way that you're showing up and where you're showing up.

And I also think, too, that, and then we're gonna talk about this with trichology, that you're gonna run into more medical situations, I think, and you have to be very careful as far as, like, are you using glue? Is, can this person handle tension on their head? Uh, I, I had a client who fractured their skull into, like, literally 1,000 pieces. Like, I'm not being dramatic.

Like, genuinely, that was the situation, um, in a, in a horse, uh, accident. And I had to be very careful with the way that I massaged her scalp, with the way that I touched her head, and she was so grateful that I did so. Right? But it's like, I can't imagine if that person, because of the thing that they went through, you know, wanted to get a topper and then I had to handle that.

Like, that's, like, a big deal. There's extensions on that person. That's, like, very sensitive, right? So that's my tea with toppers I add one more pro that I just thought of while you were talking.

I think that with this type of service, you have the ability to serve a market that is historically underrepresented and not seen. Like, I think the age group of women that typically go through and are looking for these types of solutions do not see themselves in almost anything when it comes to marketing. And so I feel like there is a pro there in the sense that you have that opportunity to, like, really make that segment and that demographic and those people looking for that solution and wanting to feel good about themselves, like, you have an opportunity to make those people feel seen and valued, and I think that's really beautiful too. Completely agree.

Very much so. And then with that also too, um, another pro, something that's definitely on your side, is that this person has probably tried a lot of solutions maybe up until this point that were, like, vitamins, whatever the fuck- Mm-hmm ... and it's like, this is like a... It's, it's almost a guaranteed solution, right?

Yeah. Like, it's like, it's like there's no question about it. You're getting instant gratification, instant results. You will have hair on your head versus- Yeah ...

like the surgery, the laser, the vitamins, the medication. It's like a 50/50. You have to do this consistently, whatever it may be, where it's like this is a very quick gratification thing that is guaranteed to work. So a lot of pros and cons here.

Yeah, for sure. And I think that paired with extensions is interesting, depending on how you wanna go about it. Again, like, you have to... I, I have, I'm, I have to think about this from, like, a marketing perspective where it's like are you going to lead as a topper ex- a topper specialist?

Are you going to lead as an extensions specialist? Are you gonna try to do a mix of both with some other type of vocabulary? Or is this just going to be something that you add to your service offerings that will allow you to speak to more people within the niche that you already have, such as extensions? Right.

Speaking of toppers, men's toppers. I'm very much on the path to baldness, okay? It is what it is, and I'm very much like... I've been p- I've been preparing myself for this since I was, like, 16, okay?

Like, being a hair stylist, I've always paid attention to hair, right? So I'm like, "This is probably gonna happen to me one day." I'm probably manifesting it. Somebody recently told me that I have to stop manifesting it.

I'm like, "This is going to happen to me. I've been saying that for years, and it's coming true." Like, I'm definitely receding a little bit. I do not have as much hair as I had, I, I used to have.

And literally for years, I have Googled in my local area, like, men's toppers because I was like, I'm like, "That is the solution that I want one day." Like, that is what I wanna do. I don't wanna go get surgery. I don't wanna try some bullshit.

I don't wanna fuck with my body and my hormones and all that stuff. I wanna fucking go get the topper, okay? Let me tell you something. I will pay so much money.

I don't give a fuck. I don't care, okay? And I'm gonna tell you that especially many of you guys already know being hair stylists and maybe even having a male partner, hair loss, men don't have to worry about fucking anything. We're, we are so privileged when it comes to our appearances because we are not held to that same standard that women are, the, the ridiculous standard that women are held to.

So we have two, we- two main things a lot of the times that are, like, our biggest insecurities. It's our hair, and then it's our weight most of the time, right? So if, uh, hair and hair loss specifically is our main thing that can cause us so much distre- like, stress- Mm ... and make us so distraught, we will be very likely to want to spend a lot of money on the solution.

And I'm telling you, if you make this your specialty, you would make a fuck ton of money. Like, if more barbers would consider doing this, you would make so much money. I would look at it as a extremely sustainable business. This is not just a trend.

People are going bald all the, every... P- people are going bald for their entire lifetimes, right? I'm s- pretty sure we're very far from an actual ironclad, no side effect solution to male pattern baldness. Like, if you as a barber decided to offer this in your, in your barber shop and you made it a specialty, you would d- you would make a fucking killing, okay?

So anybody out there thinking about doing it, I highly recommend that you do it, okay? I mean, you'll see, like, the TikToks probably, maybe possibly, maybe some of you have. Like, there's, like, TikTok lives and just TikToks in general of people doing these, um, men's toppers and the replacement, uh, uh, installations, and they're very engaging videos. People will 100% watch them.

They'll ask a bunch of questions about it. So it's, it's a proven concept that not a lot of people have tapped into yet because, like I said, I'd be Googling in every single area wherever I go. I can't find anybody. Right.

But i- I told my barber, I was like, "I'll pay for your training." You know, once I- ... once I need this, I'm like, "Girl, I'll pay for your training. Like, you go get trained up, and then I'll be your person," you know?

So I think that there's a lot of pros there. Of course, you're, you're b- you're building somebody's confidence. You're creating a very, uh, retained and loyal clientele. As we know, men are oftentimes extremely loyal from a business perspective, not a motherfucking personal perspective.

And, uh, and I think it's just a really good niche to consider from the pros perspective. I think from the cons perspective, I think, of course, you're gonna have to manage the discomfort that men will have from the... or people, I should just say people, will have, uh, on their heads from, like, the glue and, like, whatever solution that you have in place. I think that, like, the solutions are getting better and better and easier and easier.

I have a friend, and I'm just gonna call him out, Stu, if anybody knows Stu on, uh, uh, Instagram. He's like a hair educator, and he's very open and honest about his topper, and he shows, like, him taking it off all the time and things like that. He showed me, like, um, like the more modern one that he has, and he's like, "It's so much more comfortable than the glue that I used to do." He had, like, a tape one, I think it was.

Mm-hmm. Um, and so this is becoming better and easier, but I think that, you know, keeping, like, a fricking thing on your, taped or glued to your head for, like, a week or two and not washing your scalp can get very uncomfortable. So you have to kinda deal with that with your clients, and I think that's a big thing that you have to be up against. You have to deal with the stigma and the embarrassment of hair loss, you know, men feeling comfortable to show you those things or be willing to be open to those things, but also the stigma of even just wearing a wig.

What's the old-school normal term for this? A, uh- Toupee? Toupee. Yes, a toupee.

Yeah, yeah. A toupee. Like, I can't tell you guys, and this is very personal, but, like, I can't tell you guys, like, I've... Whenever I've...

Somehow this conversation always comes up and whenever I'm talking to other boys, okay? And, like, from a dating perspective. Okay. I, whenever I tell, like, when I've told romantic interests that I'll just do a topper one day when I go bald, they are, like, so turned off by it.

Like, and I think there's just a ton of stigma, like, from, like, wearing a wig, you know? And this is gay men, by the way, right? So it's like even- it goes even that far. Right.

And so, again, you have to kind of, like, fight that stigma and get men to believe that this is something that's okay, normalized. There's nothing wrong with wearing a toupee, topper, situation, whatever the fuck you want to call it. It requires a little bit more precise skill and experience, and is a sensitive topic in general. I'm gonna shout out Angel.

Angel owns Banx Studio. You can go to banxstudio.com. It's B-A-N-X studio.

com. Angel owns, uh, owns this barber shop in LA, and he doesn't just do, uh, services, he also actually teaches people replac- hair replacement systems, so these men's toppers. And he's always been very kind, very sweet. The results that he has and the education that he does seems to be really cool, so that's why I'm giving him a shout-out here today.

So just one example if anybody's out there and you want the training. Last one but not least, and a little bit on the same topic-ish, is trichology. Okay. I am bringing this one up because I am seeing this big boom of all of a sudden everybody's getting a certification in trichology, and that's what everybody wants to do.

I am assuming there is some sort of marketing out there that is like, "You're gonna make a lot of money if you do this, you should learn how to do trichology scalp services." That's what I'm assuming is out there right now. Okay? I'm just going to just, for anybody who's seeing it and considering it, I want you to listen to these pros and cons.

All right? So first thing for the pros. The pros are these can be very, very high-ticket services. Like, very high-ticket services.

Depending on what you're offering, like, some people go as far as to have, like, a crazy, like, laser system thing, like, equipment that is, you know, you'll charge a lot of money for something like that, and then some people are just have, like, a bare minimum situation, but they can still charge a lot more, especially in exchange for their time, um, than their traditional cut and color services as a hairstylist. So, uh, uh, it can be a very profitable per hour endeavor for you. Um, it can be a lot less labor for you versus your traditional cut and color situations if you're just holding a laser and you're just, you know, doing whatever to people's scalps or doing whatever the hell you do to people's scalps for the trichology part of things. Sometimes a lot of this just comes down to consulting.

I mean, we know that a lot of the things that affect hair loss and hair growth are gonna be what you put in your bodies and what you're doing at home. And so I, I know that people, uh, who are literally just charging, uh, 100 bucks, 200 bucks to just have a con- consultation, and then sell their retail. So you're getting the money for the consultation and selling the retail. You're not doing any labor at all, so that's a huge pro there.

Um, and you're creating big transformations, so that's very good before and after types of things, very marketable photos. Um, and it's also very gratifying because you're supporting somebody in something that's very sensitive. And I believe that if you're going to be a... If you're going to get into this field, then being a hairstylist to start out with gives you a little bit of an edge versus somebody who just decides that they want to get into trichology and hair loss without any of that background experience.

But you also being a hairstylist complements it in many different ways as far as already having the clientele maybe that you can market to. So it's like m- now you have these solutions to an already existing clientele who may be good leads or prospects for these types of services. And then also being able to kind of double dip, where it's like you have these other services that this person could also get with you, or you can pair your trichology services with a blowout service or a shampoo or whatever it may be, right? So being a hairstylist I think complements trichology very, very well if it's something that you're doing in addition to.

Here are the cons. The certifications are out of control expensive, okay? I don't know all that goes into all of this stuff. What I do know is that this is like student loan level shit, okay?

And if that's giving you, like, an actual respectable certification, if this is going to actually, like, support you in being able to offer these solutions, then that's when the money becomes worth it. But you guys, I could decide to create a business certification tomorrow and market the fuck out of it and make you pay 10K for it, and I, and because I'm a good marketer, I could do that, you know? And what makes that certification any more valuable than any other certification, right? So I would just do your research is what I've just been trying to tell everybody here.

Just do your research. Make sure that the investment that you're making in whatever certification is actually a really worth it investment. Look at what your options are out there. But regardless, a lot of the times those certifications can be very large investments, so that's a big con.

And then the equipment, and again, this kind of depends on how, how much you're going to be putting into this. There's a bunch of different types of equipment that you can invest into. Um, I know I have one person that I work with closely who invested a whole lot of money into this machine that is proven to do really, really well, get people really great results. I'm even seeing it myself in, like, her own business as I'm coaching her and things like that.

It's really cool what this thing can do. But I mean, it's thousands of dollars of investment into this equipment and into her certifications. And, you know, w- it's a slow ROI. Like, this person is starting a brand-new kind of business, an extension of their business, and, like, this was a huge upfront investment.

And, you know, we're not just making a ton of money out the gate. We're putting a whole lot of motherfucking work into making this work, and we're going to make it work, but it's gonna take a minute. Like, this is, like, networking. This is somebody pitching to, like, 50 different publications to get featured in PR.

This is a ton of SEO. This is ton- a ton of, like, collaborating with doctors. Like, it's a very different game than the good old, "Let's post on Instagram as a hairstylist and grow the clientele." Right.

And so it's just a big upfront investment for what I don't think people are really expecting on the back end of, like, how hard it's going to be for you to pivot. Mm-hmm. Because it... this is more clinical-level shit a lot of the time.

It's, it's speaking very specifically to a lot of different types of disorders and diseases. That also brings us to the fact of, like, are you even legally allowed to talk about these things in certain ways in social media, in content? Um, I know that this person specifically is now held to certain HIPAA laws. Mm.

Like, this person has to be very careful in the way that they advertise. So again, depending on how you get into it, what your certification is, those are things that you have to consider, and it can make things more complicated and it can create a lot of upfront work for you that is required to actually get your return on your investment. And going back to are you a hairstylist right now who wants to get into this, this is not low-hanging fruit, right? This is not a somebody wants a color and cut, and so therefore they go to a hairstylist for a color and cut.

Like, that's how our brains work, right? Like, I want my hair colored, I want a haircut, I go to a hairstylist to get that done. I have hair loss, I go to the doctor. I get a topper.

I don't go to a hairstylist for hair loss, right? So, like, you are now, like, really having to positio- position yourself as a different thing than just a hairstylist at this point. Again, that takes a lot of different type of work and different types of knowledge, and to be found and to be chosen as the option over a doctor is a very difficult game, especially when you have maybe a clientele who has already invested in some solutions, even invested in the doctor's solution, and now is maybe even considering you. You know?

It's just, it's just not the low-hanging fruit. There's a lot of risk here. Do I think that you could make it work? Absolutely.

I'm seeing this person who has completely pivoted their very successful business and has started this, starting to grow more and more and more, more slowly but surely, but damn is it taking a lot of work on top of the current successful business that she already has. Yeah. So just take that into consideration. This is a long-term game situation, and there's a lot of pros, but there's also a lot of cons.

So take your time. Do your research. That's my tea with that. Yeah.

I think that all is super valid. It... to me, like, after hearing that explanation, it seems like more of a career switch versus a service niche within the hair industry. Yes.

Very much yes. When people come to me, for masterminds specifically, when they've already created a really great business for themselves and they wanna start this, again, it's like they've already created a really great, strong business for themself. I've never had somebody come to me with, like, "I want... Like, this is the specialty that I built all my success upon."

Mm. So it's like, maybe this is, like, a next-level thing, my friend. Like, maybe let's start with the low-hanging fruit, and then let's figure out the certification or whatever the fuck you're about to spend thousands of dollars on, right? Mm-hmm.

Okay. I'm done ranting. Hopefully this was helpful for you, my friend. Thank you so much, Jodi Brown, for supporting the podcast.

As per usual, I don't say it enough. Thank you for tuning in. I hope that this was insightful for you. If you got all the way through this and you didn't listen to part one, I don't know what the hell your problem is, but go listen to part one.

I told you to listen to part one already. Thanks for tuning into the Modern Hairstylist Podcast. Peace out, girl scout. Bye-bye.

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