Yesterday, I had a lunch in the Taj hotel in Chennai (Madras) and enjoyed fresh Mackerel wrapped in banana leaves. What a dish! If I would enjoy half of my time here as I enjoyed this meal, I would run to the local ministry of internal affairs and apply for an Indian passport. You have to redefine your definition of good food after leaving this country.

India is one of the countries where hotels prove to you that they still know how to do certain things other than charging high prices. Cooking is one instance. Service with good intentions is another one. And I’m putting a lot of emphasis on the good intentions because their disorganization skills will drive you crazy. In principle, people are good hearted here and willing to do on a regular basis many of the things that we forgot in the West.

The Taj is owned by the largest company in India. They have over 10 hotels in India, all of which are very impressive, expensive and designed with good taste. In Mumbai (Bombay) you will have to pay $500 per day for a basic room in their flag ship hotel. Then you step outside to the beach that is only 100 yards away from the hotel’s entrance and see all the poverty. There are so many stark contrasts in this country.

My lunch is finished and now back to work.

One of my biggest problem that I have since the beginning is achieving a low breakeven analysis but very high fixed cost per product. One way is to reduce expenses, but since they are low already the other factor of this equation forces me to increase number of kilos per month. This is a known factor but we don’t know how to do it and this is why I’m here again only 2 months after my last visit.

In order to succeed this time I decided to conduct the micromanagement myself. Which means I must approve all the daily schedules, assign the tasks to the production employees as well as to my managers, supervising the execution of the tasks and applications on an hourly basis, collect data during lunch time instead of only by the end of the day, trying to understand the reasons for running late (due to employee performance or bad production planning due to error in collecting and analyzing previous data), reading and analyzing reports and preparing new instructions and Correction Plans (CP is the most popular term in my factory). Then I have to change and update the drafts of the company’s business/strategic plan which results in changing the business model.

All the time I feel that I am getting closer to what I envision and expected this company to be. Then I remember that India is one of those rare places where you may find yourself getting closer while you are actually drifting away from your point of destination.

In order to prepare mentally, to withstand the amazingly high humidity (85%-90% humidity and 105 F-115 F temperature), I decided to come to the office with a very simple and light T-shirt, shorts and sandals. 3 hours into the work day, I was outside of my cool office, at the administrative section when my 11:00 AM meeting showed up only 50 minutes late. I approached him together with my loyal assistant, Ganesan (One of the Indian Gods). I asked the guy for his name and he replied to Ganesan while completely ignoring me. It seems like my clothes are so poor he decided that I’m just another production employee. I forgot that in the south of India people will judge other people by the way they dress. 

End of day I return to my hotel. And no it is not the Taj. I have a meeting with my new Yoga instructor. Yoga is one of the most accurate and detailed systems that I know for “personal growth”. One day I asked my managers if they practice Yoga and then noticed some hesitation among them until Ganesan, who has been my loyal employee since day one in India, had the courage to tell me “No sir.” with a smile on his face “Only foreigners are doing Yoga in India”.

Color matching for custom blends is an issue with quite a lot of obstacles. When a prospective client comes to your salon for a new hair system the technician will either clip a tiny sample of hair from the client’s head or they will try to match the color of the client’s hair using a color ring.

The main problem with color matching is the lighting conditions in a closed room. I know there are “rumors” of special halogen bulbs that are capable of mimicking natural light. You have the option of making a nice investment and replacing all your bulbs. I consider this a MAJOR MISTAKE!  Stick with natural light. It’s affordable and accurate. If you have a window or access to sunlight in your establishment, use it. Don’t hesitate to walk outside. Make sure you are not standing directly under the harsh glare of the sunrays or you will see too much gold and red. Instead go 2-3 feet into a shaded area for indirect light. Don’t forget to take with you both the color ring and your client’s head (make sure that the body is attached) and then choose the right color from the color ring.

Several years ago we tested a few different systems for the blending department in my company. One system was an advanced light box with 3 different types of light sources in 3 different wavelengths. The mixture of the 3 lights was supposed to generate the closest possible to natural light. Considering the low price of the unit ($2,500), I tried to convince myself that it posed a reasonable solution. I stopped deluding myself. Then I tested a $15,000 computer system that has a small but accurate scanner accompanied by a small source of light. The technician scans the sample of hair and generates a reading such as: 77% Yellow, 19% Blue and 4% Red.  But I would have to run a test on the initial sample that the client sent to me and another one on the hair that we blended and then to add or remove according to the results. You try to explain to your production employees that they must blend in another 14% of blue, 3% red and deduct 5% yellow! The main problem with this system is that the small source of light was inaccurate and the manufacturer admitted it was a feature that still required research.

In most cases, a very small sample of the client’s real hair is taken for color matching. These samples are usually so small that it would be better if we call the client and ask for a description of the color and just ignore the sample. A small sample of 10 strands does not tell the whole story of the client’s hair color.

Then there is the issue of where the sample originated. Another problem of which at times can be even more complicated than the small clipping, especially if the sample is taken 1” to 1.5” from the ends of hair.  The ends are usually much lighter, up to 1 level or more, than in the center or root of the hair strand. The sample that you are sending to your supplier for color matching can be misleading and the hair system will not match the client’s total hair color. The best policy will be to clip a nice sized sample even if the client is screaming that you are taking the last of his hair. Try taking small amounts from several different areas and not only the roots. Don’t keep human hair samples on file for more than 1 year as they oxidize, even inside a sealed envelope. After the first 6 months, I suggest to check the sample on file against the customer’s color to verify the match. Unfortunately, most of us are getting older and colors can change every month.

We have revamped our copper ring line, added 3 new colors and 1 new size. Here are the details:

What was once size large is now extra large. This will soon be a discontinued item since the size is much too large to use with our Cylinder hair extensions.

What was once size medium is now size large. Why? Because it was too confusing to order the Cylinder extensions and then the coordinating copper ring size. So now when you order small tip cylinder extensions you order small size copper rings. When ordering large tip cylinder extensions you order large size copper rings.

We have also added a new size we call “intermediate”. It is for the small tip extensions and you would order these if you prefer a looser fit. Sometimes our small tip extensions fit tightly into the small copper rings and some stylists prefer to have a little more space for their client’s hair.

The 3 new colors: Ash brown, Tan and Mid brown. These are all neutral to ash colors. Until now many of our colors were too warm and we were missing some inbetween shades. These new colors will make a nice addition to the line.

As of today, Sept 25th 08, we mailed out new samples sheets to all current copper ring customers. Email us if you would like to receive the new sample sheet if you haven’t received one yet.

Twilight is an upcoming 2008 film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s 2005 best-selling novel of the same name. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, the film stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. The film will be released in the United States on December 12, 2008.

The question isn’t who is wearing a wig or piece in this production, but who isn’t!! Until Victoria Wood brought this project to us we hadn’t even heard of the Twilight books. No young adult vampire book readers here at Hair Compounds.
This was another one of those projects that we had to color match and blend custom European bulk hair AND make some hand-tied wefts within 1 week for Bella, Alice, Rosalee, James, Esmee, Edward, Jacob and Bella’s doubles.

Based on William Steig’s novel and Dreamworks’ popular animated film, ‘Shrek the Musical’ follows the adventures of Shrek, a lovable swamp-dwelling ogre; his wisecracking sidekick, Donkey; the lovely Princess Fiona; Lord Farquaad and a chorus of everybody’s favorite fractured fairytale creatures. With more layers than ever and a completely original new score, ‘Shrek the Musical’ proves that there’s more to the story than meets the ears. - TheaterSource

The production staff at Hair Compounds spent a couple of months bleaching, dyeing, blending and finishing literally pounds of custom European hair for the character wigs worn for Shrek the musical.
Although they didn’t use only our custom European hair for all the characters it was definitely quite a lot of them. We worked on Lord Farquaad, the Ladies in waiting, the mermaids, Peter Pan, the Flower girls and many other characters.
Everyone had fun picking out bundles and imagining it as the finished wigs for Farquaad and wondering if the actor was horizontally challenged and if he would get a crick in his neck for wearing a wig with a full pound of hair in it.
Victoria Wood, Emmy nominated wigmaker and one of our favorite people, wove her magic (or should we say ventilated magic) turning out many of the character wigs for this great musical.

In 2001 I had the brilliant idea to open a factory in India. Russian hair was starting to run out and we needed a new source and new line of hair products. We had been importing Indian hair and I had even visited a couple times to try and establish a good relationship with exporters. Didn’t matter - it was still a gamble from the moment we wired the money to the exporter until we received the box of hair. I knew if I wanted control over the hair quality I would need to set up my own office with my own employees. And from there grew the idea to set up a real factory where we would not just buy Indian hair but manufacture it from beginning to end. And so began my adventure. My name is Isaac. I am the owner of Hair & Compounds, Inc. (USA) and Different Hair Pvt. Ltd. (India), with my partner Elizabeth. The following are excerpts from my emails and journal that I wrote during my stays in India.

“I don’t want to be an Indian hair manufacturer!!!” I’m screaming and pulling my hair out. Someone told me that I should be proud of myself for succeeding to deliver any hair at all from India. I now understand why. If you know someone who wants to buy a hair factory (Sounds terrible, doesn’t it?) just let me know. I promise to take him or her to all the best restaurants around as compensation.
I have so many problems here so I thought to commit suicide today and I went and had the hottest Masala for lunch. I not quite but almost killed myself.
Even breakfast is so hot here. They put small green chilies in the Raita (Yogurt mixture) so even this yogurt side dish that is supposed cool down my pallet set it on fire. And it’s only 7:00 AM. To be on the safe side I asked the waiter for Raita with no chili and coffee with no chili. The waiter is smiling. I’m not.

I never have seen a country that was so messy yet so interesting. I don’t know which of these two descriptions ascribe to the British that left this country in 1947. It seems like they did not spend much time out on the streets. On the other hand, it is so hot and humid here for so many months out of the year that there are days where I feel that parts of my body are just melting and evaporating away, so I don’t blame the Brits much.

My taxi driver drops me at my office in the morning, goes to sleep in the car, wakes up when we go to have lunch, comes back, falls asleep again until 8-9 PM when I ride back to my hotel room. The following day when he picks me up from the hotel, I asked him how did he sleep last night and he replies: “I slept for 9 hours like a baby”. If to judge by his driving skills it seems to me that he never woke up from his long night of sleep. Scary!

I would not be able to summarize in one article the driving situation in India. Not even in a series of articles. CNN will have to send a full crew or otherwise no one will believe my description. I can only tell you that in LA we have 6 lanes on an average freeway and you can see 6 cars across only in rush hour. Here in India there is only 1 lane per direction but you see 6 cars across at all times with no exaggeration! No wonder my eyes feel a bit “crowded” and by the time I get to my office I have cold sweat all over me and I have lost 4-5 pounds.

Customers often ask why a lot of the hair they buy appears shiny, which imparts a feeling of quality, compared to normal scalp hair. I know most hair dealers claims they sell Remy hair or cuticle hair but 99.9% of the hair sent to us by customers are verified as non-cuticle processed hair under the microscope. Now why does it look shiny compared to normal hair? The answer is a simple matter of light reflection.

The above schematic diagram (Csepluch, et al, J. Soc. Cosmet. Chem., 44, 299 (1993) illustrates the many angles along the hair fiber’s surface. The overlapping cuticles are open at an angle of 2-3%. Then you must consider the fact that each individual cuticle has an uneven surface. In order to complete the explanation, I will remind you that a ray of light will reflect off an object at the same angle it hits the object.

Since the cuticles have an uneven surface and lay at an angle, which also creates different angles, light will reflect off the surface in multiple angles. This is called light scattering, and surprisingly enough there are only a few labs (much more sophisticated than my lab) around the world that are able to measure light scattering.

You will have noticed that non-cuticle hair appears shinier and healthier than cuticle hair and can often fool you into thinking it actually is healthier than cuticle hair. This is purely an illusion of reflected light. A non-cuticle hair fiber is reflecting light off a surface that is without the angles of the cuticles. Which means the non-cuticle surface is acting more like a mirror when bouncing back the light rays. Take a look at your desk and see the amount of light reflected off the smooth surface. If you were to take the same desktop, break it into small pieces and reposition them at different angles on top of each other, I can assure you that the reflected light would be scattered and would measure quite differently.