Ask Karen - June 2001

June 20, 2001
Lots of Questions & Why No Swap Board?

Question

Dear Karen,

I am recently new to the Internet and I have been visiting a lot of hair sites lately.I first heard about you in 101 Hairstyles and then I saw you in Harris Publications on Bridal Hair.

I keep coming back to HairBoutique.com because in my opinion it is the best and I have heard that you are one of the oldest hair sites still active on the Net. Maybe you could tell me a little bit about how long you have been around.

I noticed, in my opinion, that many of the current hair sites seem to copy a lot of what HairBoutique.com does on the site. Which I know must be a compliment to you but I also wonder why you don't do certain things that the other sites do. Did you stop doing them because they started or what is the deal on that?

I hope I won't offend you or HairBoutique.com by asking why you don't sell the major hair care lines like ARTec, Aveda or Paul Mitchell on your site. Also, why do you sell only certain lines of products. I went to your awesome store and you sell tons of very kewl stuff. I just can't seem to figure out why you sell what you sell. Is it because you have a preference to those products?

Finally, I noticed some of the sites have swap messageboards where you can swap products with other people. Do you plan to add one of these soon? I am fascinated by the concept.

Keep up the work on your fabulous site. I read an article about you in a recent version of Working Woman Magazine where it said you have two companies besides HairBoutique.com. Can you tell me about those sites as well. I would like to visit since I really love hair and beauty sites like HairBoutique.com. I can't imagine how you can work on three companies at the same time.

A Noisy But Appreciative Visitor

Sandi In Pittsburgh

Answer

Dear Sandi,

Thank you for your email. I have to say that it made my day and tickled my funnybone.:-) Actually many people ask me the same questions you asked over and over. I try to answer them privately but will try and answer your questions publicly for anyone else who might be interested. Since you have asked several questions, I am going to break them down into separate answers.

Thanks for writing.

Best wishes,
Karen

Answer - How Long On Net - History Of Site

After The Long Hair Site, Victor's Men's Long Hair Site and a few others, Jeff and I were some of the first sites on the Net dealing with hair care. HairBoutique.com started life in a previous format on the Net as The Long Hair Video site that was developed starting in the Summer of 1996, launched in March 1997 and closed in late 1997. This original site was completely reformatted and redesigned from the ground up as HairBoutique.com.

The HairBoutique.com site was launched in March of 1998 with a newly developed business plan and focus. Although Jeff Hines, my co-founder and business partner and I both have waist length or longer hair, we appreciate that people have hair of all types, lengths and challenges. When we launched HairBoutique.com we decided to address all hair issues as our format.

I do agree that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Many hundreds of hair sites have followed us onto the Net over the past 5 years. And yes, many have obviously copied a lot of our features and format. Some have even "borrowed" our strictly copyrighted photos from our galleries.  Ironically one site that has historically copied many of our features shortly after we introduce them attacked us publicly on their messageboard. The result was a steady immigration of visitors from their site to our site.

Answer - Why HairBoutique.com Doesn't Sell Salon Lines (ARTec, Aveda, Paul Mitchell, etc.,) In The Marketplace

Out of respect to hairstylists, salons and the major hair care manufacturers like ARTec, Paul Mitchell, Aveda and Matrix, we have always abstained from selling those lines on HairBoutique.com. Even though we have been approached many times over the past four years by a variety of sources (legal and otherwise) that would have allowed us to sell the lines, we have always declined the opportunity. Why? There are many complex reasons why but the easy answer is because the salons, stylists and hair care manufacturers have requested that we don't sell salon lines at HairBoutique.com without their express permission.

I am proud to say that we have honored this request and have never sold a single product at HairBoutique.com without the express written permission of the manufacturer. We currently have some products in our Marketplace that it took us years to get permission to sell. However, we decided if we couldn't sell the products without the express blessing of the manufacturers we wouldn't.

I personally have tremendous admiration for the work of the late Paul Mitchell and I have a lot of respect for the work of ARTec genius Leland Hirsch. I personally use various items from both of those product lines on a regular basis along with many of the products we currently sell in our Marketplace.

Answer - How We Determine What We Sell At HairBoutique.com

Which brings me to the method to our madness of what we sell in our online store. Not only do we only sell items that manufacturers give us permission to sell, we personally test every single item that we sell long before we decide we want to sell it.

The HairBoutique.com ranks have swelled to include more than Jeff and I as testers but we have several consumers that will test everything we are considering adding to the store. I personally don't ever want to sell a product that would harm a consumer. While we recognize that we can't please all of the people all of the time, we do try and represent the consumer as we test new items under consideration. We look at pricing, value and performance when we try different products.

I personally took the H37 vitamins for over 1 year before deciding to sell them at HairBoutique.com. I also have personally used all of the Edwin Paul products and still use the Luxury Shampoo and Deep Conditioner on a weekly basis. Jeff Hines also uses the Classic Shampoo and Deep Conditioner on a daily basis.

I personally inspect and buy every item of hair jewelry, LongLocks hair sticks and the Conair products that we offer for sale.

Not only do we want to be sure we are offering a high quality product for a good price, we want to be able to help our visitors with questions about products. How can you do that if you don't get to know it yourself? Which is our philosophy about what we sell in the store.

HairBoutique.com writer Jane Bullock will be happy to tell you that she has lathered, rinsed and gelled with a large number of our different products. She is currently testing new products which I personally tested before selecting them for our store to give me a second opinion.

Answer - Why HairBoutique.com Doesn't Have Or Endorse A Product Swap Board

In the very early days of HairBoutique.com I investigated the possibility of having a Products Swap Board. After much research and several talks with the HairBoutique.com attorney I decided that it was a risk that I did not want to pass on to our visitors and consumers.

Historically contamination can be an issue. Many states now have laws against companies accepting returns of beauty products. Why? Contamination issues. Once a seal is broken there is no way to guarantee that products have not had damaging chemicals or other foreign products added.

If we offered a Swap Board on HairBoutique.com, even if we did not offer the products for swap, we would ultimately be legally responsible if someone was harmed in any way. As result we have always been against Swap Boards or Meets for hair care or related products. I personally advise our visitors against participating as a safety measure.

Answer - HairBoutique.com & T&S Software

You are correct. I do run two companies, HairBoutique.com and T&S Software. I do not have three companies although who knows, anything is possible.

T&S Software is not in the beauty industry. It is actually a much larger company (25 employees) than HairBoutique.com and it is an award winning leader in the telephony arena. T&S excels with products in both the intelligent voice and IP arenas.

Thank you for your kind words about HairBoutique.com. They are always very much appreciated.

Best wishes,

Karen

By submitting your question, you grant full permission to HairBoutique.com to publish it. Due to the volume of mail we receive, Karen regrets that she cannot respond to every question personally. To Ask Karen your questions send e-mail to: askkaren@hairboutique.com