Bill's Blog on Hair Replacement

Meeting With Blue Max

HD-OldBill — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:06:00 GMT

Last week we had the pleasure of spending a couple days with two of our new product manufacturers, John Roberts (you may know him as JRob from our forums) and his partner, Jorge. They're the founders and co-creators of the Blue Max RemySoft 3-Step system. JRob is a long-time hair wearer and their products were developed exclusively for nongrowing hair.

Not only do they supply great products but they're also good guys. I think the main reason why we like them is because much of their philosophical approach and long term strategies are so similar to our own.

They strongly believe in reinvesting profits back into the company so that they can continue to improve their products and provide the best customer experience possible. This became clear to me as we were brainstorming promotional ideas, they were both so open and willing to go that extra step to get their line into the hands and hair of new customers. In fact, one of their ideas we thought was especially generous and will create a lot of buzz around RemySoft (look for that sometime in December.)

Anyway, with that type of committment to growth and overall "reinvestment" philosophy we know they will have much success in this business and we're proud to have them as yet another strategic partner.

Have a great hair day,

Bill

Thanks to Curly Sue

HD-OldBill — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:53:00 GMT

Speaking of wisdom of the crowds, we've been working on the development of an anti-perspirant spray for the scalp, one that would not interfere with adhesives. We began field testing a product we thought had a lot of potential. The feed back was all favorable.

Curly Sue suggested using a dab on applicator which makes a lot of sense. We are going to use her suggestion. Thank you Sue for lending your wisdom to the crowds. Your input is always very much appreciated.

Have a great hair day,

Bill

The Big 5-0-0-0

HD-OldBill — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:39:00 GMT

On Monday, Brandon mentioned to me that we now have over 5000 members on our message board! There are tens of thousands of visitors on the message board but there are 5000 actual members that are signed up. Thank you all for becoming members of this rapidly growing unique group. You don't have to be a costumer of Hair Direct to be a member, this message board is for everybody.

My personal heart felt thanks goes out to all the faithful posters on the board. I'm not your only fan. Your willingness to share and give your knowledge has helped literally tens of thousands of hair wearers all around the world to solve problems and achieve their appearance goals. I am sure they have a high level of appreciation for all of you.

By you providing not only your technical knowledge, the readers also take comfort in knowing that there are other people out there who have had the same problems. Your willingness to share your solutions shows others how you personally over came those problems.

We all covet the knowledge, education and information potential of all the non posting members. I know there is a wealth of new undiscovered information out there. Please come aboard and join the fraternity of message board posters. We estimate about fifty thousand visitors who visit the message board who have not yet signed up as members.

We appreciate and thank you for visiting and you are more then welcome to continue visiting, which is the purpose of this message board. We invite you also to share the wealth of your knowledge and experiences.

Can you imagine the combined wisdom of fifty thousand hair wearers? Collectively they probably represent hundreds of thousands of years of hair wearing experience. We strongly believe in the synergistic benefits of the wisdom of the crowds. After forty eight years in the business I am far from knowing it all. It seems I learn something from you every day.

I big thank you also to Brandon for all the hard work in making this message board what it is today. I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge all our hair techs for their help on the board.

God Bless and again, a special thank you for all you terrific posters.

Have a great hair day.

Bill

Operation Qingdao: A Rousing Success!

HD-Mike — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:07:00 GMT

I asked Mike Robinson, our new content developer to write some stuff to spice up my otherwise humdrum blog, with a bit of his wit and humor. So heeeeeeere's Mikey...

This was the mission and members of our team chose to accept it: Parachute into Qingdao, China to visit the factory where your hair is made, educate our plant workers on the latest in styling techniques, shoot some great behind-the-scenes video footage, and of course, make it back alive.

I’m happy to report that they succeeded on all fronts. Well, except for the parachuting part. I made that up. Besides, I don’t think Brandon likes heights.

But it was quite a journey, nevertheless. More about that later. First, a little about Qingdao:

Qingdao is located in the Shandong province, People's Republic of China. Today it serves as a bustling seaport, naval base, and industrial hub. “Qing” in Chinese means "green." “Dao” means "island." It is consistently voted one of China's most livable cities, and it even hosted the sailing games of the 29th Summer Olympics in August 2008.

They also make some pretty good beer!

The factory is located in this beautiful city for one simple reason: Quality. Okay, I know. “Quality” is overused nowadays, especially in business. But rarely does the town where a company manufactures their product actually embody the very word.

Qingdao’s been in the hairpiece making business for many decades, and there is a good reason for this: The people. Think those knots in your custom system are ventilated and bleached by robotic arms? No sir. Every hairpiece—from cap mold to pre-Hair Tech styling—is painstakingly made by hand.

The trip was a win-win-win: Our factory employees get to show us the premium they place on excellence in every facet of the manufacturing process, we enjoy sharing our latest technical and cosmetic research with them, which means you continue to receive the best hair replacement products in the industry.

So was it worth the 7,000 mile, 42-hour trek to drop in and say hello to your hairpieces? You betcha.

Oh, and stay tuned for some dynamite video from the trip. It’s really going to blow you away!

Have a great hair day!

Bill

P.S.- A big thanks to our new guy Mike for helping me put this together. Guess he's good for something after all. ;-)

Welcome Lauren, Our New Hair Tech!

HD-OldBill — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:44:00 GMT

Today we have a new hair tech starting. She will be replacing Kathy. Kathy had an extremely attractive career opportunity in a property management position that she just could not refuse. She was with us only a little longer than two years but easily became part of the HD family. Loved by all, Kathy will be surly missed.

Billy, Brandon and Melissa interviewed about a dozen qualified, licensed cosmetologists. As Customer Service Manager, Melissa made the decision to hire Lauren R. Rubenstein from the Regis Cooperation. Lauren started with Regis as a Beauty Bar Stylist and moved up the ladder rather quickly. As a trainer at the Beauty Bar, she held one-on-one staff meetings, managed inventory control, took care of customer service, was a team leader.

Please help us to welcome Lauren as the newest member of our team! It makes me wonder what Melissa was thinking by hiring someone with all that management experience. Looks like she wants to move up the ladder. I just hope she don't have her eye on my job because if she does, she'll have to jump over Billy and Brandon first. LOL

Have a great hair day.

Bill

Welcome Aboard Michael... I mean, Mike!

HD-OldBill — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:31:00 GMT

We've had aggressive plans to produce lots more educational content on the website for sometime. Brandon is so diversified with so many projects, he decided it would be prudent to bring on a full time content developer to help him primarily with stuff like step-by-step instructions, how-to guides and script writing. He placed an ad, and to our surprise we got seventy five resumes! Most of the applicants were very well qualified. After a lot of work, Brandon finally narrowed the stack of applicants down to twelve very impressive resumes.

To make a short story out of a long interview process, the final choice was easy. Michael David Robinson II (we just call him 'Mike') beat the other finalist by a country mile, or maybe that's a city mile. Mike is a senior-level copywriter from Philadelphia. His formal education, skill set and career history are all very impressive. Mike's standards and principals are a good fit with the HD culture!

Now you can look forward to the education, demonstration and information on our site being much more prolific. The cherry on the top is Mike has a first hand experience with hair loss. Let's all welcome him aboard. And again, a great big thank you to Brandon, just one more job well done :-)

Mike welcomes any thoughts or suggestions you may have, you can reach him at mike@hairdirect.com.

Have a great hair day,

Bill

No Sweat

HD-OldBill — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:30:00 GMT

Spring and early summer were wet and a bit cooler then normal here in South Central Pa. But finally the dog days of summer have arrived, just in time for one of our air conditioners to go kerplunk. It happened to be the unit that supplies the executive offices, two meeting rooms and lunch room.

Yesterday, Melissa's one hour weekly tech meeting lasted only about ten minutes before everybody broke out into a sweat. Billy and Brandon were both hanging tough staying in their offices with sweat dripping off their noses for pretty much the whole day. This A/C unit only takes care of less then one half of the second floor of the office and it's had a profound effect over the past three days. I can't imagine what it would be like if all four units were all out at the same time.

The heat has been a great time to test a potential new product I have been experimenting with. If there is the slightest bit of perspiration within the first few hours after applying any white water based adhesive, the adhesive will turn a milky color. I've been playing with a perspiration retardant using a concoction of aluminum chlorohydrate, different alcohols and water. The first test is working great and I am excited. Usually I'm the first Ginnie pig before we do any field testing. After field testing, if it's successful which I believe it will be, we will be packaging it and rolling it out. Hopefully it will be in the next few months, unfortunately too late for this summer.

Have a great hair day.

Bill

Testing New Bonding Strips

HD-OldBill — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:55:00 GMT

Over the past four weeks I've tested two new extended wear tapes.

I wore the new NS-Pro PX toupee tape for two weeks then the new Satin Lace Tape for two weeks. What impressed me most about both tapes is there was absolutely no itching. I gave both a good two week test, with a lot of sweaty work outs.

At the end of the two weeks using the NS-PX there was no sign of breaking down and clean up was easy. After two weeks of the Satin Lace Tape there was slight break down but was still a good bond and clean up was a little more work then with the NS-PX.

All in all both are great two week bonds, but the winner by far is the NS-PX.

Have a great hair day.

Bill

Taking Hair Direct to the Next Level Part IV

HD-OldBill — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:29:00 GMT

The New Website

Of course Brandon, being the guru, is heading the project. Everything Brandon does he takes ownership, always doing a phenomenal job. His tenacity has earned him not only a significant piece of the company but also was made our new Executive Vice President. The web site is his passion and his baby. Who better to tell you about the next level of the new web site then Brandon. Here it is in his own words.

1) Time line
The new site is currently in the initial design phase and is scheduled for launch end of this year, probably sometime in Dec. our current site has been online for almost 2 1/2 years and is now officially bursting at the seams -- thanks to our Community and demand for video our site has grown by a ton.

2) Adding square footage

Since computer monitors are getting bigger, we can increase the frame width of our site; this allows us to provide more in-depth and detailed content; show much larger and hi-res photos; and best of all, offer bright and beautiful hi-def video.

3) Giving hair wearers a voice

Everyone's different and there's so many possible techniques for the basics of hair system care (attachment, removal, cleaning etc) that we're building posting features that will allow hair wearers to comment, debate and share their own tips throughout our entire site; anyone will be welcomed to add their own two cents to our videos and all of our step-by-step and how-to guides.

4) Making shopping easier

-a- We've got a lot of products and there is always confusion about which products will work for you; our new store will include filtering features that will allow shoppers to find products based on the criteria that matters most to them with only a few clicks -- a user might be looking at conditioners and click to see only leave-in + sunscreen + less than $10 to find the few products that meet those parameters.

-b- We will FINALLY be offering a shipping costs estimator from the shopping cart, which means customers will know how much shipping is going to cost them before they decide to buy.

-c- For those customers who know exactly what they want, we'll make speed shopping much easier by allowing products to be added to the cart and purchased directly from our "quick shop" category pages, without ever having to click into the product page.

5) Putting more control into our customers hands

-a- In the "my account" area, customers will be able to make and manage payments, they'll have easy access to past orders and see quick stats on most recently and most often purchased items, a little later down the road we will also allow customers to pull up hair order specifications and digitally make changes.

-b- Order tracking will allow every hair order to be tracked from the moment our hair tech submits it, through each step of production and right back to our distribution center for final shipment to the customer - easily log in at any time and see how your unit is progressing at our factory and get an estimated time of arrival to you.

-c-Universal accounts gives each user their own account that can be used across our entire site, this means you can log in and easily post messages on our forums then go over to our store and purchase products under the same account -- no more having to remember two user names and passwords for one site! Additionally, these universal accounts will allow us to soon offer loyalty programs so that the more a customer buys and the more they contribute to our site, the more they'll save on future orders (and get freebie offers and HD bucks)

So yeah, I can talk about this site for hours so it was really tough to limit to these five points :-) I'm leaving lots out, but this is the stuff that matters most to our customers. The point is... this site is going to carry us into the next generation of Hair Direct, in so many ways. During the life span of HD5 we will grow into a fully digital and highly automated (yet flexible) hair company. For the first time ever, customers will be able to place, track and change hair orders online and in real-time, they'll be able to manage every aspect of their account easily and at any time. But best of all, this site is going to become a giant "conversation" between us and our customers AND between our customers and other customers and ALL hair wearers. Each will learn from one another and it will truly (hopefully) and finally begin to harness the wisdom of the crowds to bring some real authenticity and transparency to the hair replacement industry.

Thank you Brandon.

The next level will initiate another paradigm shift and Brandon is an integral part of making that happen.

Have a great hair day,

Bill

Taking Hair Direct to the Next Level Part III

HD-OldBill — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:25:00 GMT

Revamping the Hair Direct Operational Model

About 5 years ago Billy explained to me that our growth was stifled. He explained we were rapidity reaching a point where our software would become a real detriment to our growth. Worse yet, we would need to shelf several of the new programs and initiatives we had been working on.

Our old patchwork system created inefficiencies that put unnecessary strain on the Hair Direct staff and made the implementation of our Standing Order Discount Program very difficult to manage. Even more frustrating he knew what other major changes needed to be implemented to service growth, but our existing systems were too rigid to accommodate them.

We had separate, disconnected systems for our custom data and accounting. Paper based records, charts and files that slowed customer service, a clumsy shopping cart program housed under a separate domain, inefficient data management that caused occasional shipping errors and slowed processing.

Billy went to work to find a real solution oriented partner, with the right approach and the right tools for implementing solutions that supported our operational infrastructure. Our vision was to totally automate every area of operations. We needed to find a software solution company who would take the time to delve into our business to fully understand our unique marketing model. We needed a company that would understand our core values and principals and the importance we place on the customer experience.

After a long and arduous search, Billy found the perfect fit. His words were, Dad, these people will be able to solve all our problems and fulfill every customer experience fantasy, through a seamless automated network. Billy went on to tell me that was the good news, the bad news is they are extremely expensive, but they are the best. I said, How expensive? He said, about two hundred fifty thousand dollars to start and will go over one million. I said, WOW that's scarier then hell, but let's go. So, for about a year every morning our parking lot was about half full of a bunch of BMW driving eggheads.

They built our new system on a Microsoft SQL Server, a database platform that enables us to store and access data across all applications: Customer service, accounting, manufacturing and much more. To create our customized system they also relied heavily on their own solution builder, a business application development platform built on Microsoft technology.

With a clear process and the best technological solutions available, under Billy's guidance our new BMW driving friends were able to develop a program that solved our problems in multiple phases based on our needs. Phase one for example focused on the most pressing needs, managing customer information and improving service. Gradually they implemented a comprehensive automated system that was able to adapt to any of our future needs.

Once we had fully integrated the new system our entire company experienced the impact. It was so exciting. Information that we once had a difficult time to locate was right at our finger tips. Every process was streamline. Best of all we were able to relaunch our Standing Order Program with confidence.

Critical Improvements Included:

Integration: The Standing Order Discount Program became seamless and totally automated, with customer keyed orders routed in real time to our manufactures. This is extremely exciting because for the first time ever in our industry the customer could now track where in production their hair is.
Accessibility: The new program put information in the hands of everyone in the company including management, customer service, shipping and accounting.
Breath of Information: All of our hair techs now have immediate access to an aggregate view of customer purchasing patterns and a snapshot view of the entire customer relationship.
A Dramatic Improvement of the Customer Experience: The new system connects front ends and back end functions. It enables customer to log in and view order progress, receive automated email reminders plus a whole bunch more.

It was all hands on before, now thanks to Bill Jr's initiative and a pile of loot, it's now all hands off. The system runs itself. With this new fully integrated scalable system in place, we can continue our rapid growth and take Hair Direct to the next level.

In my next blog I'm going to talk about Brandon and specifically our new website and how it will take Hair Direct into orbit.

Have a great hair day.

Bill

Taking Hair Direct to the Next Level Part II

HD-OldBill — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:22:00 GMT

Revamping the Hair Direct Technical Model.

The Hair Direct Custom Fitting Kit (CFK) has been revolutionary and frankly a major key to our success, second only to our proprietary off the head precision cutting and blending formulas. The CFK offers Hair Direct the ability to gather all our clients' custom specifications and deliver through the mail a custom hair system already custom precision cut, blended and ready for the client to attach and wear right out of the box. This is all done exactly the same as if we were doing the custom order and cut in face to face right here in our studio.

About 10 years ago I began to realize that our fitting kits were less then stellar because some of the fitting kits were not being returned. It was a blow to my ego because the CFK and the off the head cutting were my babies. When we would get the CFK back we always batted a thousand with the off the head cut.

Then I realized when developing the off the head precision cutting and blending formulas, I was thinking like a Professional Hair Retailer. When I developed the CFK I was thinking like a Hair Wholesaler because of the thirty plus years of working with and training Professional Hair Retailers. Five years ago I realized we had a huge problem because at that point there were literally thousands of CFK's that were not being returned with orders and consequently not becoming customers.

After interviewing and talking with a lot of clients we came to realize that the CFK was way too difficult and way too time consuming. The prospective new client would just give up and never finish it and never send it back, consequently never becoming a Hair Direct client.

This became a huge problem and I knew I couldn't solve this problem at the same level of thinking I was at when I created it. My thinking at that point was training professional hair retailers to do face to face, what I expected end users to do through the mail, without having any training. What was I thinking? As a result I've spent a lot of my time over the past five years developing a new quick and easy way to do CFK.

The front end of the new CFK (the part the customer does) is very straight forward, extremely simple and will only take a few minutes of the clients time as well as very little thinking on his or her part.

While on the back end (what we do here) is huge and extremely complex. I've spent much of the last five years and every ounce of resources I've learned over the past 48 years in the hair replacement business to develope the back end of the new CFK, using standards and formulas I developed for each section of the CFK.

The back end program does all the work. All the heavy thinking is ours, which is the way it should be anyway. After all, this is what we do, this is our field. Look for more information on the new CFK in our all new web site coming real soon.

I wanted to talk about our new automated operations and our all new web site in today's blog but I'll write about that next time.

Have a great hair day.

Bill

Taking Hair Direct to the Next Level

HD-OldBill — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:03:00 GMT

From 1962 until 1995 I was totally immersed in all three areas of the hair replacement business, the retail, the wholesale and the manufacturing. Through the 60's and 70's I developed a system to precision cut and blend the hair pieces off of the customers head, before they came in for the delivery. (Cut in) By not spending that hour and a half doing the cut in on his head, I would use that time to teach the client proper placement, daily care, maintenance and how to keep his hair always looking its very best everyday, not just when he left the shop.

In the late 70's one of my retail clients moved to Pensacola, Fl. He asked me if I would send him new systems when he needed them. From that time on I never lost a client if he moved to another state because I had all their specifications for manufacturing and all the specifications and formulas for the precision cutting and blending. I actually developed a small mail order business from my retail clients who moved away. By the way, my retail client who moved to Pensacola 30 years ago is still a faithful client and I only actually saw him one time in the past 30 years.

In May of 1983 my son, Bill made the decision to join me in the family business. I was thrilled. He went to Barber School, then after working in the business for a few years Billy decided to go to college. He chose Middle Tennessee University where he took a dual major in both Business Management and Aerospace Administration. In his spare time he also earned his commercial pilots license. Bill graduated with honors. He earned straight A's and was on the Dean's List Honor Role, the whole nine yards. I don't know where he got it, I don't think it was from me.

At any rate, when Bill was still in college, he and I talked at great lengths of a direct to the consumer model. We would combine all the experiences of the past 30 plus years in the hair replacement conventional retail, mail order, wholesale and manufacturing, together with Bill's Business Management and Administrative education. Bill could concentrate on building the operational model, I could concentrate on the technical model and both of us would work together on the Marketing Model.

We began building the Hair Direct Model February 16th of 1993. The only equation that was missing was the custom fitting, which was always done face to face in the studio. So, I went to work developing an in home custom fitting kit, through which we could get all the custom specifications, the same as if they were on the chair in my studio. Of course the client always had the option to send their spare hair system to us for duplication, which would make our job real easy.

We put together a four step marketing program using conventional Medias because in February of 1993 the internet for public use wasn't even invented yet. Step one in the four marketing program was placing an ad either in print or on TV. Step two, the ad would convince the prospect to call and request a 30 minute consultation video. The video would then convince the prospect to call for the custom fitting kit. Step three, would send the custom fitting kit followed by a phone call to help the almost new client through the fitting kit process. Step four, the prospective client would send the fitting kit back and we would then call to go over and confirm all the custom specifications in the kit.

This was a totally out of the box method of hair retail. We sort of felt we were on a Lewis and Clark expedition. It was all very scary but yet exciting at the same time. However, I was confident it was going to work because the net result was just the same as if the client had come into my studio for the consultation, the custom design fitting and the cut in.

We rolled out May 2, 1994 with a weekly ad in USA Today. We tried a lot of ads in the news magazines, tested 30 minute TV infomercials as well as 30 second, and 60 second TV ads. You name it, we tested it. There were some successes and some failures.

Then along came this brand new thing called the Internet. We had tested everything else so we figured why not try that, after all, there were no other hair piece companies on this new thing called the Internet. I am telling this to you in just a Readers Digest version. I could write volumes of early experiences.

It was through our internet marketing that we found Brandon Andrews. Brandon came with us in 2004 and has been the energy behind our Marketing thrust so much so that we have made him a share holder and Vice President of the Company.

You know what, I spent so much time talking about how we got here, and I'm going to need to write another blog on the next paradigm shift for Hair Direct. I can't wait to tell you about it. We spent much of the past 5 years working on a new automated technical model, a totally automated operational model and a brand new Web Site.

Have a great hair day.

Bill

Perfector Adhesive Not Working?

HD-OldBill — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:06:00 GMT

We have been getting some complaints about Perfector adhesive turning white. When put on in thin coats Perfector adhesive dries clear pretty quickly. However, it does not completely cure for a few hours after application.

If you start to sweat before it is completely cured it will turn a milky color and can take a few hours to completely dry and cure. With summer coming it is important to note that you won't have a problem if you stay cool for a few hours after application.

I have been experimenting with the Perfector for about six months. Recently I've been doing a full scalp bond with Perfector and I love it, provided I stay cool until it's completely cured.

Have a great hair day.

Bill

Getting Your Unit Cut In

HD-OldBill — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:54:00 GMT

Some of our clients waste a lot of money unnecessarily having their hair systems cut in locally. Recently I had a client tell me that it's impossible to have his hair system cut in off his head. I asked him if he had ever tried it and he said no. I asked him to let us cut in his next hair system. He reluctantly agreed but asked that, just in case, would we leave it one inch longer then the style he chose. I explained to him that if we did that it would not be the style the wanted. After reminding him of our 100% unconditional guarantee I was able to convince him to allow us to do our thing and then he could be the judge.

He called me after he received his new hair system and said he did not believe it was possible. He continued by saying he never had a hair system that looked so good and behaved so well. He told me that in the past he would spend an hour on the styling chair, then need to go back once to twice for adjustments, not to mention the $100 cost factor.

We have developed formulas to custom precision layer, cut and graduate lengths and blending so the hair from your system will mesh and blend perfectly with your growing hair. We develop your personal cutting and blending specifications based on the following criteria. #1 The hair style you choose, #2 The length of your growing hair, #3 The area of hair loss and the size and configuration of your hair system.

Blending, thinning and tapering the perimeter where the hair system will blend into your growing hair is custom formulated according to the length and densities of your hair system and lengths of your growing hair.

We always guarantee a perfect blend into your growing hair. (Warning) This is a skill that conventional barbers and hair designers are not trained for, so unless they have special training in hair replacement, NEVER allow a professional hair cutter to touch the blending area of your hair system with any hair cutting tool.

We keep all your custom cutting formulas on file for future orders. You can rest ashore that every one of your future hair systems will have the same identical cut and blend. In conventional methods of professional hair replacement retail, you never get the same exact cut twice. But at Hair Direct we nail it every time, we guarantee our cut! Remember, if necessary, it is easy for us to make adjustments to your custom cutting specifications for subsequent orders.

So don't spend another dime on cut ins. But in the unlikely event for some unusual reason you would want your hair system sent to you uncut, of course we can do that.

Apologies

HD-OldBill — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:38:00 GMT

I need to apologize to everyone who posted comments to my blog. I just found out that your comments have been hiding somewhere in the back end of our website. It was a mixed bag when my wife discovered all these hiding comments. I was totally embarrassed but at the same time delighted that people were not only reading my blog but interested enough in the topics to post comments and questions. This must have seemed counter to one of our core principals which is transparency.

Talking about principles, yesterday on the train to New York with Billy & Brandon, Billy showed something to Brandon on his i phone and they both broke out into a cheer. I asked them what they were so excited about? They told me somebody posted a negative comment about one of our accessories products. I asked them why they were so excited about a negative comment. Billy said they were beginning to get concerned. In the past few weeks since we've had clients rating products and soliciting comments, they have all been positive. They were concerned about our clients thinking we were deleting the negative comments. It just made me feel good about their reaction to getting a negative comment.

The reason we were going to New York was to visit HairSite.com. Our only goal in mind was relationship building. We visit our manufactures, vendors and strategic partners from time to time because we feel building and maintaining relationships is very important to our long term success. It also gives us an opportunity to brain storm while in transit.

Have a great hair day.

Bill