I am assured you have wondered what the reality is about the prices of wigs made from European human hair. From store to shop you will find a great variation in prices – anywhere from 300 USD to as high as 10.000 USD (!). So let me take you through each step of the procedure of producing high quality handmade wigs, and show the exact costs.

Firstly, take the acquisition of hair. The charge of hair for one wig (0,2 to 0,4 kg) varies from 30 to 40 USD throughout most Eastern European countries. There is tiny variation there, but an best additional value is incurred by high-quality wig-makers who collect hair in an appropriate and successfully-controlled manner. The principal wig-makers visit hairdressers and care for the hair themselves, using no middleman. They do not buy hair from wholesalers because wholesalers blend hair, because it is so time-consuming to acquire efficiently good hair. One just has to discover a girl among hairdresser’s clients that has attractive, fit hair and who wants it cut. The hairdresser can offer a free service to such a girl and truly pay her for her hair – and clearly together sides advantage from such a transaction. But this shows that, by its very nature, acquisition of excellent-quality hair cannot be a easy big-scale automatic process. That explains why outside of Eastern Europe the fee of acquiring fine quality hair is skyrocketing – not because the hair in itself is expensive, but because of its rarity. It is complex to imagine a big-scale cheap method of acquiring high quality human hair in European countries.

Second, take the other materials used in making wigs. These are not expensive and their costs do not exceed 50 USD for a typical wig. These are the materials used to produce a cap. More and more wig-makers are now buying ready-made caps, so called “monofilament”, which are gaining fame and their fee is not very high.

Third, take the labor involved in making high quality handmade wigs. This is the main charge factor. Handmade wig needs at slightest a week to be created by an knowledgeable expert worker. It takes a week of complex work, with each hair being knitted to the cap with a very small crochet-needle or else glued with a private glue. In the case of long hair, the production time could be two to three weeks. Honest wig-makers knit hair with a double-knot which makes the construction much more durable but wishes a few extra work-time. Depending on the type of wig, length of hair and type of cap the cost of labor is from 150 to 300 USD.

Lastly, you cannot forget other typical industry costs – investment’s amortization, management costs, taxes, insurances, rent, and profit. Altogether, the cost of a handmade human hair wig made from European hair cannot be lower than 500-600 USD even for the shortest hair. There is no upper limit and it just depends on how much a client is willing to pay, but previous to you pay 1000 USD or more for your wig remember the exact costs of its creation.

And now for a true mystery. Why are European human hair wigs not made in China where labor costs are much lower than in Poland, Russia, otherwise the Czech Republic? The main reason is no excellent quality European human hair available in great sufficient quantities to make profitable great-scale production in China possible. This is because wig-makers in Eastern European countries are buying everything of the available hair for their own production. Surprising? – but that is how it is. And that is why most of wigs created in China are made of Asian hair or blended hair commonly available on a wholesale market.