Today we’d like to introduce you to Marquis Copeland.
Marquis, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was a licensed barber in a unisex barbershop/salon for 3 years where I worked my way up to own the establishment. It didn’t take long before I noticed how much time and money women would spend on themselves while getting groomed, it really baffled me. After observing the clients and the services they were receiving I noticed how much women paid to have hair extensions installed and at the time women had to get their hair done every couple of weeks.
I was a very busy barber, but made the time to start my investigation into the hair extension industry during the slower summer months. Me, being a guy, I did not know there were differences and hair types women used for extensions. My first stop was New York City; I quickly found this was an Asian dominated market and I began to buy wholesale processed hair from factories in New York. I would buy hair bundles for really low prices and sell them for 3-4 times the amount I paid. I thought I was going in the right direction, but it didn’t take long to find out this industry was more complicated than I thought.
Being naive to the industry and not having any inside information, I thought I was actually getting virgin hair from these factories in New York [laughs] After selling to different customers they quickly let me know I did not have “real” virgin hair and virgin hair actually came from India. [Game changer] This is when I realized if I wanted to really do this and be successful, I’d have to sell the best quality; I definitely wasn’t going to be in business long if I kept selling processed hair from China [Laughing] I shifted my research and focused my attention on the Indian culture. What I found would change my life forever.
The Indian people actually sacrifice their hair for their religion. Shaving your hair off is a ritual sacrifice done in return for good health and wellbeing. The sacrifices are made at the temples and can be equated to paying tithes in the Christian religion. India is one of the most densely populated countries in the world with about 1.3 billion people; it’s easy to imagine how much hair was being sacrificed on a regular basis; the temples auction off the collected hair to be used for many reasons, including; mattresses, pillows and hair extensions. This was fascinating to me. With this new information I began to supply Indian hair. I received great feedback from my customers and that is when I knew I was on the right track.
I still wanted to be able to really capture the market and be able to provide my customers with the highest quality they are deserving of and also provide consistency. A consistent product was one of the biggest challenges I found since the Asian market was so dominant and was selling nothing but processed, unpredictable hair.
I saw a golden opportunity in an untapped market, where I could bring the rare quality and consistency customers wanted and needed. I had already decided this is what I wanted to do so I partnered with a native of Indian and invested in my own manufacturing company.
Has it been a smooth road?
My journey has not been “peaches and cream”. I experienced so many hurdles and I will be honest, this has been challenging. You have to keep in mind; I had to teach myself how to make my dream come true in a foreign country. I had to learn a culture, an industry, a language, learn how to run a business and a manufacturing company; those are just a couple of things I had to learn.
When I first started traveling to India, I got ripped off so much. The natives know people travel there for hair and literally everybody has hair. The guy on the corner with the food cart has at least a kilo of hair in the bottom [LOL] I didn’t anticipate being scammed by middlemen, so many manufacturers and suppliers only care about making a dollar, they don’t care about actually running a business and building trustworthy relationships with customers.
After months in India, I unknowingly purchased 60k dollars in inferior hair; this was the biggest loss I took. This was hair that was mixed with synthetic fibers and is catastrophic (think a dry, mangled birds nest) for customers wearing it. The hair looked amazing, it felt amazing but it was trash. The Indians had actually started to mimic the Asian manufacturers with using this method.
This was the type of hair that has shut companies down; it’s really hard to come back from this in the hair industry. By the grace of the Gods I was fortunate enough to meet some really great people to guide me and teach me how to navigate India through language and culture and I am truly blessed.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Temple Hair Wear is my company and we are an authentic Indian hair supplier and manufacturing company. I am actually a wholesale company that sells to the public; I also provide private labeling, with some of our clients being very popular figures in the beauty industry. Essentially, I am India, here in America with wholesale prices even lower than companies in India. [go ahead, google it]
Our hair is 100% raw Indian temple hair, I purchase directly from Temples in India and manufacturer hair bundles, wigs, clip ins, closures, frontals, and haircare products. We currently have 3 retail locations in Georgia; SW Atlanta, Douglasville and Savannah, we also have an online store www.templehairwear.com.
We have earned a reputation for selling the best quality hair extensions, wigs and providing our customers with an extraordinary experience in our stores. We are on our way to becoming an industry leader for hair extensions, units and wigs. I’m a strong believer that if you keep the best quality and have great prices you will be in business for a longtime. Being that we are our own manufacturing company we can sell our product at the best prices and even give huge discounts to customers just because we appreciate the loyalty. It feels good to be able to give back to your customers. We really appreciate our customers and take pride in providing women with the best products and services. Enhancing our customer’s natural beauty and watching their confidence grow is extremely rewarding for us; many of our customers tell us we have changed their lives.
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Atlanta is great place for this type of business and is a growing market for start-up companies in the hair industry. I truly believe there is enough room in this industry for everybody to get into the hair business. This is a $10 billion dollars industry! To tell you the truth Atlanta is a great market however if you are in a market that does not have good hair, the sky’s the limit when it comes to starting up in other cities and countries.
Pricing:
- We start our bundles off at $65 per bundle for 10″-12″inches
- Our 14″-17″inches are $75 per bundle
- Our 18″-30″ inches are $100 per bundle
- We also sell closure and frontal pieces ranging from $100-$175 per piece
- Our wigs start at $550 per unit
Contact Info:
- Address: Our Atlanta location:
2905 Campbellton Rd SW Atlanta Ga. 30311 Suite D1 - Website: Templehairwear.com
- Phone: 4046638730
- Email: templehairwear4@gmail.com
- Instagram: @templehairwear
- Facebook: Temple Hair Wear
- Twitter: @templehairwear
- Yelp: Templehairwear
Image Credit:
Photos provided by Zmars photography/graphics
