Spotlight: Fairy Shimmerhair Explores a Magical Niche in the Beauty Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted just about every industry — including hair care. There are plenty of unique niches within the beauty space. And some have chosen to niche down even further during this time.

Fairy Shimmerhair is one example of this. Read about the company and its unique market in this week’s Small Business Spotlight.

What the Business Does

Provides glitter hair extensions.

Founder and CEO Joann Marks told Small Business Trends, “Fairy Hair is basically GLITTER (or Shimmer) HAIR Highlights and is a booming business in Central Florida. The reason is its fun, cheap and quick but long lasting. It is loved by all ages – little girls to retirees living in the villages.”

Business Niche

Providing a quality product.

There are similar products on the market. However, these are generally made of tinsel and cheap materials. Alternatively, Fairy Shimmerhair offers a more sophisticated solution.

Marks says, “Fairy Hair strands are imported silk strands that are tied to just one hair. They immediately make the hair sparkle and shine. Fairy Hair stays in the hair as long as the hair it’s tied to lasts. When that hair falls out, the fairy hair will fall out with it. It can be days, weeks or even months. In the meantime, it can be washed, brushed, curled, flat ironed (up to 450 degrees) and even dyed without changing its color.”

How the Business Got Started

As an additional revenue stream.

Marks specifies, “I own a company called CosPro Marketing, the beauty retail marketing firm that I founded in 1990. The company’s assets include a nation-wide network of more than 8,000 makeup artists and beauty consultants who have supported cosmetics and beauty demo programs at Walgreens, CVS, Rite-Aid, and other major chains over the years.

“When COVID broke out, we knew we needed some kind of pivot to offset the impacts to our core cosmetic promotions business. What we’re doing now is a sort of triple pivot, so to speak, since we’re providing replacement work for some core staff, creating new revenue streams for our consultant network, and helping small local retailers stimulate Covid-safe foot traffic.”

Biggest Win

Getting chains like J Jill and Lilly Pulitzer to host events.

“With most in store demo work suspended because of COVID, these folks are eager to branch out into new skills. Then we hit on the idea of hosting Shimmerhair events in small boutiques – like J Jill or Lilly Pulitzer type shops. This gives our local fairies a perfect way to build their own business base, and at the same time it’s pulling much-needed foot traffic into the shops.”

Biggest Risk

Buying materials and building a website before hosting their first event.

Lesson Learned

Find the right people.

“We now are more aware of what kind of person this business needs – we need more motivated self starters – entrepreneurs. We are now networking more with these types of women to find more specialists.”