HYDERABAD: Women go through many medical problems in their lifespan, alopecia, cancer, and postpartum are some of the commonly occurring hair fall conditions among others. 1 Hair Stop aims to facilitate these women with all kinds of hair accessories to boost their confidence and foster a sense of optimism in them.
Driving innovation from their family’s origin in the hair industry and closely understanding customer needs and trends led sisters Richa and Raina Grover to come up with her own hair extension brand. “I did my undergrad degree in BMS and then I started working at. I went out of my way to learn more about how to run ads and how all the different verticals of the digital marketing agency would work. So while I was doing this, I always had a desire of starting my own brand of hair extensions since my dad was into import export of hair. So that’s how the idea of 1 Hair Stop was born. Meanwhile, my sister Richa was already working with my father, taking care of the sales of that business. So, she already had a deep understanding of how and what kind of extensions work internationally, and she had a global understanding of that bit. So, with her set of skills in the hair industry and my knowledge about digital marketing, we came together and started working on one desktop as a branch,” shares Raina about what motivated her to get into the industry.
Initially after the launch in 2019, they only catered to the international market. “Since our father was creating products for the international market and I wanted to build a brand, I thought that it would be a good start catering to the international market. But unfortunately the business was running at a loss for the first six months and I eventually decided to close that side of the business and meanwhile I was also going through something in my life which was a personal hardship, which pretty much took a toll on my life. Despite the setback, we bounced back and focused our energy on the Indian market as India is known to be one of the biggest exporters of human hair. People were unaware of how big the hair market is, how extensions can be used, the different ways it can actually cater to different needs. So that’s how we thought that maybe we should give it a shot in India and make extensions more affordable and also cater to different needs of people in India who are facing hair issues,” she explains.
1 Hair Stop hair extensions are sourced from ethical and sustainable sources. “Our manufacturing process involves sourcing the hair from the temples in South India and as we have a long relationship with suppliers due to our family business we get the highest quality,” she says. After becoming one of the trusted brands of hair extensions in India, people from all major cities are their clientele. “Our orders come from pretty much the metro cities, but we do cater to everybody in India and it is surprising how even the smaller cities too are keen. People mostly order who are planning to change the way they look like bangs, streaks in the smaller products segment. Our main focus is hair toppers for people who are actually facing real issues like hair loss, hair thinning and I think that’s how we kind of broke into the market,” says Raina. Now, the sisters are planning to expand their online presence and diversify their product offerings to include new and exciting hair extension solutions apart from physical stores where people can come and experience.