Paul Meyers interviews Crystal Taylor from Hair Prosthesis
? Transcription Listed Below ?
Paul Meyers 0:01
Hey everybody, here we are with crystal Taylor from wig boutique and hair prosthesis in Barrie, Crystal, how are you?
Crystal Taylor 0:09
Good, how are you?
Paul Meyers 0:10
Excellent. Thank you. Listen, thanks for coming on, greatly appreciate it. This is all about support local business, and you’re local, you’re in the 705 area exchange, which is a big exchange. And you’re also part of BNI, which is how we met. So tell us a little bit about your business.
Crystal Taylor 0:31
Sure. Thank you very much, Paul. So what we do is we are a hair prosthetic center. Now that can mean anything from wigs, extensions, hairpieces halos to full-on hair replacement that is not medically based. That’s all right. Sorry. That’s good. Yes, it happens in the background, right. So that’s what we do here. So whether or not it’s fashion purposes or medical purposes, we are here to help whether something’s look, somebody is looking for something just for fun, like what I’m wearing today, which has a tinge of purple and some roots and wants to change their color, or they’re more coming for a medical reason, because they’re going through treatment or some sort of transition, and they need our assistance. We’re here to help for both.
Paul Meyers 1:14
It’s awesome. I think I’ve met you three times on zoom in the last week. And each time it was a little bit different. So it’s quite, it’s quite, it’s quite awesome. Good for you.
Crystal Taylor 1:24
Yes. And I don’t always think about that. But now that you say that you’re right, I have had three different looks each time that we’ve met.
Paul Meyers 1:30
Yeah, that’s really good. Yeah, obviously, medical would be a big part of your business, I would suspect.
Crystal Taylor 1:40
It is absolutely. Anywhere from chemotherapy and cranial radiation to things such as hormone issues, alopecia, trichotillomania those that are transitioning, there are all kinds of reasons stress-related, somebody might have had surgery and is losing their hair after surgery, or has gone through an illness of some sort that has caused their immune system to react by them losing their hair. So there’s a variety of reasons why someone could come to see us.
Paul Meyers 2:09
And I can see in your background, I’m suspecting it’s a background image. But I can see you’ve got a really good selection of different types of wigs. What kind of selection would you have in house?
Crystal Taylor 2:22
So we have approximately 300 of them on hand in the synthetic area. Yeah, there’s quite a few. And then we also have a small selection of kind of like a fashion glamour line that’s inexpensive, but more crazy and fun. And then we also have about 20 human hair units that are on hand as well.
Paul Meyers 2:40
So most of it then is synthetic hair.
Crystal Taylor 2:44
Yeah, the way that it works is that most of it is synthetic hair in regards that what that’s what people are purchasing for the cost and the simplicity purposes. When it comes to human hair. They’re not nearly as fun to look at, because we cut and style them just like you would your own human hair. So the variety to showcase is much smaller. And then the styling and cutting comes with someone like myself.
Paul Meyers 3:07
Interesting. So okay, we’re in COVID. Yet again, we’re locked down in North Bay, I’m thinking Barrie’s about the same thing. How is that impacting your business? What’s happening with that.
Crystal Taylor 3:22
So the only thing that we’re permitted to do right now is those that have a prescription for a medical reason, or they’re experiencing hair loss for a medical reason, we’re not able to see the fashion clientele or those that might want to transition to gray or we’re doing a variety of things like that. So we are only able to service medical. We’ve done a few other via zoom. However, it does make it a unique experience. And our online store is available for some of the care items, wet line, that type of thing. But anybody who needs us for medical purposes, we are still here. door’s locked, and we’re operating by appointment, but we are taking one on one.
Paul Meyers 3:58
Awesome. Okay, so what’s one of your biggest challenges that you guys are facing? Is it the COVID challenge?
Crystal Taylor 4:07
You know, I would say yes, and no, I mean, we definitely have lost that aspect of the business that we’re just not allowed to service right now. So that is a concern. In regards to the sanitization process, a lot of our clientele has always had an immune compromised system. So we’ve always been very diligent with sanitizing all touchpoints between each client and using things that are disposable, because that’s always been a concern for us. So in that regard, that isn’t much different. The only difference now is that the door’s locked and we’re not allowing just people off the street to walk in. We’re keeping the door locked and just doing one at a time.
Paul Meyers 4:42
Right. And how long have you been in business for Crystal?
Crystal Taylor 4:47
So I personally have been the owner for the whole time that wig boutique has been open and hair prosthesis has been around for 18 years and I’ve been the owner of that one for eight.
Paul Meyers 4:57
Wow. Good for you. That’s awesome. So I noticed you have an Instagram profile, a Facebook profile so people can find you there.
Crystal Taylor 5:07
Yes, absolutely.
Paul Meyers 5:08
Your handles wig boutique hair prosthesis on both Facebook and Instagram. And what is your site URL? How do they reach you on our website? What’s that look like?
Crystal Taylor 5:18
If if you’re on the site, it’s www.hairprothesis.com and you can reach us that way.
Paul Meyers 5:24
Okay, and the best phone number for them to reach out to you at.
Crystal Taylor 5:28
So you can text us anytime day or night at 705-984-9447 or you could call the store at 705-503-9447
Paul Meyers 5:39
Awesome. So for any of your fashion or medical wigs, we have to reach out to Crystal we have to support local that’s why we’re doing this is to get as much attention and eyeballs on your business as possible. So crystal I thank you so much for for hopping on. And hopefully we see you on the other side of COVID once everything is open back up again.
Crystal Taylor 6:02
Yes, hopefully sooner than later. Okay,
Paul Meyers 6:05
Thank you so much for hopping on.
Crystal Taylor 6:07
Thank you.
Paul Meyers 6:08
Okay, bye bye.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Here is the audio version.