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Black Beauty Chat: James Bronner Talks The Business Of Hair
Bronner Bros. show director shares his take on expanding the show’s reach, hair trends and how they drive business, and the changing face of leadership in the hair business.
SADIAA: Tens of thousands are getting ready to descend upon the show this weekend. A lot of people just think over the top hairstyles when they think of hair and beauty shows. What do you say to that?
JB: I would say that pictures of the big hairstyles are the thing that stands out when people walk through and are a lot of times what the photographs catch, but there’s a lot more behind the scenes.
SADIAA: Can you give us an example?
JB: For instance, at the last show [in February], we actually held a legacy seminar that dealt with ‘how did we do it for 68 years’, with my mother who is the matriarch, she’s 81 years old, on the panel. And, I had my brothers on the panel and we took audience questions and we actually walked them through how we did it. And, we were able to tell them [how to succeed] in this changing economy of hair and beauty.
We actually imparted the keys that helped us make it and the industry secrets that we’ve observed. We have sales teams that go all over the country. They see shops that are doing well and they see shops that are not doing well. We were able to give them keys of how the stylists that were doing better — some of the techniques they were using. So it was information that was actually transformative in the business of a stylist. And, that’s something you couldn’t get at any other show.
SADIAA: You are right in the middle of everything hair. What are some common hair trends that are influencing the hair business?
James Bronner: As the natural movement has grown, people are looking for ways of not using chemical products in order to get chemical looks – to straighten hair or texturize hair. They are looking for more natural ways of getting those looks and figuring out how to make money in the shop with the chemicals being less requested.
SADIAA: Any other trends?
JB: People are getting into color more — that’s still a high-dollar service. And just creating healthy hair. A lot of people are having issues with hair breaking and thinning so they want to create healthy, natural hair. That’s another trend and demand being seen.
