Sourcing Wigs from Xuchang, the Hair-Products Cluster

If the product is a wig, a closure, a frontal, or a bundle of extensions, I start in Xuchang (许昌), Henan. Published figures from the province put the city at more than 4,000 hair-product companies and about 300,000 people in the trade, and describe the cluster as the source of a majority of the wigs sold worldwide. That is why the town exists on a sourcing map. It is not a reason to skip the factory in front of me.

What the cluster actually does

Xuchang is a chain, not one giant plant. Hair comes in, often from India or Myanmar, and is graded, washed, colored, and ventilated by specialists. A hand-tied lace wig can take a day and thousands of stitches. Machine-wefted extensions are a different line, with a different price and a different failure mode. I ask which line your SKU sits on before I compare two quotations.

The city is inland. Samples and urgent restocks usually fly from Zhengzhou. Volume orders go by truck to Qingdao or Tianjin and then by sea. Hair is light, so the freight choice changes the landed cost more than it does on a container of furniture. I put that choice in the freight note when we book.

Names on the box, fiber in the contract

“Brazilian” or “Peruvian” on a retail box is often a texture story, not the place the hair grew. A blend sold as 100% human hair is the failure I see most often. The contract names the fiber: human, synthetic, or a stated blend. The export invoice uses that same description. The marketing name can stay on your carton. It cannot contradict the customs description.

• Lace type, density, length, and the color code matched to a physical swatch.
• A spare strand for a floor check: human hair chars, synthetic melts. That check is not a lab report. It tells me whether the carton in front of me matches the contract.
• Cuticle direction, if you are paying for Remy. The word is used loosely. I want the factory to show what they mean on the sample.
• A shed and tangle check after combing, on the approved color, not on a showroom piece.

Xuchang can make a very good wig and a very convincing bad one in the same week. The sample, the fiber sentence, and the inspection are what keep them apart.

Keep reading

• FOB, EXW, and CIF: How I Split Freight on a China Order
• China Export Documents a Buyer Should Actually Read
• What a Pre-Shipment Inspection Covers on Standard Goods