We hope this message finds you all well. As some of you may already be aware, we are encountering temperature control issues at our Woburn location which unfortunately is out of our control. We recognize that this may cause a comfort issue for some especially during the current heat wave we are experiencing. Building management at 237 Lexington has ordered a new cooling unit however due to current supply chain issues, the unit has been delayed. We apologize for this inconvenience and would like to do all that we are able to alleviate this situation. We are remaining open for service in Woburn but for those who would prefer to be in a cooler environment, we are opening all of our neighboring centers to both Woburn members and staff. These centers are located in Quincy, Southborough and Manchester, NH. We are grateful to have this extended family to accommodate you and are thankful that our center staff are always open and willing to be of service to all our members. We are doing everything in our power to remedy this situation and will keep you updated as to our progress.
Please reach out to your Woburn team to facilitate alternative servicing in our other locations if that is your preference. Thank you in advance for your patience and as always, we truly appreciate your patronage.
I hope that this letter finds you and your family healthy and rapidly progressing towards normalcy. Let me begin by extending my deepest appreciation and thanks for your loyalty and commitment to Hair Club over these extremely challenging past couple of years. I would also like to extend a lifetime of thanks to my amazing staff who sacrificed so much while re-writing the book on customer caretaking. I couldn’t have endured all this without them.
Regardless of political or philosophical affiliations we have all been tested over the last two years in ways that we couldn’t have previously imagined. From the onset of COVID I made a very conscious decision to build a network of remote customer support resources as a way of standing committed to all members. This included significant investments in telecommunication enhancements to better accommodate increased volume of calls, professionally produced technical video tutorials for troubleshooting issues at home, converting our production distribution facilities into a drop and ship product delivery dispensary, creating both technical and customer service virtual services while maintaining a substantial employee group ready to always assist you. I am also proud of the Hair Club employee stimulus package that allowed our dedicated employees to comfortably transition to eligible federal and state funds. In addition, I personally assumed the cost of medical coverage for furloughed employees during the early COVID time of distress. None of the costs for any of these initiatives were ever passed on to our members and we continued to offer monthly membership pricing well below Hair Club corporate rates.
As with most U.S. manufacturing and retail businesses, we too have experienced significant increases to our cost of doing business. We have absorbed no less than four substantial hair cost increases from our suppliers while the rest of the Hair Club universe raised monthly membership pricing to offset those costs. I intentionally chose to absorb these costs without raising membership fees at a time that I felt would have added further financial pressure to my members. What this means to all our Barth Group members is that you have not been exposed to a price increase in nearly four years. To this day I do not regret that decision regardless of its financial impact to the company. However, I did this knowing that indefinitely absorbing these costs could not be sustainable to the business which in turn would not be in the best interest of our members.
To that end, I wanted to inform you personally that after careful thought and consideration we will be raising our monthly membership fees effective June 1st, 2022. I hope that while this news may not be warmly welcomed by some, that it is at the very least understood given all that I have just disclosed. I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure that our company continues to provide you with the personal attention and support that you have both grown and deserve to expect from Hair Club. Your local center customer service team will be reaching out to each of you to discuss these changes and what they will mean to your individual circumstances. Please feel free to discuss any of your concerns with them at that time. I, of course, remain available to any member who would like to have a discussion with me personally. After over 40 years, I am still as invested in and committed to my membership as I was when I began this life-altering journey.
As per our promise to you, we wanted to update you on the exciting changes taking place in our new, state of the art Quincy Hair Club. So much progress has been made over the past couple of weeks and we can see our new home emerging from its cocoon and surpassing our expectations. We hope that you are as excited as we are to finally step into this beautiful center and move forward towards a bright future!
We hope you know that we believe strongly in the future of Hair Club and continue to invest our time, resources, and energy to always keep innovation in our mist. We will always remain at the forefront of this industry and will never suffer from complacency as our members deserve nothing less than our finest efforts and the best available solutions.
We look forward to seeing you on December 1st in Quincy!
We hope this message finds you all well and would like to take this opportunity to keep you current on the status of your new Hair Club home in Quincy. As we approach the target opening date of December 1st, our construction crews are working around the clock to meet the ambitious deadlines that we have set for them. We are thrilled to inform you that the walls are up, plumbing, and electrical work is progressing, furnishings are in production, paint and flooring are under way and the millwork is about to be delivered and installed.
Given the challenges of the current pandemic which has caused major global supply chain issues in combination with the aggressive buildout timeline that we set for ourselves, we are very proud of all that we have been able to accomplish thus far! We are embracing these challenges, taking them on one by one and are humbly reminded that “Every success story is a tale of constant adaptation, revision and change”. We are one hundred percent committed to ensuring a successful new center as we could provide our most tenured and dearest members with nothing less.As we step forward into our Brave New World, we would like to highlight the benefits of your new home that we believe you will find both appealing and advantageous: • A beautiful, spa-like center with a new modern concept • Contemporary, sleek, and roomy styling stations with ergonomic seating • Our new space is housed in a Class A building sporting a hip vibe • Complimentary shuttle to the subway • Free covered and uncovered parking • Coffee kiosk • Full- service café with a diverse menu • Employee fitness center • Beautiful views of the Boston skyline • Only six miles from Downtown Boston • Four train stops from South Station
We will continue to update you weekly as we get closer to our Grand Opening on December 1st with accompanying images communicating the transformation occurring at 2 Heritage Drive. Please have a look at the progress that has already been made in just a few short weeks. We want all of you to share in our excitement about our newest adventure and we are eager to welcome you all to your new, beautiful, state-of-the-art Hair Club!
I am really pleased and excited to announce the move of our flagship Boston center location to 2 Heritage Drive, Quincy, MA in November of 2021. This is an exciting time, and I can promise you that the new location will provide many benefits that you will find both appealing and advantageous. To name a few, the new space is a Class A building sporting a hip vibe which also offers free covered and uncovered parking, a shuttle to the subway, a coffee kiosk, a full- service café, an employee fitness center, and beautiful views of the Boston skyline. This location is only six miles from Boston and four train stops from South Station. In addition, we will be building a beautiful, spa-like center with a new modern concept that will reflect our move forward into the next Hair Club era.
I am a sentimental enough man to admit that this move is bittersweet for me. I opened Hair Club Boston (my first-born with fifteen more to follow) back in 1981 at our original location on Winter Street. The Boston center, both staff and clientele hold a very special place in my heart. Many of those on my staff and certainly many of you joined me at the beginning and have been alongside me throughout this magical journey these past forty years. We have been through many changes over the years and this last one has been the most challenging for us all. I eagerly anticipate the opportunities that this new center will offer as I have always striven to keep both myself and my company forward thinking and relevant.
I want you also to know that this decision was not made without careful consideration. In my ideal world we would have remained at 99 Summer Street but unfortunately this was not to be in the cards. In negotiation of a new lease, the proposed rent increase was tremendous, and this initial increase would also continue to multiply on an annual basis. That would force me to pass some of these costs on to you in the form of increased monthly program fees well above the modest amounts we have historically done. I will tell you that this goes against everything I believe in as a business owner. We did also research other properties downtown but buildings that met our standard had little interest in renting to a business that does the work that we do. Therefor we needed to look at other options.
Knowing that we might need to look outside of downtown Boston, we also performed geo-mapping and sent out a survey to you all to uncover current client residence logistics and location convenience. Based upon those results and feedback, we ultimately decided on the Quincy area as the best option for relocation. While I am not naïve enough to believe that this will be the ideal solution for all, I am hopeful that most members will appreciate the many benefits this new location and center has to offer.
So now we begin a new chapter! I look forward to stepping into our new home for the first time and hope to see you at the Grand Opening. Please click on the link below to see pictures of our new building and our vision of our new Greater Boston Area super center. There will also be posters lodged in all our local Massachusetts centers highlighting our newest addition. Thank you for your loyalty and patronage over these many years. I have never once taken that for granted and have always been exceedingly grateful.
We realize that there is a lot of excitement and relief as the CDC has recently relaxed their mask mandate for fully vaccinated individuals. We are excited as well at the prospect of returning to normal operations. We are currently evaluating requirements by states, counties, governmental health agencies and cosmetology boards as to masking for fully vaccinated individuals. Because masking varies from the different states and counties where our centers are located, we must evaluate all applicable regulations and guidance to make sure that our path forward is compliant and safe for all Hair Club employees and members.
Currently, we are going to ask all employees and members to continue to comply with Hair Club’s current COVID-19 protocols which includes masks to be worn by everyone either working at or visiting the centers for service. Our number one priority is the protection of our staff and members. We ask for your cooperation with this. We will continue to monitor the situation and will notify all employees and members with any updates. Please reach out to your center management team with any questions or concerns.
First and foremost, we hope that this communication finds
you all safe and healthy. As we progress further into 2021, we are excited for
the new opportunities that are developing that seem to bring all of us closer
to a more normal way of life. It is hard to believe that it has been a year
since the pandemic forced us to close our doors which propelled us to innovate,
reinvent ourselves and customize our services in ways we never conceived of. We are proud of our accomplishments during
that time and have continued to open our minds to the evolution necessary to
overcome the challenges we know that we still face due to the pandemic disruption
of business as usual. This disruption has been true for most industries
worldwide. For the sake of transparency, we would like to take this opportunity
to address these challenges with you. This way you will have a better
understanding of the impact to our industry and the steps our company has taken
to address these issues and minimize their impact on you as best as possible.
As some of you may be aware, the hair industry has been
sorely affected by this pandemic largely because many of the manufacturing
resources and distribution channels are located on the Asian continent. This
has created job shortages and an interruption to the distribution chain. This
has unfortunately continued into 2021 and we are unsure when many of these
issues will be resolved. What we do know is that we are working diligently to create
additional avenues to meet the needs of our clients. Hair Club is the largest
hair restoration company in North America. and we are fortunate to have the
resources available to access large quantities of heads of hair and the
advanced technical knowledge and ability to customize these to fit the specs
needed for our members. Our production department updates our centers weekly as
heads of hair are added into inventory and we have been ordering these at a
rapid pace in addition to placing regular orders for our clients. We have also
expanded our regular order quantities for clients exponentially with no
consideration of cost to build up inventory as best we can. We truly believe
that this will provide relief in the months to come. We are providing frequent
and high-level customization classes to our stylists to improve their already
impressive skill set which will increase our options to customize hair for you.
We are expanding our production operations into new countries and have over the
past year been training new employees in our legacy production facilities to
meet the demands of our business. With that being said, it can take months to get
these employees up to speed as the work is very specific to our business and
requires much training, but we are laser focused on this effort and are sparing
no expense to expedite this training.
We understand the anxiety this may have caused some of you
and want to reassure you that we are investing all we can to minimize the
production delay’s impact on your experience with Hair Club. We have seen
first- hand the impact this pandemic has had on the hair restoration industry
as we are seeing clients from our competitors in our consultation rooms every
day looking for us to help them since their current provider is without the
vast resources that Hair Club has access to.
Despite all the challenges ahead of us, we all must
concentrate on how to endure and focus on what we can control. We promise you
nothing less than our level best in this endeavor. Hair Club’s core conviction that
our company culture is based upon is that you are our number one priority, and
we continue to be ever grateful for your patronage. Please reach out to your
center management team with any questions or concerns, they are there to help
you. We will get through this and hopefully will be on the other side of this
pandemic in the months to come.
We wanted to update you on the reconstruction of the Southborough center. After weeks of remediation and reconstruction, we believe that we can see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. We expect to be open for service in the Southborough center the week of October 25th. We understand that this has been an inconvenient period for both our members and employees and have worked tirelessly to keep this project moving as quickly as possible. We are appreciative of the efforts put forth by our Southborough staff and neighboring locations for providing the support necessary to continue service and are also so very appreciative of your flexibility by visiting our other centers during this time. We are sensitive to the fact that it took effort on everyone’s part to make this alternate service schedule viable during the time we have had to be out of our space in Southborough.
We also would like you to know that we have taken this opportunity while the center has been under reconstruction to make some updates to the center that we believe will provide a better experience for our members.
We will keep you posted as we get closer to our opening. Please reach out to your center management with any questions or concerns.
We appreciate your patience, are grateful for your continued support and patronage and we look forward to welcoming you back in our new and improved Southborough center in the very near future!
We wanted to inform you that due to electrical and HVAC upgrades being performed at 225 Water St, the Plymouth Hair Club will be closed on Saturday, September 19th. We regret this inconvenience, but this is unfortunately out of our control. The good news is that these upgrades will provide improved temperature control in both the building and the center which will make your visits even more comfortable.
We are fortunate to have the resources to offer service appointments in our neighboring locations of Boston, Woburn and Warwick, RI if your preference is to be serviced on that Saturday. The Plymouth location will also be open extended hours the week before and the week after that Saturday should you wish to be seen in Plymouth and have some flexibility with your schedule. We are committed to providing as much continuity in your servicing as possible during this brief interruption of service in Plymouth.
Brandie and Erika will be reaching out to all the Plymouth members scheduled on that day to offer alternate appointments either in Plymouth on a different day or at an alternate location. If you do not currently have an appointment and wish to make an appointment for that Saturday in an alternate location, direct your call to the Plymouth center and they will make the arrangements for you.
Again, we apologize for any temporary inconvenience this may cause and continue to be grateful for your membership.
As we promised in our last communication, we are following up with you on the situation in our Southborough center. After having an opportunity to assess the damage to the center and the building, there will need to be extensive remediation work done as well as repainting and re-flooring. We anticipate this to be finished within a couple of months. We apologize in advance for the inconvenience this may cause, but this is an unfortunate occurrence that was unforeseen and unavoidable. We will do everything that we can to expedite the process so that we can begin to service you again in our Southborough location.
In the meantime, we will continue to offer servicing in our neighboring locations that many of you have already visited in Plymouth, Boston, Woburn, Warwick, RI, Farmington, CT and Manchester, NH. Our Southborough stylists will be principally working out of Woburn and Warwick, RI. We have been so grateful for the generosity of our staff in those locations who have gracefully shared their space and have made the Southborough staff and members feel so welcome. We would also like to thank our Southborough staff who have been navigating this fearlessly and dedicating many additional work hours to travel where needed to service and support the Southborough membership. Most importantly, we would like to thank you for your patience in this challenging time and for your understanding and flexibility with your servicing needs. The saying that “It takes a village” really does capture this moment in time for all of us. One of the many distinct benefits of being associated with Hair Club is that we are fortunate to have the resources and the distinct capacity along with capability which allows us to support you under the most extreme circumstances.
Our Southborough Managing Director, Karen Fiore will be working out of the Woburn, MA location. Please continue to call the Southborough phone line to speak with her and the rest of the Southborough administrative staff as that line is being forwarded directly to your Southborough team. They are looking forward to hearing from you and will address any questions or concerns.
We will continue to update you on the situation in Southborough as we are made aware of any new developments.
We wanted to inform you that there was a fire in the building at 2 Park Central Drive on August 4th. Thankfully, none of your Hair Club team members were injured. We are in the process of assessing the damage but our first and foremost concern is ensuring that we maintain the ability to service our members with as little interruption and inconvenience as possible until we are able to return to our space.
We have re-invested in a Voice Over IP phone system which
will directly connect you with your administrative and management team to
assist you with your needs. We will be offering service appointments in our
other Massachusetts centers which are located in Woburn, Plymouth and Boston.
Our Southborough team members will be working out of those offices so you can
be seen by your very own Southborough stylist. If it is more convenient for
you, we also have Hair Club centers in Warwick, Rhode Island and Manchester,
New Hampshire and your management team will be happy to coordinate those
appointments for you. Please continue to call the Southborough line for
appointments at (508) 303-0110.
We do not anticipate any interruption in your service
schedule, just a temporary change in location. We are grateful that we have the
resources to be able to accommodate this unforeseen and unavoidable situation.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to your Southborough
team with any questions or concerns. We will continue to update you as we know
more about the status of the Southborough center and our hope is that this will
be a very temporary situation.
Thank you and be well.
Plymouth Hair Club 225 Water St Harborview Place Suite A211 Plymouth, MA 02360
Boston Hair Club 99 Summer St Suite 1140B Boston, MA 02110
Woburn Hair Club 237 Lexington St Suite 203 Woburn, MA 01801
Warwick Hair Club (RI) 501 Centerville Rd Suite 104 Warwick, RI 02886
Manchester Hair Club (NH) 2 Wall St Suite 100 Manchester, NH 03101
We hope that this message finds you all safe and healthy.
We are thrilled to be able to say to all of you “Welcome Home!” All our locations are now open!
We have been working tirelessly over the past few weeks to prepare our centers for re-opening. Our efforts have enabled us to open each center when we were authorized by state and local mandates. We have invested in a disinfection treatment for all centers well above industry standards, utilizing a top national cleaning company. The safety of our clients and employees is our utmost concern and these are the actions we are taking to ensure a clean and healthy environment upon your return:
Sanitizing surfaces frequently for maximum protection against contamination
Undertaking sound hygiene practices in the workplace, such as wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) including masks, gloves, face shields and disposable capes
Requiring all Clients and Prospective Clients to wear masks
Maintaining an adequate distance between individuals by staggering appointment times and increasing the duration between appointments to minimize personal contact
Directing a flow of foot traffic for individuals to enter and exit different opened doors to minimize touching high contact areas such as door handles
Conducting temperature checks and health screening questionnaires for our Employees, Clients and Prospective Clients
Following a strict “no work” policy for employees who show symptoms of COVID-19 or have been in proximity to someone who has
Asking all clients to wait outside the center when they arrive, and either text or call the center to be called up when ready
We recognize that there will be pent-up demand for service as we return to our centers and are extending our hours of operations to accommodate those needs. We ask for your patience and understanding as our center staff endeavor to answer calls, book appointments, and assist with all client needs.
The past weeks have proven to be the most challenging in the 44 years we have been in business. Our industry was deeply impacted due to the nature of the service we provide. The innovations that we invested in enabled us to adapt our service model to support our clients throughout this difficult time by offering virtual technical consultations, a catalog of online tutorials, and a web store, just to name a few. Hair Club’s program membership was designed to provide continuity over the life cycle of the membership, including many behind the scenes intangibles that are not represented by service or product. We have been able to keep this going throughout this period and will be able to return to the centers at full speed. We remain committed to ensuring that you receive all the benefits you are entitled to with our Extension of Benefits Guarantee which you will have twelve months to use at your discretion.
We believe that we have done our very best to meet the challenges of this unprecedented time and continue to be grateful for your membership. We look forward to a continued partnership with you for many years to come.
I hope this message finds you all safe and healthy!
I am sending this communication to notify you that Hair Club will be processing May membership fees in order to allow us to continue to provide all the products and services you expect and deserve. However, after careful consideration in how we can give you added value, I am pleased to present to you the following benefits. First, we will be providing you with a twenty percent reduction in your May membership fees. Second, to ensure that you do not miss out on any of your products or service benefits, we will provide a membership benefits extension guarantee that will include all heads of hair, salon service visits and products that were not delivered during this time when our center service operations have been mandated to be paused. Our members will be able to utilize these benefits at their discretion over the next twelve months. Third, I have also made the decision to defer the membership fee increase that you were previously notified would go into effect on June 1st, 2020 until no earlier than January 1st, 2021. Given the current circumstances and after listening to member concerns over the past forty days, I believe all these additional considerations are appropriate and best reflect the interests of our membership.
I would like to provide you with some history as to how and why I came to these decisions.
In late March when we were required to close our centers, our company was confronted with challenging decisions about how best to support our members without access to our centers, as well as how best to support our employees and business operations so that we can continue to provide crucial services to our members now and in the future.
Many business owners decided to cut all expenses to zero by closing their businesses, furloughing all their staff, halting all operations, and waiting out the pandemic.
I felt this would have been the wrong decision for the Hair Club business and brand because it would not have delivered the support to our members that they so desperately need during this period of quarantine. I also have a personal interest, being a client myself of over forty years, who personally has the same needs and requires the same level of support as the rest of our members.
In order to continue to deliver service and support, as well as keep our product supply chain moving, I felt the need to make further investments. To be honest, my experience and understanding of the need as a client myself, ultimately dominated my thinking and led me down the path to where we are today.
I have invested in the following enhancements because I feel they are essential to your experience in the time we cannot service you in person. These are just some of the investments that were made to provide better support given our circumstances:
Developing and providing Virtual Technical Consultations with an elite group of stylists specially trained to walk you through your service step by step
Investing in advanced telecommunication systems allowing us to increase our ability to capture calls and reach out to all clients seven days a week
Staffing our centers virtually to keep up with all needs and demands for membership assistance
Establishing logistics and systems in order to access heads of hair to be remotely cut and shipped to members
Investing in a catalog of approximately twelve professionally produced client care tutorials to add to the support of our members at home
Expanding and refining our online shopping experience so that our members can access the products they need for all solutions
I also have a deep commitment to the core of the client experience which is our talented styling staff. I have created an internal stimulus package and to date, have covered both company and employee contributions to health care in order to provide some much-needed relief during this time.
I am proud of our company that has committed itself to making these investments without motive to profit but purely to support. I am even more proud of my staff that has unselfishly spent countless hours on the phone providing support, information, technical troubleshooting, virtual service, escorting members through product ordering or just providing comfort for those who needed someone to listen to their concerns.
I have been accused of being an optimist, but I hang on to the belief that there may be an opportunity to see and serve many of you before the month of May is completed. I am happy to report that we have already begun the process to open some locations for curbside retail as we speak. Our centers have all been professionally sanitized by a national third-party specialist that is well above industry standards and expectations.
I hope that all things considered, you will see the logic and the fairness of the thinking that went into our May membership fees processing package. I guess the best way for me to conclude this message is to thank you for helping us help you.
If you have any unique requests or needs that need to be taken into additional consideration, please call your local center and communicate with your Customer Relationship Management team and if you would like to direct any questions to me personally, I will make every attempt to make myself available.
We hope this message finds you all safe and healthy!
Our Hair Club mission statement is to enhance the image of every client through innovative and proven solutions in a discreet and professional environment.
Under normal circumstances, we perform this work in person. Our challenge during this unprecedented time is to carry out this mission despite the necessary need for social distancing which is just not possible in any salon environment. These state and federal directives, however, do not diminish the importance we place on the value and need you have for us to service you. While we may not be considered an essential business, we understand how essential we are to you!
This worldwide pandemic has propelled us to innovate in ways we could never have previously imagined! As a matter of fact, some of these new best practices may become part of our permanent portfolio moving forward as another opportunity to support your membership experience. We are continually making more options available whether that be through additional technical staff to conduct virtual consultations, robust options for support videos and continuing to be there for you around the clock with assistance and guidance by your center staff members.
Please continue to reach out to your centers for all your hair care needs. We are always here for you.
We are proud to introduce you to the newest members of our elite virtual technical consulting team who have been specially trained to provide you with above and beyond in-home service.
We hope this message finds you well and in good spirits. We understand that in the current environment of ever-changing information this can cause an increased sense of anxiety. We have been receiving calls asking us when we will re-open for service. The concise answer is that we will re-open as soon as federal and local municipalities allow us to do so. These openings can vary from state to state and we are being vigilant in our monitoring the local areas where our centers are located.
As soon as we receive the word that we can re-open for service, we are prepared to hit the ground running. We have completed a thorough disinfection of all the centers well above industry standards. We are investing in immensely expanding our center hours to allow for maximized service appointments. We are committed to getting all of you in as quickly and efficiently as possible. In the meantime, we are expanding our network of Technical Advisors to assist you with virtual technical consultations. Our leadership teams are all connected via our new Voice over IP phone system and can route your calls to the appropriate team member. We are available by phone, Skype, Zoom or facetime to assist you with your hair needs. Please reach out with any questions.
We are all in this together and we are here to help you every step of the way in any way that we can. We will refresh this site regularly as we are made aware of updates. Please check in often.
We hope this communication finds you all safe and healthy!
During this time when we are required to pause our in-salon service
schedule, we are now offering virtual technical consultations with our talented
and knowledgeable team of regional technical advisors. We have purchased a Virtual
IP phone system so that we will be able to answer calls from anywhere and route
all your calls to the appropriate team members twenty-four hours, seven days a
week. We have also invested in our regional technical team to provide them with
all the tools that they would need to support you and work with you from their
homes.
All technical issues that require assistance will be transferred
to our technical advisors who will troubleshoot your issues and provide instruction
and demos in order to help you remotely with any hair needs. After an initial
intake to determine the issue, when needed they will set up a virtual technical
appointment and communicate with you according to your preferences whether that
be by phone, facetime or a Zoom meeting.
We will virtually be right beside you!
This unprecedented pandemic has brought with it some historic challenges for all of us, but we promise that we are utilizing every innovation available to us to meet all of our members’ needs. This is who we are and who we need to be. Call your local center to reach your technical team.
