Things have changed at the Farrell Factory in Mexico

The following is a history of events that changed how Farrell produces their hair systems...

In May of 1993, we opened our first salon location in North Hollywood above a pizza parlor across from North Hollywood High. We didn’t need a factory at that time since we made our systems on our small premises which consisted of only 700 square feet. We only had room for two hair system makers at that time. We started our business with no customers but our client base grew fast and soon we couldn’t make our systems fast enough to keep up with the growth. In response, we decided to make the bases and blend the hair on the premises and we hired experienced ventilators to tie the hairs according to our directions in their homes. At that time there were many hair system makers in Hollywood from Mexico who were out of work as businesses started ordering systems from China. When our three year lease expired in North Hollywood, we were bursting at the seams with business so we felt it was time to move “over the hill” in to the heart of the action in the Hollywood area.

In May of 1996, we moved our location to West Hollywood, California. Our new 2200 square foot building was leased but we renovated it to meet our every need. It was able to accommodate several stylists and about 15 hair systems makers. We still had the outside crew who worked ‘by the piece’ from their homes. Just by the fact that we were working with lace systems, our systems were already better than our competitors. And almost all of the other companies started to order hair systems from middleman companies like OnRite or New Image who ordered from China. The large chains were all already ordering systems direct from China.

We were becoming well known for making lace hair systems. Our original lace systems were a far cry from the quality of the systems we produce today. At that time we thought it best to use cuticle hair because the rest of the industry used decuticlized hair in their systems. Even though decuticlized hair can be horrific, our cuticle hair decision caused many problems for both the consumer and even more problems in the production process. The worst part was that cuticle hair didn’t enable us to make the knots disappear. As a result we refer to this time as our ”red knot period.” Because people started to post in chat rooms that Farrell systems looked good but the knots had a red glow. The critics were right. Later we solved the problem when we developed the EuroSilking process and the ”red knot period” ended.

In April 5th, 1997, we introduced lace hair systems to the hair industry at the American Hair Loss Council show in San Francisco, California. Everyone was stunned during our stage presentation because they saw things happen that they were never able to achieve such as hair going straight back from hairlines and hairs looking like they were growing right out of the skin. The big suppliers of hair systems to the industry congratulated us but at the same time warned that clients would not be able to handle lace hair systems. They said that lace systems will simply fall apart and were only good for movie sets. Guess what? The big companies, especially OnRite and New Image, went right to work developing lace systems of their own for their accounts but the lace was thick and they didn’t use the Farrell knotting technologies. The smaller companies were very excited about the prospect of immediately offering Farrell lace systems to their clients so in a short time we had about 30 affiliate salons who we personally trained on how to order and maintain lace systems. We knew that in order to fulfill the industry’s orders we would need a large production facility so we chose to open a factory in Mexico.

Mexico is another country and we had to deal with all the problems related to opening a business in another country but Mexico is only an hour and a half south of Los Angeles (depending on what you drove and at what time you were heading south). Mexico seemed the perfect place for us to start a factory.

Most of our USA ventilators came from Mexico anyway. They had learned to ventilate hair at very young ages. Before companies started ordering from China, many of those companies brought or sent hair systems down to Mexico to be made by certain families who knew the art. As the popularity of the Chinese factories increased, work dried up in Mexico so many workers come to the Los Angeles area to seek work in hair replacement companies by building their hair systems on the premises. But soon, hair replacement companies were lured by the cheap prices of systems made by Chinese factories. In the end Farrell was the only company making its own hair systems with its own factory in Mexico.

We started out with a small factory that only housed 45 employees. As more wholesale accounts joined us and as business increased, we had to build a larger factory in the middle of town which at its peak accommodated 200 employees. Things were going pretty good.

Many of those initial 30 Farrell affiliate salons couldn’t handle lace systems. It was just too much work for them but mainly they just didn’t want to invest in the price of a Farrell hair system for their clients. Farrell was too expensive for the wholesale business and we couldn’t come close to the low prices of the inexpensive Chinese factory systems. It was costly to have our own factory and to make Farrell systems in Mexico. Also, our pricing needed to allow us a small profit so slowly but surely we lost many of our wholesale accounts until eventually Farrell was only making systems for Farrell clients.

Our daughter was kidnapped in Mexico which was getting more dangerous everyday. We arranged her rescue which ended in a standoff between the police and the criminals. Our daughter was released but the criminals were let go after a sham arrest because the powerful cartels probably threatened to kill the families of the police officers. In fact, many Mexican police chiefs have been killed by the cartels. We were forced to hide our daughter in various cities deep in Mexico City an eventually in Toluca where she stayed until we were sure that no one knew of her whereabouts and until we were sure that they had stopped trying to find her.

Soon after our daughter’s kidnapping, Trini, the head supervisor of our Mexican factory, had a brother who was kidnapped on two occasions. He was released the second time in bad condition after Trini’s family sold their house and gave the proceeds to the kidnappers. Things were getting very dangerous for everyone. Today, the kidnapping business is said to be more lucrative than drug trafficking. We were forced to make short surprise unannounced visits to our factory and we had a safe house that we used instead of returning to our beach home or using hotels.

It became necessary for us to make it appear to the kidnappers that Farrell was affected by the taking of our daughter. We closed our large presence in the heart of town and leased a small store in a mini mall on a newly paved street in a local colony. It accommodated about 30 workers. The rest of our workers were distributed throughout other colonies in four other structures. One structure was dedicated to EuroSilking and the sorting of our hair. Three structures were devoted to ventilating. And the mini mall location was devoted to base making and repairs.

The kidnappers continued to look for our daughter by periodically sending young couples to the small mini mall store looking for our daughter. They were always told the same story by our employees that we sent our daughter to Germany. My wife is from Mexico City but she spent a short time as a student in Germany so the story evidently made sense to them and eventually they stopped looking for her.

The American consulate declares that Mexico is one the most dangerous countries for an American to visit. And Mexico is also becoming very troublesome. Ever since 9/11, the Border Patrol does extensive searches of people as they enter back in to the United States. At one time the wait in line at the border was a half an hour. Sometimes we would wait an hour or two in line on a Sunday afternoon which really wasn’t unbearable. Now the lines extend from the customs gates all the way in to the city. The wait can be 5 hours and longer during peak times. And during that time you are at war with other vehicles that try to nudge in front of you. Fights break out and cars ram in to each other. It truly is a war zone. We knew we had to make some changes.

The new London account complained constantly about our price structure. We were extremely expensive to them since their partners we already accustomed to buying systems from China. They were buying a large volume of hair systems from us so we decided to figure a way that we could lower the prices of our hair systems. In November of 2006, we traveled to China to meet with many factories in China. We sent sample systems to a few of them to see if they could make Farrell systems to our specifications. On our way back to the USA, we traveled to Manila in the Philippines to visit a factory which turned out to be the worst we experienced. So, it was becoming apparent that China might be able to help us out of our Mexico nightmare.

The undersides of the Chinese systems had a nicer finished appearance than ours did. To some people this was important. At that time our bases looked homemade when they were viewed from the underside but our systems looked incredible on our clients.

We changed our strategy by supplying Farrell lace materials and Farrell hair to a certain Chinese factory and we let them produce portions of our hair systems. We then completed the balance of the ventilation of the critical sections of our systems in Mexico. Soon after that it those tasks were performed in West Hollywood. As a result we were able to downsize in Mexico and this eliminated many dangerous trips south of the border. We also started EuroSilking our hair in West Hollywood and we found it better to incorporate our proprietary techniques in West Hollywood instead of Mexico. Currently, we have no more space to work in West Hollywood so something needed to be done.

We bought a large warehouse type building about two miles from our current West Hollywood location. We gutted the interior and are building out the inside to suit our needs. It will be the new site of our corporate offices, salon and production facility. We expect to occupy our new LA location on September 1, 2007. Our new location will allow our clients to see the artistry that Farrell incorporates in to each hair system. For those who are not able to see our facility in person you will soon see it on our website. Farrell has discontinued it affiliate salon programs in order to concentrate more on the quality of each hair system Farrell produces for Farrell salons.

We have had to keep our production plans a secret while we transitioned in to our present method of production. We are proud of our history in Mexico and we are still down there operating on a small scale. In the past, we have criticized companies who let China make their hair systems but remember that our systems are not completely made in China just as your American car isn’t completely made in the USA. Our systems are a hybrid result of methods from two countries and who knows, in the future another country night be involved in the process.

The final look of Farrell hair systems is what it is all about. Farrell is a company of hair system makers and our craft will always be applied to each hair system with Farrell proprietary techniques. Systems that are being made under the watchful eye of Farrell employees in our new production facility in Los Angeles will be better systems than those produced in Mexico.