We recently connected with Janay Stubbs and have shared our conversation below.

Janay, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

In the hair industry, there are so many options for hair extensions & wigs that customers/clients could spend hundreds of dollars on and yet not know a 1000% where the hair comes from or its true nature. Cambodian Hair Freak is always transparent about where our hair comes from…it’s in the name!
We source, harvest, and import our hair straight from Cambodia with specific qualities that we know our customers love when it comes to their hair best.
Our customers have predominantly Black Hair, so we take extreme care to find hair that is low/medium in the luster (not doll shiny), medium coarse (resembles relaxed hair), thick at the ends, natural color (ranges from dark brown to off black), and the cuticles run in the same direction to avoid tangling.
It takes us a lot of time and effort to source our hair, but we are so proud of the finished product!
We love the fact that we can ensure our customer that their hair has been sourced with their specific hair type in mind. The normal thing to do in this industry is to buy “Brazilian” type hair which is really just Chinese hair with a label… Being able to source hair from a completely different region and be as authentic as we are while making sure our customers can feel confident that the hair they receive is just as authentic, means everything to us!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Our brand Cambodian Hair Freak started out as a side interest and grew to being where it is today from a lot of hard work, dedication, and knowledge about what we offer. We source our hair from Cambodia and with that comes a lot of knowledge about the type of women who donate their precious locks; what foods do they typically consume, what lifestyle to they have, what environment do they have to endure on a regular and regular hygiene practices. All of this goes into why their hair and texture is the way that it is and will allow you to better understand how to care for it. I am most proud of the fact that this company is continually growing and it’s exciting to see our following & customer base grow! We have the ability and freedom to grow beyond just offering one type of hair product and still stay as authentic as possible. We’ve branched out from just offering hair extensions, to offering Custom Glueless Lace Wigs, Heavy Coarse Texture Hair, Hair Care Products, and now eBooks to help future hair business owners so they don’t have to go through the trials and tribulations that we did in the beginning.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

The fact that we are a Black Owned Business and offer Raw Hair from Cambodia says a lot in this hair industry. There’s only a true handful of companies that offer what we do so the niche is pretty tight as it is. Our presence really started through social media like Instagram & Facebook where we could showcase our work and our progress to be as transparent as possible. We wanted to focus on being genuine and post up our journey as we receive our inventory, create a new wig look, delved into different hair types, and really bring our followers into the behind the scenes of our company. This allowed us to gain a solid following of people interested in not just what we sell, but who we are as a new brand.
Since there are only a handful of companies who offer Cambodian Hair, it’s a journey for us to carve out our section and have our voice heard through the noise of the hair industry.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy is hands down social media and ads. Organically growing your following takes a lot of knowledge and strategy while also taking as true to your brand as possible. In the beginning, you don’t relatively know what your “brand” is or your company’s essence. You don’t know how having a color scheme impacts a customer’s overall experience or about packaging or even quality control methods to ensure your product can withstand obstacles. Utilizing social media, we are able to ask our followers questions or take polls that drive our company decisions for the better. Running ads have also been an amazing strategy and learning curve. Many beginning companies shy away from running ads, but this is a great tool to draw in a new audience who has never heard of your company before and introduces them to you in a way that you either never thought of or never would be able to do as an owner.
Building your social media platforms is number 1 in growing your clientele! It’s not about how high the numbers is moreso than it is about how you maintain and entertain the numbers you do have. Every follower is a potential customer so building their trust through your posts & interactions have led us to really seeing sales numbers increase.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://CambodianHairFreak.com
• Instagram: @CambodianHairFreak
• Facebook: @CambodianHairFreak
• Linkedin: @CambodianHairFreak
• Other: Pinterest: @CambodianHairFreak