We got another unit for duplication from a former Richard Farrell client. It's our TL 550 ($295) with 3" SFS front and French lace with poly back and sides. Richard Farrell sells this for $2,800 and requires the customer to buy 2 units. His home page says that he is 'alone in the field of ultra custom hair creation.' We will duplicate that system (highlights, density, texture, etc.) exactly and save the customer $2,500. I will say that the bases of his units have improved lately. The prior unit we got from one of his former clients was made of a fine mono base and a lace front. Now he's using all lace--congratulations Richard. Richard, sorry, but you're not 'alone in the field of ultra custom hair creation.'
Regards,
John
http:///www.toplace.com/

Here is my take on Farrell. Hes not doing anything wrong, he is a business person just like any other, but unfortunately for him, with this industry people can get a hold of factories and sell online without the same costs.. Every business imports products and services from other countries. The opportunity cost of China and other countries out there are way lower. The Nike sneakers you buy at the store, or the expensive designer jacket are all coming from either China or third world country factories. They get the labor and materials at a very low price but by time the customer purchases it the price gets marked up 10 fold. If there were no toplace or other online hair replacement companies, hair systems wouldn't be any different than other products. We be paying top dollar marked up prices. He has to pay USA salaries and maintain salons which gives him a much higher overhead.. this all being said.. Farrell has to market his products as the best in the world to differentiate himself from everyone else. What other choice does he have? So i don't think its like the evil mr farrell.. Just a typical business trying to turn profits using whatever marketing ploys they can get away with. The educated consumer will know all of his options and know that the product itself is pretty much the same shit other than the extra service you get with his salons. The extra service though is useless, a hassle and costly compared to learning to do it yourself.

The bottom line is, Educated consumers of hair replacement would be buying from a company like toplace than going over to a salon and getting raped with services and stuff they don't need. I would extend this mentality to hair direct as well. Hair direct is the salon version of the online world. Fancy site,, very big, a lot of marketing and customer service yadda yadda.. with a larger price and even club membership programs where you pay every month etc.

Richard Farrell & Hair Club are the one who created a big market for hair piece, had they not done so by their mass media advertising lots of people would have not known about hair system and how natural they can look. Toplace, HairDirect wouldn't have had so many customers if Richard Farrell & Hair Club were not there.

Just to give some actual figures. Hair Club is part of a publicly listed company and if you look at their annual report you will realize Hair Club is hardly making any profits. They have huge overhead & marketing costs and the credit goes to them for creating awareness among masses about hair system.

(03-24-2012, 05:02 PM)NeedGoodHair Wrote: Richard Farrell & Hair Club are the one who created a big market for hair piece, had they not done so by their mass media advertising lots of people would have not known about hair system and how natural they can look. Toplace, HairDirect wouldn't have had so many customers if Richard Farrell & Hair Club were not there.

Just to give some actual figures. Hair Club is part of a publicly listed company and if you look at their annual report you will realize Hair Club is hardly making any profits. They have huge overhead & marketing costs and the credit goes to them for creating awareness among masses about hair system.

Very true. It's expensive to run a brick and mortar company.
I can't believe George costanza from Seinfeld. Is now wearing a Farrell system.
He can afford to spend 5k for the extra pampering and hand holding from Richard.
DIY is freedom!
I have this piece sfs that I attach with tape weekly and it won't go bad.
Have had it for 7 months plus. Still looks awesome.

Ultra custom can mean biomatrix advanced deluxe, it is just Jargon. He could easily say oh we do some proprietary bullshit in person bla bla. Its an in person type of setup, so they can say it is ultra custom because they are working directly with a client yadda yadda


Farrell was voted best in the world from hairsite.com. Everyone knows Farrell paid Hairsite to be a sponsor. Its just a rigged bullshit that he pays/paid them money for them to say he was rated by "their" site as the best in the world. It is just paid for advertising.. I say if you want to go up against anyone or talk about scamming companies, talk about hair direct.. They are your direct competitors not farrell. Farrell is a salon just like many others out there.. JA-alternatives, HCM, the list goes on. But Hairdirect is an online site just like toplace that charges much higher prices and claims to be the best with the best service etc.. They even try/tried to get people into club membership plans where they over pay and get "disposable" systems every month.. Its very reminiscent of the hair salons.. On top of that they scout out every forum and try to steal away people.. I know because they have emailed me in the past telling me that they been watching me for awhile posting on toplace and BA's old forum and they invited me to be part of their special, I don't know, product testing/development team.. basically to get the big posters on board.

@NeedGoodHair: I partly agree with you. The first I ever heard of (high quality) hair peices was from HairDirect - before then, in my country - we don't have those salon chains, no advertisements for them, etc. No other salons really advertise either. I think if they hadn't have advertised, TopLace and other companies would've still been noticed for what they offer.

The part I agree with is that in the past something has been provided, I'm not sure if its from those salon chains or not - the illusion of wigs being so horrible and easy to detect. If that is their doing, they've done us all good service - because those old sterotypes they created are serving us well in our hair wearing endeavours today.

@John: Its good to hear another has been liberated from Mr Farrell - the fact that he purports to be the only one in the field of 'ultra' custom hair peice creation is ridiculous.

@Xeon005: Its well and good to make up jargon, but his particular jargon is swindling people out of money by representing his product as the only option. Its no different from the people selling 'hair growth shampoo' when they really know that it doesn't grow shit.

I must admit that my observation is that despite his ridiculous prices he offers a great service. I suppose you get what's on the tin, but it's a very expensive tin.
If he was close by and I had more money than I'd ever need then I might be tempted.

I'm surprised by the greed factor that wearing seems to bring out in suppliers/stylists. I would imagine you could become very wealthy as a salon owner just charging a couple of hundred a go and $40/50 to attach/reattach. The $500-$1000's people are just greedy and don't deserve any success.

I suppose it fits in with modern capitalism in general though. I've noticed that even during recession businesses put prices up instead of having offers, then complain about lack of customers instead of just making a bit less off but being busy. Hairclub for Men should be catapulted to the moon!

Kudos to this site for recognizing that normal everyday people can achieve great results and not have to be ripped off in the process! Keep up the great work!

double post!

every business person is going to say THEIR product is original and the BEST. What is he supposed to say? Hey I got hair systems that are great quality.. ya know the same as toplaces that you could get for a tenth of the price and learn to do shit yourself? LoL. Hes in it to make business, his statements are just trying to sell his products. Marked up prices just like everyone else in business.. Why would anyone get tempted to HAVE to get services at a salon? Isn't that annoying? I rather do it myself than travel all the time somewhere having someone else do shit for me.. and theres no guarantee that you will get the service you want.

Best thing to do is learn the stuff yourself.. Its freedom.. I can cut my own hair, my system hair, i can attach and remove all myself I don't need to book appointments or spend money and time to get a look. If your loaded and just like to get pampered than thats different.

The only plus side I can see of farrell besides getting your hair cuts and pampered is if they can customize it a little better than going through the mail. I have no idea about his consistency.. Its not like they are making it in the backroom.. he probably gets the units from his own overseas factory and the order process might be very similar. I can't comment on that though, i don't have any experience with farrell. I tried to go to him before i knew about online hair replacement but I refused to spend 800 dollars on a small front partial.. yes! I actually got them down to 800 dollars lol.

I heard Farrell lasts quite a bit longer than Toplace though, sort of helping the initial cost not sound quite as high. Is that true?