VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration have been a hot topic recently, and a hair salon in Virginia Beach says it has witnessed tangible impacts from these tariffs.
Elizabeth Darling, Owner of Darling and Dapper on Laskin Road, says in the past few weeks, they’ve noticed an increase in prices on many of their products.
“Whenever I was making my weekly order, all of a sudden, it was hundreds of dollars more, and direct itemization was ‘tariff surcharge,’ because it’s coming from overseas,” Darling explained.
Darling received an e-mail regarding increased prices for products coming from Europe, but it was the unexpected rise in costs for hair extensions that caught her by surprise. She explained that the company is based in California, but the natural hair comes from various places like Russia, Italy, and India. She anticipates that hair color products from Germany will be the next to see price increases.
In response to the rising costs, Darling and Dapper has implemented an 8% increase in prices for take-home products, just to break even, the owner says.
“I think just generally speaking, as a small business—salon or not—any small business, the unpredictability of that makes trying to plan for the future or just figuring out our margins so much harder,” Darling added.
Meantime, they’re doing what they can to let customers know in advance.
“We just want to be open and honest. We don’t want anyone to feel like, ‘Oh, they’re just raising their prices just to make a buck, because it’s not about that,” said owner Elizabeth Darling.
She is striving to maintain customer loyalty while minimizing stress during these challenging economic times; however, she is hesitant to switch from the trusted products her clients rely on.
“The last thing we want to do in a tumultuous economy is make things worse or harder for them,” she said. “It’s unfortunate and kind of heartbreaking to say, ‘Okay, now that you’ve already had to space out your appointments because of money, or lack thereof, and now we have to charge you more just because things that are out of our control.’”
