5 Hair Accessories to Sew & Sell at Craft Fairs

Hair accessories are a great product to make and sell at craft shows.

• Good profits – hair accessories tend to require small amounts of material and don’t take long to make.
• Good for beginners – most patterns are simple to sew.
• Good price points for crafts shows – the majority of craft show shoppers tend to buy in the $5 – $30 range.

Here are some of my favorite hair accessories to sew and sell:

1 – Scrunchies

Scrunchies are popular and easy to make. It’s important to think about a unique angle for your scrunchies, because there are so many businesses selling them.

Start with a target market and then determine how you can alter a scrunchie to make it a better fit for that target market.

For example:

• Target market: Brides
  • Matching scrunchies in trendy bridal colors packaged to give as bridesmaid gifts
• Target market: Swimmers or beach bums
  • Scrunchies made out of swimsuit material so they’re ideal to wear in the water and they dry fast
• Target market: Dog owners
  • Sell scrunchies and dog accessories (e.g. dog bandanas, dog collars, dog booties, etc.) that match.

You could also focus on an aesthetic/style, such as cottagecore style scrunchies. There are many ways to find a unique angle. You may find this article helpful:

>> 10 Ways to Find a Unique Angle for your Craft Business

Here’s how I make scrunchies, as I’ve found it to be the fastest way:

 

2 – Knot headbands

This hair accessory requires a little more material than a scrunchie, but is still quick and easy to make.

Here’s the tutorial I followed to make my knot headband:

 

 

3 – Hair Bows

Hair bows have been popular over the past couple of years and never really go out of style. You can alter the material (e.g. a chiffon so it’s a softer bow), size (e.g. smaller bows for short hairstyles or children), and how they attach to the hair (e.g. bows attached to barrettes, elastics, bobby pins, etc.)

I attached my bow to a hair barrette and followed this tutorial: 

 

4 – Bunny ears hair elastics

This is the simplest hair accessory to make and requires the least material.

I followed the bunny ears part of the tutorial below and tied it to a regular elastic rather than a scrunchie. But these bunny ears can be tied onto a scrunchie, a headband, bobby pins, barrettes, etc. 

 

5 – Hair scarves

Another simple hair accessory that will never go out of style. It’s also really simple to sew, with just a few straight lines required.

This can also be attached to an elastic, scrunchie, or other hair accessory. But it’s great on its own too.

I didn’t follow a tutorial for this one. I simply:

• cut a long piece of fabric
• folded right sides together
• cut ends at an angle
• stitched along all 3 edges, leaving a 2” – 3” opening in the middle to turn it right side out
• top stitched to close up the opening

 

Pricing

If you’re making hair accessories to sell, you need to price for profit. If you don’t track your costs and wages (the hours you put in that you need to be paid an hourly wage for), you won’t be able to build a successful business. And you may end up spending money just to earn it back, or worse yet, losing money.

What you decide on for prices will depend on several factors:

• Materials – how much you must pay for your materials
• Brand – if you want to build a luxury brand, you may charge slightly higher prices
• Overhead costs – how much you spend on the marketing and sales aspect of your business
• Etc.

Average prices for these hair accessories are:

• Scrunchies: $5 – $15
• Knotted headbands: $15 – $35
• Hair bows: $5 – $15 
• Bunny ear elastics: $5 – $10
• Hair scarves: $10 – $20

Take the time to properly calculate your prices so you know you’re profiting.

Here’s a detailed guide on how to price scrunchies: How To Price Handmade Scrunchies To Sell

You can follow the same steps from the article for each type of hair accessory you make.

 

Other items to sell

You can build a business selling hair accessories, or you may expand at some point into other related products. Here are a few ideas:

Accessories

• Small bags and wristlets
• Fabric belts
• Face masks

Sleep items

The following items could work in your product lineup if your hair accessories are made for wearing while sleeping (e.g. silk scrunchies to keep hair back and reduce breakage when sleeping) or for wearing during skincare and makeup routines.

• Eye masks for sleeping
• Reusable makeup removal pads and face cloths
• Shower caps
• Sleep bonnets

Wholesale hair accessories

Unless a craft show has strict rules about the ratio of products that must be handmade/fully handmade, not every item on your table needs to be made by you.

You can purchase items at wholesale prices and mark them up to a retail price, so you profit with each sale.

Items such as:

• Hair claws
• Hair clips
• Headbands
• Hair elastics
• Etc.

 

Displaying hair accessories at a craft show

You may find the following DIYs useful for displaying hair accessories at craft shows. Although they’re designed for scrunchies, they would work for a variety of hair accessories:

• How I Made a Spinning Scrunchie Stand for Markets
• How To Make a Scrunchie Display Stand (for under $25)