Valley businesses experience backlog in products from China

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- At Wig It 2, beautiful custom piece wigs are getting harder and harder to come by.

"There's a backlog in our products, so it's making it a little difficult, and hopefully it will be a temporary thing," said Lisa Lewis Yates, Wig It 2 owner.

Yates is the owner and gets her product from China, where the coronavirus has impacted its workforce.

"A lot of the workers overseas, we do a lot of importing of products, especially custom made hairpieces and wigs, they're unable to get to them," Yates said. "So if a product takes a minimum of a week to two weeks, those products are on the back burner for maybe a month."

Yates says she's now doing some of that work herself while they wait.

Those orders include extensions or special wigs, most used by those with hair loss.

"These are made strand by strand. Just a quarter size or silver dollar size of hair to put in to take about 12 hours," Yates said.

She says some people have also called the salon with health concerns about getting the virus from the hair.

"The virus only lives for a few hours, less than a day, so unless you're in close proximity to that person or you pick up the droplets within. Few hours of when they coughed, there's very little chance it would be transmitted," said Dr. Pollack from Valley Children's Hospital.

Yates says she always takes precautions for any product that comes in and during flu season takes more to keep customers safe.

About 50 percent of the custom products at Wig It 2 have been affected.

While they wait for production to resume, stylists say they'll do whatever they can to help people look and feel their best.