Dive Brief:

• Sally Beauty Holdings said in a statement Monday that it is investigating "reports of unusual activity" on payment cards used at some of its U.S. locations. 
• The company says it is working with third party experts and law enforcement to unveil the scope and severity of the potential incident. 

Dive Insight:

While the scope or even the reality of this breach has yet to be fully investigated, any whisper of "data breach" can spell bad news for a retailer.

Sally Beauty could be especially vulnerable to fallout from this potential incident -- in March 2014 the Denton, TX-based retailer announced that it had experienced a hack that stole payment card numbers and security codes from thousands of customers. Given the flighty nature of shoppers when it comes to their personal data being at risk with retailers, Sally Beauty may have a hard time retaining customers or attracting new ones after this potential second security strike.