Haircare products are supposed to do just that — care for your hair. So when consumers start reporting hair loss, balding, itching, and rash associated with using a certain product, the Food and Drug Administration is going to take those reports seriously. [More]
hair
Donations Pour In, Replace Wigs Taken By Lowdown Thief
By 8.11.14
Police in Houston are currently dealing with a series of thefts that may or may not be related. Ten stores that sell hair in the Houston area in the last week have been robbed. It began with the theft of eleven wigs destined for a fancy spa event for women who have lost their own hair due to cancer treatment. Good news: donors have replaced those wigs. [More]
DIY Salon: 7 Grooming Items Other Than A Single Haircut That You Could Spend $1,000 On
By 1.30.14
Hello there! Do you have an extra $1,000 to spare? If you did, what are the odds that you’d spend it all on one haircut and blowdry? Slim, probably, unless your face is currently gracing the pages of whichever various celeb magazines are popular nowadays. But while there are some people out there who would splash out some serious cash on self-grooming, we’ve got a few other suggestions for that moolah. [More]
Is Your Hair Acceptable For Abercrombie & Fitch?
September 3, 2013
Are the highlights in your hair sunkissed and subtle with complementary shading? Then maybe you can work for Abercrombie & Fitch. But those of you with “chunks of contrasting color” can go work at a store that doesn’t think plus-size consumers are the “not-so-cool kids.” [via Buzzfeed, which has many other details from the Abercrombie employee handbook] [More]
No, A Dietary Supplement Probably Doesn’t Prevent Gray Hair
By 5.9.13
One of the fun things about working in the media is definitely reading the odd press releases and story pitches that cross my inbox every day. Our colleagues over at Consumer Reports received a pitch in their mailbox about a dietary supplement that’s supposed to “prevent and reverse” gray hair. Wait, that’s a thing? Not only is it a thing, but someone was pushing it as a great Mother’s Day gift. [More]
Beauty Brands Pushing Anti-Aging Hair Care Products To Combat “Old Hair” Days
By 4.5.13
As if women aren’t already freaked out enough about aging, the beauty industry is now messing with our heads even more. Along with the various anti-aging creams, serums, balms, wrinkle smoothers, moisturizers and treatments for your skin, the latest trend in product pushing comes in the form of anti-aging hair care items. [More]
Court: Texas Roadhouse Doesn’t Owe Customer $150K For Hair-Stuffed Steak
By 12.7.12
A customer at a Wisconsin Texas Roadhouse restaurant complained that his steak was overcooked, and a spiteful staffer who thought he was lying to scam free food stuffed pieces of his facial hair inside the meat. The same employee later claimed to have stuffed a steak with pubic hair. This story may sound familiar to old-school Consumerist fans: we posted it in 2008, and it appeared on our list of all-time grossest food stories. The hairy steaks are in the news again. What’s happened in the intervening four years? Lawsuits. [More]
Robot Will Help Bring Hair To The Bald — Unless You're Blond
By 4.27.11
Minoxidil, toupees, hair weaves and extensions… Soon joining this list of hair-loss solutions? How about a robot that automates “harvesting” hair from balding men for use in transplants later? [More]
Botched Supercut Has Happy Ending
By 4.19.11
After receiving a coupon in the mail, Jacqueline thought she would save some money by getting her hair trimmed at a local Supercuts. This turned out to be a false economy, since her stylist didn’t seem to actually listen to what Jacqueline wanted, and was more interested in her lunch than in her customer. [More]
Save Money On Haircuts
By 4.26.10
Personally I can’t imagine a haircut costing much money, so MainStreet’s list of 18 ways to get a cheap haircut seems like frugal overkill to me. But then again I’m a guy and I’m going bald, so I just use clippers to avoid the sadness of listening to scissors snip away at nothing, and consequently I don’t really know much about the world of hair salons. Apparently a good haircut for a woman can cost a lot of money, unless you know how to find a bargain. [More]
Recession Gives Rise To Bad Haircuts, Cowlicks
By 9.1.09
The Wall Street Journal reports on yet another casualty of the flagging economy: decent haircuts. As consumers confront dwindling bank accounts, they’re taking the scissors into their own hands – sometimes, with disastrous results.
Slate Dyes Its Hair To Find The Best At Home Kit
By 8.25.09
Slate’s column for ladyfolk, doubleX, recently tested 5 home hair dye kits to see which of them work the best. It seems Slate’s fancy writers are too good for Kool-Aid or RIT, which is what my friends always used when they needed a good ugly green tint; apparently Slate also wanted to test brown dyes and not ugly green ones. Of the five, the worst was the $6 “Rainbow Henna Persian Dark Brown,” while the best was a $14 Clairol product, which handily beat out a $30 kit from Frederic Fekkai.
Shampooing Every Time You Shower? It May Be Too Much
By 3.21.09
Shampooing every day isn’t only wasteful, it can also harm your hair, according to NPR. Back in the olden days, when waterfalls passed for high-pressure showers, people would shampoo only once a month. That wasn’t enough, but if you shampoo more than three times a week, you’re actually making your hair oilier because your glands need to work overtime to replace the natural oils you’re washing away.
PHOTO: Dell Breaks Your Laptop, Sends Replacement Full Of Pubes
By 4.8.08
Reader K’s call to Dell tech support for his laptop resulted in the tech helping him break a different computer, then sending him a replacement laptop full of human pubic hair. After diagnosing a faulty power adapter with K’s laptop, the Dell technician asked him to plug the malfunctioning adapter into his other, out-of-warranty Dell to confirm the problem. K was reluctant, but complied, and fried his old laptop in the process. To their credit, Dell offered a replacement; unfortunately, it had a full bush. Full email, with picture, below (photo is NSFL: Not Safe For Lunch).
Woman Threatens To Sue Salon Over Horrible Haircut
By 2.7.08
The photo at left is an actual photo of the damage done to this lady’s hair and head. Lane writes:
I’m sure you get hundreds of complaints about salons, but have any of the salon owners in question put a lien on the car of the injured party? Mine has.
What's In Nair
By 1.18.08
Hey, do you know what’s in Nair, the creamy hair-removal product that smells like skunks? (Or used to—the current formulation is supposed to smell better.) Now, thanks to Wired’s “What’s Inside” article, you will! The active ingredient is potassium thioglycolate, a member of the thiol family, which not coincidentally is also responsible for the intense stink factor of skunk spray. Thiols “eat into keratin (a skin and hair protein), which is what makes actual skunk spray (and Nair) lock onto human flesh and fuzz.” Another chemical—calcium hydroxide—destroys the weakened hairs.
Tresemme Color Thrive Conditioner And The Really Bad Hair Day
By 10.16.06
I have a beautiful head of hair. Every morning, I wake up and, Marcia Brady like, comb out the gossamer locks. “One! Two! Three!” I chant, up until a million or I pass out. Then, I break open some eggs, carefully separate the yolk and then apply the white to each glistening strand with a fine paint brush. It’s a pain, but it’s worth it.
