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Hair Care Product Diversion

Is the professional hair care product you find in the drug store or department store the same hair care product you find in your hair styling salon?

It’s a good question, but have you ever tried to get a straight answer? Your hair stylist answers something like,”Read the label, it says, they won’t guarantee it is their product unless sold by a licensed hair stylist.” Or, “It’s got to be an imposter because they are only authorized to sell to legitimate hair styling salons.” Most manufacturers of salon-only hair care products do have such a disclaimer. Then how come I held the same product yesterday at my local Cub Supermarket? So,”Is it the real thing or not?”

My take–IT’S THE SAME PRODUCT AS LONG AS THE TRADE MARK IS THE SAME.

There are only a couple ways in which this could happen:

  
• Hair care manufacturers or distributors sell to unauthorized persons.
• They could also choose to look the other way when selling more product than would legitimately be used by a hair styling salon.
• Salons that sell bulk hair care products to a third party who then in turn sells to whomever.

 

So why don’t the hair care manufacturers and distributors trace where the product is being sold? My local Aerial Beauty Supply said,”There is an ongoing lawsuit about this”. . . I’ve heard that answer for almost 30 years now.

It used that illegitimate retailers would’nt be as bold as this Synder’s ad, to advertise their salon products and especailly at discount prices. I spoke with a representative at Target, which actually has an area called,”The Salon Store.” Of course he wasn’t able to tell me who distributes the large amount of salon products to their stores, but he assured me Target is a reputable company and would not dupe it’s customers. He agrees that the “trademark” on the bottles will tell you of the legitimacy of the product. But that does not wash with the labels on the product. I found, Paul Mitchell, Matrix,TIGI, Redken, Rusk, and more on the shelves at Target.

The only company who at least is putting a public face on the issue seems to be, Graham Webb International, with their “diversion practices” and the illegal distribution of their products. They say:

“We believe our quality products will produce optimum results only if they are prescribed by trained salon professionals who understand their clients’ hair and beauty needs. We so firmly believe this that we guarantee you will be satisfied with Graham Webb products when you purchase them through professional salons.

Another important reason Graham Webb fights diversion practices is to ensure the quality of the Graham Webb products you are buying. When products are “diverted” and sold at unauthorized retail outlets, they may have been mishandled before reaching the store’s shelves, or may be old, damaged, obsolete, contaminated or even counterfeit.”

Do the department stores or the drug stores sell hair care products cheaper? In my little survey at my local Target some products were cheaper and some were not.

I challenge Paul Mitchell, Matrix,TIGI,Redken, Rusk, and the retailers, drug chains and supermarkets to come clean.

What is going on? Quit playing the hair care label game. I invite any of their executives to leave comments.

Got a question, war story or comment about this topic? Click on the "Leave Your Comments" link at the very bottom of this article. Some of my best ideas for future articles come from reading reader comments. I'd love to hear from you!

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