The Truth About Buying Hair Products From Influencers & Amazon

At this day and age, now more than ever we’re getting recommended products from influencers and ordering everything online. Amazon is currently the top online retailer. It really is so nice to have whatever we can dream of delivered to our door in a matter of days or even hours, all from our couch in our PJs.

But when it comes to our hair, is buying a recommended product from influencers or buying from Amazon a good alternative to buying from our hair stylist or places like Ulta? Keep reading to get my take on the matter.

Should I trust product recommendations from influencers?

I first want to start out by saying that I have absolutely NO problem with influencers. I know several personally and I am technically one myself! That being said let me give you my opinion on taking a hair product recommendation from influencers.

We all have our favorite influencers that we follow whether it be on Instagram or any other social media outlet. They’re always testing out and recommending products for us to see their experience and use their code to purchase.

The question is, can we really trust this persons opinion on if this is actually a good purchase for us or not?

My opinion is that in order to trust someone’s recommendation on a product, you need to make sure they are in the right place to be giving that recommendation in the first place, as well as how genuine they are in giving the recommendation.

As a hairstylist myself, I would never take the recommendation for a hair product from an influencer unless they happen to have more experience behind the chair than I do (for the average influencer, this very unlikely).

Sure her hair may look great in all of her pictures, but she only knows about HER hair. She doesn’t have the experience, training, or knowledge to be giving hair product recommendations to the general public.

For the general public, I would honestly only take their advice if they are indeed qualified to give it. If this is just some random person with no hair experience, why should you trust their advice on hair products?

Influencers get paid to sell you things

Influencers and bloggers are paid depending on their following to recommend products to their target market (you). At the very least they are given free products in return for their recommendation.

There’s nothing wrong with this at all, but some will take any deal with any brand just to make some money or get free things.

Now believe me when I say that it is HARD work to make it as an influencer, especially starting out. But I recommend only taking the opinion of those that are being 100% honest with you. As well as those that have the experience in the field that they are promoting.

I personally don’t believe any influencer should be giving hair product recommendations without being licensed themselves. They don’t have the credentials.

You should also pay attention to some of their other recommendations. Do the products seem in line with their brand? Or are they promoting random things? I personally will only trust a recommendation from an influencer if I can tell that they genuinely enjoy this product and use it on a regular basis.

At first it may be difficult to spot the fake reviews, but if you keep this in mind and pay attention to their spiel, you can tell the difference between an authentic review and one that’s promoting the product only because it’s their paycheck.

Can you buy professional hair products from Amazon?

Now onto whether or not Amazon is a good place to buy hair products. The short answer to this question is yes, you can. But when doing so you run the risk of purchasing counterfeit, old, or diluted products.

I’m sure many of you may have experienced this, or have heard of this happening to someone you know.

When you order something from Amazon, you aren’t necessarily ordering it from Amazon directly. Amazon gets all of their products from distributers or the businesses themselves.

Some of these are well known and trusted companies, while others are not.

So when you look up your favorite shampoo on Amazon, you will find a number of different links, all with different pricing, pictures, and reviews.

This means that the product is coming from a number of different sources, some trusted, others not so much.

A lot of third party sellers will sell counterfeit, old, or watered down hair products in the same packaging as the real stuff. If you don’t know the product well, you may not even realize that it’s happened to you.

Why I sell my favorite hair products on Amazon

For starters, I use Amazon to sell products on my blog AND in my salon. Since I have been self-employed, this has been so much better for all parties involved.

I’ve found that a lot of my clients would buy a product from me in-salon, and when they need it again they order it from Amazon instead of buying it through me. They didn’t do this because they don’t want to support me; they did it because of the convenience. And trust me, I GET IT.

Amazon can also sometimes beat my pricing in the salon, unless I want to cut my profit. And for the work that gets put into it for me dealing with everything inventory related, I am not willing to cut the profit.

So selling my retail on Amazon has worked much better for me and my clients. I honestly hardly make any commission on it, but I know that my clients and my readers are using good quality professional product and it takes away from my workload. Which trust me, while running a studio salon and blog alone; I’ll reduce any workload that I can.

How to avoid counterfeit hair products from Amazon

My best recommendation to avoid counterfeit, old, or diluted hair products is to do some quick research on the seller and listing. Who is the seller? How are the reviews? Are the pictures old or outdated?

In all honesty, I haven’t heard many complaints from my clients that purchased their products on Amazon. It seems to be pretty rare to get something that is counterfeit, and you can always return the product if there is an issue.

Most of the complaints I’ve heard are hear-say or rumors spread by stylists or posts online. And I do believe that stylists throw these few complaints around because they want their clients buying from them instead of Amazon. I can totally understand their attitude towards it because it really is frustrating feeling like your client doesn’t want to support you by purchasing product from you. But that doesn’t mean that all of the products on Amazon are going to be counterfeit.

Instead of spreading rumors that I couldn’t personal attest to experiencing, I decided to use Amazon to my advantage and give my clients the option to purchase the products through me on Amazon. And it saved me a lot of extra inventory work as well, so it’s a win-win in my opinion!

If you’d like to see all of the hair products and tools that I recommend, check out my retail page here.

Conclusion

These days companies are utilizing influencers for the majority of their marketing tactics. The question is, can we trust these influencers or are they just looking to make a buck? Also, should we be buying our hair products from Amazon, or is it true like the hairstylists say that they sell counterfeit products? How do we know who we can trust?

Personally, I would only trust an influencer that seems to genuinely use and love the product, AND that is qualified to educate or sell this product to you. for example, I wouldn’t trust a lifestyle blogger for hair or skincare product recommendations. I would trust a hairstylist or skincare blogger for this information instead.

When it comes to Amazon, you can learn a lot by doing some quick research before you purchase the product. Check who the seller is and what the reviews are. Are the images outdated? You can typically tell the difference between a reputable distributer and a third party sketchy seller by the quality of the product listing and reviews.

While there certainly are counterfeit products being sold on Amazon, I think it’s definitely exaggerated by hairstylists that are sick of their clients not supporting them, which is fair in my opinion. This is why as a stylist I gave my clients the option to purchase from me in the salon, or through my website through Amazon.

If you have any further questions for me, leave them in the comment section. And be sure to subscribe below if you want to make everyday a good hair day!

Last Updated 04/11/2022