REVIEW: Hazardous Hair Tie From Temu
By The Treasure-Sharer
I had actually planned to put out a different article this week, but it’s turning out to be a much bigger project than we had anticipated and expected, so it’s unfortunately not ready yet.
I decided to write a quick review of a small item that I thought was worth warning you about, in the meantime, and discovered that I had already started writing a review about it months ago, that I had forgotten about until now.
The product was a hair tie that I had bought while participating in a promotion that Temu sometimes made available to me, where I could get Temu credits (which function like money on Temu) for spending a certain amount on the items that they featured on their promotional page, within a certain time limit.
In order to get the largest amount of credits, I need to spend a certain minimum amount in one hour, and I could get bonus credits for buying certain select items. The hair tie that I am reviewing here was one of the special bonus credit items, that would actually give me more credits back than what I would need to spend to buy it, if I added it to my cart and bought it as part of the promo.
See the image at the start of the article for different variations of the hair tie that I bought, taken from the Temu promo ad page.
It was my first time trying a hair tie from Temu, and I've since then bought a lot more hair items from them, so I have new insights and feedback to add.
Before that, I had been tempted to buy a pack of hair ties from Temu, after seeing how cheap they were. I knew that they were made of cloth, and was wary, because of my funky experiences with buying pants from Temu (which you can see my reviews of here), but I wondered if their hair ties might be any different. I held off though, because I was unsure.
I bought one as an after-thought, simply knowing that I would be getting a random hair tie that would give me around $1.50 worth of credits back for choosing it. Because I had a time-crunch of one hour to choose my items for the maximum amount of credit back, I did little more than read the product name, and scan the pictures.
The hair tie was listed as 1pc Eugenol Small Intestine Hair Ring with Rhinestone Ball Elastic Band Temperament Head Rope High-end Light Luxury High Elastic Hair Rope Color Random
I had no idea what it meant by "eugenol" or "small intestine," but didn't have the time to care.
I was disappointed when it arrived, because I had gotten the brown version, which was the one that I wanted the least, since I had thought that the other color options would match more items, and looked better.
See the photos below for images of the different variations of the hair tie, and for the size dimensions, taken from the Temu product page. The photos have confused a lot of people who have bought these hair ties, because they expect to receive four, but only get one. The item title does say "1pc" though, and I thought I would only be getting one hair tie, based on that description.
The hair tie also doesn't come on a hard paper backing or anything -- mine just came in plastic wrapping. One of the promo pics from the product page seem to indicate that it's a handmade hair tie since an image of the hair tie with packaging said that, but I didn't include that photo, since mine didn't come with that packaging.
After looping the hair tie around my hair and seeing that it seemed to have good elasticity and did a good job of holding my hair up, I thought that maybe it hadn't been such a bad idea to give the hair tie a try. Some problems that I have experienced in the past with hair ties are that they don't stretch enough or have enough elasticity to hold my hair up and keep it up and in place, but this hair tie worked very well for that. It also didn't catch on or pull out any of my hair when taking it off. See the photo to the side to see what the hair tie looks like on someone wearing it, taken from the Temu promotional page.
See below for photos of the hair tie from various angles, and of me stretching the hair tie to show its elasticity.
However, after taking the hair tie off, I took a whiff of it and immediately felt sick — a feeling that remained for more than two hours after. My stomach felt queasy and sickened, and so did my head, so I'm sure that there must have been some really funky chemicals in the hair tie that caused my queasiness.
I looked up "eugenol" and found out, "Eugenol is a chemical compound found in clove oil and other essential oils. It is a colorless to pale yellow liquid with a strong clove smell." Health effects included the following;
"Overdose: Can cause liver and gastrointestinal damage, dizziness, rapid breathing, and convulsions
Skin contact: Can cause inflammation and allergic dermatitis
Inhalation: Can cause bronchial irritation and dizziness
Safety
High concentrations of eugenol can be toxic"
I can't find the sources for the above information anymore since I didn't save the links when I first started writing this review, but I did find an article mentioning similar side effects -- What are the side effects of Eugenol? -- which you can check out for more information.
I also found a Eugenol hazard information chart from the American Chemical Society, which I have screenshot from the site, below:
I wish I had known those things before buying and sniffing the hair tie, and I don't really know why it was put into the hair tie on purpose.
I did see that eugenol is supposed to be maybe good for hair growth and strength (via the scalp), and did a quick search to see if there was some "eugenol hair tie" trend, but didn't find any other hair ties sold with eugenol in the description, or anything about eugenol being used in hair ties.
I assume that the description meant that the hair tie contained eugenol, though there's no accompanying explanation for it. To play it safe, I wouldn't recommend buying this hair tie, or any that you find with eugenol in it, should you discover one.
Temu gave me a full refund without needing to return the hair tie, which is how I was able to review it and take photos of it now, though I haven't worn it since, except to try it on once, in order to be able to comment on its elasticity for this review. Temu also advised me to seek medical attention if I continued to feel sick. Thankfully, I felt better the next day.
Anyways, because the description for the hair tie did say "eugenol," I didn’t extend my poor experience with this hair tie to other hair ties sold on Temu, since I figured that it could have been the eugenol, rather than the hair tie itself, that caused my feelings of nausea. I did, however, decide to start employing a whiff test from then on, to test for potentially bad chemical content.
As I mentioned, I bought more hair items from Temu afterward, including a hair set that included two packs of different kinds of hair ties. I decided to try using one when I was about to start a workout, and couldn't find any other hair ties to use. I remembered to give one a whiff before I put it on, and discovered that it also had an awful smell that made me feel queasy. I smelled the other pack of hair ties and found that it had a similar smell and effect. So I ended up doing my workout without a hair tie, and a Temu representative kindly gave me a 50% off refund for my hair item order, which I thought was fair, since the other items that had come in the package that weren’t hair ties smelled fine to me. I give Temu props for at least taking health concerns seriously and giving refunds for funky items.
I still cannot recommend buying artificial-fabric-based items of any kind from Temu, based on my poor experience with the hair tie that I tried, and all my past purchases of Temu clothing items.
I've bought more hair ties from Temu since, but made sure that they were made of cotton, even though those tend to be more expensive.
The dollar store is probably still the better way to go for buying hair ties, which was where I had been buying my hair ties from before. At least you can see, touch, feel, and smell the hair ties there before buying them, and they usually also come in value packs. I particularly like how I am able to stretch them out and test how far they stretch before I buy them, when buying hair ties in person.
I haven't had the chance to wear the cotton hair ties I bought from Temu yet, but the elasticity doesn't feel as strong as I like and tend to go for.
Review
Pros:
-many find them to be beautiful and elegant
-fancier than your average hair tie, with a fancy touch of a sparkly rhinestone-covered bead, and mesh material for some colors
-good elasticity -- holds up with long, heavy hair, and feels like it would work for high hairdos
-comes in four colors (but you only get one)
-appears to be handmade
-has good grip
-doesn't pull out hair when you take it off
Cons:
-some people who buy it expected to receive four, but only got one random color
-inability to choose color
-some match things better than others -- the brown one that I got I doesn't feel like it matches much
-smells toxic, and made me feel sick
-getting just one for the price does not feel like good value, especially when most who buy it expected it to come in a pack of four
-similar sets of four and five hair ties (though not quite as nice) are sold for just slightly higher prices
Gem or Junk?
For us:
Junk -- 1 star out of 5
I mean, as a hair tie, it does the job that it's supposed to do well. My issue is that I don't feel that this is worth the trade-off of having something that contains substances that could cause nausea, skin irritation, and more. I'm sure that most people don't smell their hair ties, as doing so was a first for me, but I believe that my immediate and lasting reactions were telling. If just one deep whiff not only smelled toxic, but also made me feel ill, then I wouldn't want to risk using the hair tie regularly -- not even for short periods. You might as well pay perhaps even less for something safer.
I also didn't like that you don't get to choose the color of hair tie you get, as the one I received felt like it was the least practical and pretty of the choices, and would have been my last choice. The hair tie was also not that cheap, relative to what it was.
Gems For Who?
1) Women who like pretty, relatively inexpensive hair accessories.
2) Women who want a decently strong hair tie that will hold up heavier hair.
3) Women who don't have sensitive skin and smell, and don't care about the potential chemical content of their items.
4) Women who want a fancier hair tie option.
5) Women who want a hair tie that doesn't pull out their hair.
Conclusion:
After my poor experience wearing butt-lifting pants made with artificial material, I was wary of buying artificial-material hair ties from Temu, and my suspicions appear to have proven to be warranted. The smell of the first hair tie that I bought, as well as the smell of the other two packs of hair ties that came with a big package of hair accessories that I bought both smelled really funky, and made me feel really queasy, so I haven't bought any more hair ties made of anything other than cotton ever since that second experience. I hadn't actually planned to buy more hair ties after the first hair tie, but the hair ties just happened to come with the package that I bought.
If you want to try buying hair ties from Temu, I would recommend sticking with cotton hair ties (which do seem to have a smell, but not a strong one like the artificial-material ones do), but I guess that if you don't mind the smell and the implications that come with the smell, then you could try buying the other hair ties available. I would just warn against it, especially if you have sensitive skin, sensitive smell, or sensitive anything, like me.
If you haven't signed up for Temu yet and want to try it, please use my referral link to help support the site, as well as get a $200 coupon bundle after signing up.
If you use crypto and would like to donate to help us continue to put out good free content, then you can donate to our unstoppable domains page.
And if you want to make money while searching the web, and support our site, then you can sign up for the Presearch search engine using our referral link, by clicking the referral banner below.
You can also check out our reviews of butt-lifting pants, if you haven't read them yet.
See you in my next post! :)
