Salon hair care products are popping up everywhere. For people looking to save a few dollars, it may be tempting to buy.  The hair care industry said if you’ve been buying your hair products from drugstores, superstores and even grocery stores then you’ve been buying diverted products. 

Diversion is the hair care industry’s version of the black market.  Insiders say it’s a big deal because it’s ripping off consumers by selling them products that could potentially be lost, stolen, counterfeit and even tampered with. 

Dana Baumgart is a representative for Paul Mitchell.  She said that only salons are authorized to sell professional quality hair products.  “Grocery stores, drug stores, when they’re selling professional brands they are likely purchasing them in the diversion market,” Baumgart said.  However, what these stores are doing is perfectly legal.  She said that once a product gets outside the authorized chain of salons, the manufacturer's guarantee is void. 
“It’s a bit risky,” Baumgart said.  “Say the product is old or outdated and it is just not performing well, then the consumer has a bad taste in their mouth.” 

Or it could result in a bad hair day. These diverted products may even be stolen, counterfeit, recalled or tampered with.  “It could be contaminated by bacteria,” Baumgart said.Contaminated, counterfeit Paul Mitchell hair products were found in 2003.  “When they tested the products, the bacteria was too numerous to count,” Baumgart said. 
 
What is more surprising is that buying at these stores may not always be a better deal.  “It’s anywhere from 50% up to $5 a bottle more,” Baumgart said. 

And that is exactly what the ABC15 Investigators found.  We bought six different hair products from Target, Walgreens and Safeway.  We bought a Bumble and Bumble Seaweed Shampoo at Walgreens for $18.99. 
However, we found the same shampoo for $16.50 at a Bumble and Bumble authorized salon located right across the parking lot from that same Walgreens. 

Walgreens sent ABC15 this statement in response:
“The product we’re selling is authentic and purchased legally on the open market from secondary source distributors.  These distributors often obtain the product when the manufacturer sells it overseas.  The fact that we sell these products in some of our stores is nothing new, and many other retailers have more extensive programs than we do.”Safeway charged us $15.69 for a Redken Color Extend Shampoo.  Compare that to $11.50.  That is what the same shampoo costs at Supercuts, a Redken authorized salon.  That is a difference of more than four dollars, or these days, an extra gallon of gas. 

Safeway sent ABC15 this statement in response: “Safeway sells authentic hair care products in a manner that is lawful and ethical. The products that you mentioned are sold at most major supermarkets and drug stores in the United States.”Every product that we bought at so-called bargain stores actually cost less at a salon. 

In fact, we could have saved a total of more than $15 had we bought these products from an authorized seller. 
If you have a problem with a diverted product that you bought from a drugstore, grocery store or superstore, you are at the mercy of that particular store’s return policy.