Fake GHD Straighteners: Are You One Of The 1,000 Who Have Been Scammed?
GHD, a name synonymous throughout the years with trust, style, quality and reliability. All of this has been threatened by the invasion of fake GHD hair straighteners appearing everywhere. If you have been involved in GHD retail and GHD repairs, you will have seen plenty of evidence of this. However, more and more of these fake GHDs are coming in from China, they look like the real deal but come with a stinger in their tail.
If you have bought or received a GHD styler as a gift in the past few years, you should read this. When I do a GHD repair, you can do a few checks on the plates to make sure they are authentic. To do these checks, take out your GHD and follow the fake GHD verifier test.
How to Spot a Fake GHD Guide
a.) Check the label opposite the on/off switch. This should have a model number on it (eg MK4.1b), now the letter in the model number represents the color of the GHD straighteners. ‘b’ means black, ‘p’ means pink, etc. Now, when the ‘made in China’ fake GHDs were made, they made the same label for the black ones as they did for the pink ones, so if your iron is pink but has a MK4.1b model number on it, this would indicate it’s a fake.
b.) All recent GHDs now have a serial number on the silver label in front of the on/off switch. You can register this number on the official GHD website. This should tell you if your GHD is genuine, however if your GHD is a bit older it may not be cataloged yet by GHD and may not show up, so this is really for the newer GHDs.
c.) Think, where did I buy them? Did I pay full market price around £100? If you bought these new irons recently for less than £75, then they are probably fake. There are only a handful of official online outlets, these are the big professional stores that sell other beauty products. You won’t find new original GHDs at a boot sale or on the market, so forget it if you think these could be real.
d.) GHD repairs are easy for professionals who see a lot of irons, but there are some simple checks we can all do. First check behind the hinge covers, this is the area behind the 2 logos and the sides of the irons. Before doing a GHD repair, you can remove them with a small screwdriver. Underneath is a hinge pin or screw. Now this pin should have a cross head screw (Phillips head) on both sides of the pin. If the pin only has a screw and plug on the other side, it’s fake.
e.) There are a lot of fake purple GHD straighteners on the market recently, these are the new mk4 IV style. Fakes usually have a purple plug, real ones have a black one. The fake ones are also too (crudely) patterned. Another common copy is the hot pink MK4 IV styler.
f.) Now most of you want to open up a GHD and try your own GHD repair, but if you did you would also see that all the internal circuit boards on a fake GHD have solder points, the real ones have mostly screw fixings .
Hope this helps you to check if your GHD is the original item. The best and quickest advice is to check the hinge pin as described in part d.) of the guide.
If you find out your GHD is fake, what should you do? Please do not send them to a GHD or a GHD repair company, as if they are not real you may be charged to return them. All the internal parts of the fakes are cheaply assembled and are very likely to break again even if you repair them. Most GHD repair companies won’t look at them because if they repair them and then the plates cause damage or explode, those companies take responsibility for the damage. I’m sorry to say, but the only place for fakes is the dumpster. It’s an expensive lesson, but better than pointing a potentially lethal weapon at your head.
The best bet is to fix your old set of genuine GHDs. If you have a couple of old straighteners lying around your house somewhere that have stopped working don’t worry there are also many GHD repair companies that will offer a repair service for your old GHD and fix it like new these can be found by doing an internet search. See the resources at the bottom of the page for more information.