With over 2/3rds of British consumers happy to own fake clothing, footwear, watches and other items according to a report by the BBC it should come as no surprise that there are a number of unethical companies selling fake GHD stylers.

Unlike fake handbags or fashion, buying fake GHDs throws up some problems beyond just breaking the law.  

As a professional styling tool which heats up to almost 200c (twice the boiling point of water!), the GHD Styler is subject to the higest standards of manufacturing as well as stringent quality assurance testing to ensure they are safe to use at home.  However, fake GHD stylers may not be manaufactured to the same standards, nor may they be made of components that can withstand the sort of extremes of temperature that genuine GHD styler components can. In short, fake GHDs could be potential deathtraps.

Even if you get lucky and they don't burn your house down, chosing to buy fake GHD products will cause you all sorts of problems which you may not think of when faced with what seems like an incredible bargain:

• No warranty.  All genuine GHD stylers come with a 24 month manufacturer's warranty which covers them in the event of a fault.  Fake GHD stylers don't have this protection, which means that you could be shelling out for a new pair sooner than you think, especially if the quality of the components isn't very good in the first place!
• Credit Card Fraud.   Companies that sell fake GHD products aren't likely to be the most trustworthy, given that they are happy to be committing a criminal offence.   Buying from their website might mean exposing your credit card details or paypal account details as well as your address.   In this day and age that might spell identity theft - not something you'd want to risk just to save a few quid.
• Funding Criminal Activity.  Companies that sell fake products are by definition criminal organisations and do you honestly think they are likely to just stop at conterfeiting.  Tax fraud, VAT avoidance, money laundering and even organised crime go hand in hand with selling fake goods.  Why would you want to support people like that, when it is so easily avoided?

Now assuming that we've convinced you that buying a fake pair of ghds is a seriously bad idea, you might be asking how you can ensure that you avoid ending up with a pair accidentally.  Well here are some easy tips to follow:

1. Price.  If it is less than £90 (inc postage), you are probably about to get ripped off.  According to our retail partners, even massive online retailers can’t buy ghd stylers wholesale for much less than £70 (ex VAT), so there is NO WAY that those £69 straighteners you saw are genuine.
2. Pink GHD out of season. GHD pink stylers are only available from September each year and sell out by Christmas. There might be the odd site with a few left after this point but the price will ALWAYS be above £130, not £89.99!
3. Ebay.  Check the feedback. There are a couple of sellers with plenty of feedback (we mean tens of thousands) who will sell you genuine ghd straighteners, and of course there is the odd person selling a 2nd hand pair.  But avoiding anyone from overseas or with a feedback of less than 1000 is usually a wise move!
4. Dodgy websites.  Watch out for sites that only seem to sell GHD stylers (and perhaps one or two other oddly unrelated products, like headphones). These sites also normally have a strange domain names and allow you to pay only by paypal or Western Union.  They probably won't have a UK address listed and certainly won't have a UK landline telephone number. Their terms won't provide their registered office, VAT number, registered company number and data protection number.  Basically they are scammers who will send you a fake pair of ghds if they send you anything.
5. Stick to buying from GHD Approved websites.  We only list retailers who we know to buy their stock from GHD themselves and who have websites that comply with UK and EU law. They are honest and reliable companies with customer service staff and a track record in the supply of GHD products.  Some are massive multinationals whereas others are smaller specialist retailers, but all of them only sell genuine products that are covered by the GHD Manufacturers warranty.

Okay, well hopefully this article has made the situation clearly as regards genuine versus fake ghds. We don't want to scare anyone, nor put people off buying GHD products online.  Just use your common sense, and remember whether you buy from one of our partners, or elsewhereon the web - follow the tips outlined above and you are sure to end up with a genuine GHD product that you will be delighted with!