NZO Hair Studios

Review: Purchased hair from a website called [redacted]. Although NZO Studios claims no responsibility for those products, my payment through [redacted] went to NZO Studios in Washington DC. The weave hair I purchased has been in for a total of 10 days and on the morning of the 10th day, after following the written instructions provided with the hair since day one, including sealing the hair and buying all the recommended products and tools, the hair has clumped up on itself all over my head. The hair is likely unsalvageable. Hair was installed 5/17/13, the day of hair "turning" with no warning (hair was fine morning of 5/27 before washing) is 5/27/13.Desired Settlement: a full refund of the cost of the hair of $351.12. Given the NZO studios also provides weave services, they will be well aware that I have incurred other costs as a result of the installation - including buying all the products that were recommended for the healthy care of this hair and the installation. I have spent over $300 on installation and buying the recommended products over and above the $351.12

Consumer

Response:

[redacted] called, matter resolved,

Review: April 10, 2013

I bought what I believed to be human hair from NZO Studios, doing business online as Heat Free Hair at www.heatfreehair.com (HFH). From their For Kurls collection. The website describes the hair as " 100% pure virgin hair with their cuticles fully intact, free of any chemical processing or coating". The term virgin hair is only applied to human hair, with cuticle intact that has not been treated or processed. I paid for two packs totaling $351.12.

May 17, 2013

I had the hair installed after I had followed the written instructions that came with the hair, including sealing the wefts and purchasing the recommended care products.

From May 17-26, 2013 – followed the written instructions for daily care.

May 27, 2013

I washed the hair, as per the written instructions. As soon as the hair was saturated under the shower, it began to clump and knot and lose it’s curl pattern. I refer to it as "dreading up on itself" as in dreadlocks. The more I dealt with an individual tangle, the more the hair tangled. The hair came out in massive clumps that were well above the norm for such hair at only ten days in. Having had experience with other kinky curly products – of all prices from low end to high end, I knew this shouldn’t be happening.

I made a video and posted it on YouTube because I did not want anyone else to spend money on hair of such poor quality. Youtube is what I relied on to make my own hair purchases and I wanted people to know my experience before taking such a risk.

June 2013

Fairly quickly after my Youtube video HFH's customer service department contacted me, said they were sorry about my experience, and offered 1) a full refund of my money 2) replacement hair and 3) offered to have me travel to Washington, D.C. to have the owner, [redacted], re-install new hair. I didn't have the money or time to travel to D.C. It took until late July I think to receive the new hair so that an immediate reinstallation was impossible. By the time I received the replacement I had acting work that required me to keep my hair as-is. And I was saving money for the next installation, which I knew would be a minimum of $300. I decided to go to a different stylist who I had worked with in the past, not wanting to take any chances with the new hair. HFH also requested that I send back the original hair, which I did.

November 1, 2013

I watched and followed the instructions HFH posted on Youtube entitled: “When you get your package”. From about 2:56 on there are 7 different steps shown for the For Kurls Collection (although they’re numbered incorrectly). Link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4aoKQvbNuc&list=UUGmIfjblCOJBmvjFZQNVmyQ

November 12, 2013

The “new” hair is installed. I still had all the hair care products that I had bought with the hair in April, but to be safe, I contacted the newest customer service representative, [redacted] Jones, to get another copy of the instructions, which had not been sent with the replacement hair.

November 12-18

I followed their written instructions to a tee for the first week, which included wetting the hair everyday and placing certain products on the hair. Again, wetting is less water contact than washing. I noticed the hair was getting exceptionally dry, especially for hair that was getting treated with water everyday, and I thought that maybe product buildup caused the dryness. Given that the instructions were that the hair should be co-washed weekly anyway, I thought, it's about time to wash.

November 19, 2013 I happened to notice a new HFH youtube video with hair care wash instructions entitled For Kurls Wash Day that had been posted on November 18, 2013. These instructions contradicted the written instructions sent to me on November 12., so I followed the instructions in the video, thinking they must be more up to date and accurate than a printed document sent to me on November 13.

As soon as I wet the hair, according to their instructions, it was clear that this hair was no different than the original, clumping and knotting uncontrollably. Again, as soon as one knot is dealt with, another formed and the hair became a bird's nest of clumps. The only thing that prevented it getting any worse was that I immediately just stopped and decided to live with the knots that are there rather than create more.

I immediately contacted HFH and was told by [redacted] that my complaint was being escalated to the Owner, [redacted], who she said would send me “different (care) recommendations”. This was at about noon on November 19. I contact the stylist who had installed the hair for help and she said she would be in on November 20.

I took a second look at the Youtube video I had posted and read the comments. There were other women who had the same problem as I had, and I noticed one woman who posted a probable reason, which was that the hair must not have the cuticle intact, which is one of the claims made on the HFH website:

I did some research online and confirmed…The behavior of both sets of hair is indicative of non-cuticle hair.

http://www.ebay.com/gds/Hair-Extensions-What-is-Virgin-Hair-Know-B-4-U-Buy-/1000...⇄ />
Here is some of the most relevant text from the webpage above:

CUTICLE HAIR

If you have had hair in the past that has become dead, dry, fuzzy after the first wash it was Non –Cuticle hair. This means hair where the cuticle had been removed.

Hair naturally grows with the cuticles pointing downward root to tip, If some of the hair get turned (root to tip) the cuticles stick into each other and it create massive tangles all the time.

Hair for extensions must be looked after extremely delicately to ensure none of the hairs get misplaced and the same care must be taken throughout any process such as adding wefts or adding keratin tips.

If just some of the hair has been misplaced, or there is even the possibility that it may have occurred … the cuticles must be removed…otherwise the tangling will be so bad the hair will be unusable.

Hair manufactures will often coat non-cuticle hair in silicone. This covers the dry damaged hair and makes it look shiny and healthy. But this is only a temporary effect. Once you wash it… the real hair will be revealed, and with no cuticles the hair will tangle, be dull and lifeless.

November 20, 2013

When I woke up I realized that the only fair outcome of this for me was to be reimbursed for what I had spent having this useless hair installed. I still hadn’t heard from HFH with some way to salvage the hair, which is what I asked for on the 19th. But I realized that I had spent money on hair products that I purchased only to care for the HFH product that I never would have bought otherwise, and on hair stylists who installed and then removed the HFH product after ten days of use. I sent an email to [redacted] Jones, outlining the expenses I had had in connection with the two installations of this clearly defective hair, and requested a reimbursement of expenses.

[redacted] responded that I would have to wait to hear from Ms. [redacted].

I left my house to see my stylist and show her what had happened. She did not understand the clumping at all, especially since we’ve done about four kinky-curly installs together, one of which I treated pretty badly, that still lasted five months. I talked to her about the cuticle/non-cuticle issue, and she made another suggestion that the hair was not human, or it had synthetic hair mixed in. Again, HFH claims to have 100% virgin hair.

When I got home from the stylist I went on Youtube to lookup testing methods for human hair, which I had happened upon in the past.

By that time I had received an email from Ms. [redacted], without any additional care recommendations, informing me that my case had been referred to their Business Services/Legal Counsel.

November 21, 2013

I conducted the test on the leftover hair that I had from HFH, which is simply to set the hair on fire. A video of this can be made available to the Revdex.com. It was sent to HFH with no response from them. The burn test seems to support the idea that the hair I received is not human.Desired Settlement: I would like a refund of $640.67, which includes only the expenses I can document in relation to both hair installations. As NZO will be well aware, the stylists who installed my hair spent hours on the installation and despite the fact that my hair came out in a week, they did not provide me with a refund. NZO/HFH is lying about the product they sell. I would have been better off just getting a refund, rather than having spent an additional $312 on another installation. I spent money using a defective product that I would otherwise not have spent. The products I bought were specific to their hair product and not products I would ever use on my own hair.