Not keeping it

No this post title does not refer to not-my-dog, who does in fact still live in my house. We’ve sort of decided that we’re not his owners, we’re his managers, at least for the time being. That’s all we’ll commit to. Go re-read his whole long, tragic history and you’ll understand my reluctance to calling this dog my own.

But anyway, that’s not what I’m not keeping.

Because I am not black (I know, you’re shocked!!) I am less familiar with the wide, wide range of ethnic hair care products available today, many of which are *required* to keep Abby’s hair well-conditioned and looking good. When I find something that works, I tend to stick to it and I swear by Carol’s Daughter, and especially their Hair Milk. It’s just wonderful, plus it smells GREAT.

So imagine my delight when the geniuses at Carol’s Daughter created a new Hair Milk shampoo and conditioner to create a new line. I went to order it online and decided to check out whether Amazon had it (our Prime account often gets us cheap shipping). Lo and behold, I merrily clicked away and soon had the Hair Milk shampoo, conditioner and original hairdress in my virtual cart along with some other leave-in conditioner for my little pool rat and some color glaze for me. Yay! One-stop shopping!

And then things started arriving one at a time from tiny little resellers – those third parties who sell on Amazon. Frankly, I didn’t even notice that my cart was being filled from 4 different stores, only one of which was actually Amazon.

The shampoo and conditioner were taking forever to get here, and I was getting a little nervous about getting Abby’s hair washed and conditioned before our vacation because Neila’s coming on Friday to do a three-week-’do. It’s not that I have NO other hair care options, but I was excited to try this new product and see how it works. Otherwise it’ll be another three weeks until I have a chance. See three-week-’do, referenced above.

Finally my package arrived and I had this magic, wonderful Hair Milk stuff in my possession. Then yesterday I opened the box and took out the bottle and what the…??? Why is this bottle all sticky? Why is the inside of this BOX all sticky?? I looked at the shampoo bottle and took it to the sink to wipe off the spilled shampoo. When I twisted off the cap to see if the seal had broken, the inner seal wasn’t even attached to the bottle. Hence the leak. The same was true for the conditioner.

I thought “I’m sending this back.” Then I thought “Nah, that’s paranoid.”

Then I thought “Wait a second. I’ve never actually experienced this product before. I don’t know what it looks like or smells like. I have two bottles without inner seals that could be filled with generic Pantene for all I know and I’m supposed to just trust that they’re not tampered with and smear the contents all over my child’s head?? I don’t think so.”

So I made Brian send an email to inquire about returning the products.

And I called Sephora and put a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of conditioner on hold.

I guess the point of this post (yes, I wrote this many words without knowing for sure what the point was) would be “buyer beware”. When you’re buying stuff online, make sure you know who the seller is. And if it seems fishy, take advantage of the return policy.

So tell me, was I being paranoid? Would you have kept the products or sent them back? Help me, internet, help me!!