Beware hair bands made with condoms

Be careful if you want to buy hair bands on the mainland: hair bands made of condoms have been found in Dongguan and Guangzhou, according to a mainland media report.

A young woman surnamed Chen received a pack of hair bands after she had her hair done at a salon in Dongguan last month, Guangzhou-based New Express Daily reported yesterday.

'The hair bands are swathed in colourful wool-like materials,' Ms Chen said. 'But a small part came loose when I used the bands to tie my hair up one morning.

'It looked strange to me because of its different colour - not the yellow colour we normally see in plastic bands. I peeled deeper and found something that looked like a condom.

'It's really unbelievable and disgusting,' she was quoted saying.

Ms Chen added that she was astonished when she checked another hair band in the same pack. She said she had not used a hair band since then. Without identifying its sources, the report said the hair bands could have been made from materials sourced from 'foreign garbage' - used chemical materials imported from overseas - or from substandard products by domestic condom producers.