DollyMix: Recycled condom hair bands are not only gross, but unsafe

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Health & Beauty

Recycled condom hair bands are not only gross, but unsafe

There are a lot of fashion trends that I just don't get, however, this one takes the cake. Apparently in China there's a new trend of using recycled condoms to make hair bands. *shudder* Aside from the obvious "ew gross, this was a condom" feeling I have towards these hair bands, what worries me more is that they're not 100% safe. It's reported that there's a certain risk of bacteria being transmitted to the girls, as a lot of us ladies put our hair bands in our mouths while we gather hair to put it in a ponytail.

Even worse, if the condom that was used to make the hair band does have infectious bacteria on it, any sort of oral or skin contact with the bacteria can cause the girls to catch STDs ranging from genital warts to HIV. Girls, if you're thinking of using these hair bands, please don't. They're USED condoms for god's sake! Used! They were in and on some stranger's genitals! DON'T DO IT!

[via Jezebel / InventorSpot]
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Posted by on November 28, 2007

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Comments

The claim about HIV transmission seems extremely far-fetched to me and I don't believe it would be possible to catch it this way. However, it's still vile and I wouldn't want to touch them myself!

Posted by: Abi | November 29, 2007 10:36 AM

won't the heat from treating the rubber kill any bacteria? how long does bacteria survive on inorganic material? who is producing these materials? what do they have to say? who's reporting that the bands might not be safe? do they have any reason to be biased?

(how about some investigative journalism isntead of just repeating what everyone else says?)

Posted by: Em | November 29, 2007 11:42 AM

Yeah, I can't imagine that any bacteria would survive the process of being refinished. If that were the case, we wouldn't be able to recycle anything containing food for fear of mold and bacteria in there. I think this is so much hysteria.

Posted by: Kuri | November 29, 2007 12:49 PM

Where are they getting them? I was thinking about manufacturing slingshots and I'm interested in a cheap source of rubber :P

Posted by: yeah | December 6, 2007 2:41 AM