Dollar Store Treasures and Horrors

[Freyja_Fernwood]

Please everyone, tell me all of your experiences with cheap hair products from the dollar stores around the universe, I want to know!

Being a bargain shopper I tend to hit the dollar stores for certain items. I recently got SOOOO excited when I found hair sticks, clips, ect. for sale at a Dollar King. But this is by no means the first thing I've gotten... I've accumulated a lot of hair stuff from dollar stores over the years. I even actively use leave in conditioner and other products from the dollar tree.

I will proceed, over time, to take pictures of different items I've gotten and write about how good (or bad) the item was, and I invite you to write about your experiences, too! ^-^

[MusicalSpoons]

Almost my entire stash of conditioners is from cheapie shops - Poundland, Poundworld, Savers. (The rest of the conditioners, blacked out, are drugstore own-brands but still only £1 or less!) :D

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4815/44371384090_9dd6943075.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2aAWWBC)Conditioners (https://flic.kr/p/2aAWWBC)

I haven't bought any hair accessories from these places though; their offerings extend to colourful elastics or clips, neither of which I use.

Oh, conditioner experiences: generally great! The top left-hand conditioner in the black bottle is my current HG. These are all protein-free, and all but 2 are silicone-free (my HG has PEG-?-dimethicone, and one has amodimethicone which my hair didn't really like).

[lithostoic]

I got some hair elastics from there that were pretty awful. I honestly should have known better haha. Dollar General has a few Shea Moisture products, in small sizes, so I like to go there if I want to try a certain product.

[languagenut]

Dollar Tree elastics are indeed lame; I'm lucky if I can get two uses out of them before they break. And I only use them for braid ends, it seems they should hold out longer than that...

I found spin pins at Dollar Tree, it was so exciting! Unfortunately I only got three pairs, thinking "if I like these, I'll get some more"... so now my only regret is that I didn't buy them all. I've never seen them there since :cry:.

My sister and I each had one of those folding hairbrushes with a mirror in it. Mine broke the first or second time I used it, my sister's broke just recently.

My mom got me some foam rollers from there; I haven't gotten them to work (well, once they worked on one side), but I think that's just because if I dampen my hair and roll it up, it will never dry, so the curls will never set.

The hand-held mirror I got there worked great until one of the kids broke it, so I got another one and have no complaints; it's great for seeing if my bun is centered :).

[Obsidian]

I got a tangle tease knock off a couple years back. Liked it so much I went back and bought them all. They last about 6 months before the bristles start to give out.
My mom and dd use them and its the only brush my dog will allow me to use on him.

I've since switched to a wet brush but I still have a few of the cheapies floating around.

[sapphire-o]

I've found some decent scrunchies in Dollar Tree. They are lighter than the more expensive ones, but that makes them good for stashing in purse or pocket. I don't even look at their plastic hair stuff, even though my hair is not thick they would not hold a thing. I once bought a hairband that's metal, but it was so rough textured it was pulling my hair all the time. I tossed it after suffering it for a week (I was on vacation and didn't have a lot of choice.).

Oh I just remembered their shower caps are pretty good, too. At least not any worse than those free ones at hotels. :)

[lapushka]

I got a tangle tease knock off a couple years back. Liked it so much I went back and bought them all. They last about 6 months before the bristles start to give out.
My mom and dd use them and its the only brush my dog will allow me to use on him.

I've since switched to a wet brush but I still have a few of the cheapies floating around.

I got my knock-offs at Aldi & Lidl. I think I paid 3.99 for them.

And my wet brush knock-off is a sure winner, at Action discount store for 1.49 euro and it is an *awesome* brush! Wish I had gotten more!

[Scarlet_Heart]

Sometimes I see the boxes of hair color there and just shudder, lol.

I don't really buy hair stuff there. They have V05 but it's actually cheaper at Walmart or the grocery store (like $0.80). I've bought bobby pins and conditioner there in the past, but haven't in a long time.

[Pumpkin Spice]

Yes! I love cheap dollar store scrunchies

[AmaryllisRed]

Sometimes I see the boxes of hair color there and just shudder, lol.

I don't really buy hair stuff there. They have V05 but it's actually cheaper at Walmart or the grocery store (like $0.80). I've bought bobby pins and conditioner there in the past, but haven't in a long time.

Yep, our dollar store definitely charges more for hair products than Walmart.

[eyesinthewoods]

Please everyone, tell me all of your experiences with cheap hair products from the dollar stores around the universe, I want to know!

Being a bargain shopper I tend to hit the dollar stores for certain items. I recently got SOOOO excited when I found hair sticks, clips, ect. for sale at a Dollar King. But this is by no means the first thing I've gotten... I've accumulated a lot of hair stuff from dollar stores over the years. I even actively use leave in conditioner and other products from the dollar tree.

I will proceed, over time, to take pictures of different items I've gotten and write about how good (or bad) the item was, and I invite you to write about your experiences, too! ^-^

I got a bun maker/hair donut from the dollar store and it was one of my best purchases when I started getting into playing with my hair!

Super easy to use and makes a beautiful bun no matter what length my hair is!

I've also bought hair bands for ponytails there. They're average quality. Stretch pretty quickly and eventually snap, but it's actually a decent price considering most hair bands aren't much better. I did invest in some Goody ones with grips on them that are meant not to slide and I really like them, though.

[dyna]

I get shampoo and conditioner at Dollar Tree. Hand mirror, sure, drop and break it, buy another. Brushes. Hair bands, some of them are ok (the really fat ones, also the Goody brand ones). Once I found a nice French style barrette there, but not again. I'm new to this hair stuff and my taste is plebian and cheap. Recently they had the same after-bath microfiber caps for pre-drying as the ones I bought from Aliexpress (for a few cents less, but 3-6 weeks delivery time).

[Danglish]

I bought two claw clips online a couple of months ago, that turned out to be severely ragged at the seams, and none of the teeth fitted together properly.
They almost worked like a couple of multi-scissors, just horrifying

I did like those fabric-only elastics you can usually get at dollar stores; they seem very protective of my hair while still keeping it up

[Joules]

Our version of a dollar store (called Fix Price) carries decent bobby pin and ok-ish U-pins. Everything else looks like horror to me :rollin: the most horrible nightmare is the fact that they even sell hair scissors, and you don't even want to know how they look

[lapushka]

Our version of a dollar store (called Fix Price) carries decent bobby pin and ok-ish U-pins. Everything else looks like horror to me :rollin: the most horrible nightmare is the fact that they even sell hair scissors, and you don't even want to know how they look

The closest we have to a "dollar store", is a store called "Action".
http://www.action.be

You can get relatively cheap shampoo and conditioner there (under 2 euro). So it's nice.

[Reservechic]

I often buy packs of scrunchies from the Family Dollar near me, for earl cheap. They work just the same as the ones I buy from Walmart, so I when I have the chance to go there I will pick up more s run his for my hair, as that's what I use to secure my buns with.

I have bought VO5 conditioners from Dollar Tree, as I couldn't resist, because I often like to visit Dollar Tree when I can, and I always visit the hair care section whenever I go, just to browse. There's some type of Shea lime that they carry, which I had bought products from. They all come in small jars, and I thought that stuff was absolute garbage, as I ended up throwing it all away. I found some African Pride Moisture Miracle products in the Dollar General near me, as I have seen a lot of videos on the line, ever since it dropped and finally decided to pick up products from the line to try. My local Walmart doesn't sell the shampoo or oil from that line, so when I saw it being offered in one of my local Dollar General stores, I decided to pick some up. I definitely will be going back to get some more of that shampoo for sure after the new year comes in!

Oh, and I do buy satin bonnets from my local Dollar Tree, on and off , because of their being so cheap. Oh, and I have bought boxes of hair dye from Dollar Tree to use in my mom's hair. It worked just as well as the more expensive ones, so I definitely would have no problems buying her more to use to dye her hair with.

If I see hair care products in my local Dollar General and Family Dollar stores that I think are worthy of trying, then I definitely am cool with buying hair care products from either store at any time. However, when it comes to most of Dollar Tree's hair products, that's an easy past for me. Because, outside of the VO5 conditioners there, that's really the only thing that really interest's me there hair care wise, and since I can get VO5 conditioners cheaper elsewhere, I may look at Dollar Tree's hair care products just for browsing purposes, but I honestly don't see myself buying any more hair care products from them to use in my hair every again. However, to those who regularly buy hair care products from Dollar Tree and have had great success with them, then I am really happy for you. When you can find cheap products that work really great that's always awesome!

[sillyme]

I sometimes get my Suave Essentials shampoo and conditioner at the Dollar General, and my round brush at the Dollar Tree.

[KameRose]

I have to admit I frequent Dollar Tree and sometimes make rather illogical purchases. I have like 100 mini claw clips I got from there. I never do partial up, but I think I was thinking of using them to help train young plants....

Elastics? I buy my elastics from there because I cannot tell the difference between the stuff at Dollar Tree and the name brand stuff at drug stores. I always have an elastic around my wrist and have bunches of elastics stashed all over the place. The only time I have a problem is when I find a group that are several years old. I mean any elastic that are several years old is going to break easier than stuff bought more recently. They also have those lovely ouch-less type elastics.

Scrunchies? Yep, in fact I think all the scrunchies I own are from Dollar Tree. I'm not much of a scrunchy person anyway.

Hair Products? I actually just bought a bunch, it's still in my car and hasn't made it in the house yet. So..... yeah, don't know if anything is good yet. However, I've found in the past with other health and beauty products that buying thier brand will give me an idea of whether or not I like a product before I invest in the real thing, which of course is better.

Hair brushes/combs? I've had varying success with brushes from there. I know I threw one away shortly after I got it, I have another I keep in my car for hair emergencies,(so don't particularly car if that one is good or not) and one that is actually the main one I use. For my main one, the brush part is holding up great, but the paint on the brush handle and back has been flaking off. That means I've been finding random blue sparkle flakes in a variety of places. So I just bought a new one from there,(made sure this one wasn't painted) also picked up one of those Dollar Tree versions of a tangle teaser. They are both with the new products in my car right now. :p Also, one of my shower combs is from there too.

Hair toys? While the don't actually have, by my definition, real hair toys, I've bought plenty of materials for some DIY hair sticks. I'm always on the look out for materials. So I'm just gonna make a list.


fake flowers, they actually have a nice variety of fake flowers
googly eyes, they had the standard black and white ones, some with colored irises, and I found some with eyelids in the Halloween section
sequins and fake gems: snowflakes, butterflies, hearts, flowers
ribbon, there was even some shaped like leaves that I was able to snag, so I can cut that one up into single small leaves
nail polish
food dye
fake eyeballs
Halloween rings: spiders, bats, skulls
LED light string: snowflakes, jack-o-lanterns, stars
adhesive hooks to hang up some of my toys with
picture frame to put the hooks on
jingle bells of various sizes and colors
fake candy canes
nail files for rough shaping
jar to hold my current projects in, which got taken over by my other hair sticks, so my projects are on hold until I find them a new home
pencil sharpeners
plain white rice to stand the sticks up with
plastic bags and plastic shoe boxes to organize all my materials in
plastic cutlery tray, which is holding various materials I was intending to use for my current projects including: nail polish, dowel rods, disposable chop sticks, nail file, measuring tape, glue
I have found chopsticks there in the past, but not since I discovered hair toys and the joy of making my own

and most recently

a fifteen pack of six inch dowel rods


I have one of thier hand mirrors too! and a couple compacts, travel bottles, a travel bag.

I guess I really don't have any horror stories to tell. But then, since it is a dollar store I'm not expecting much and I go into most purchases thinking "For a dollar I can buy a couple and if it breaks or doesn't work it's no big deal." So I my expectations aren't too high begin with. I'm going to have to try out a couple of other dollar stores in the area, just to see what kind of hair stuff they have!

Wow! That was a long post!

Oh and a tip for someone looking for something they bought at Dollar Tree before and they didn't have it when they went back. Be persistent, I've found many of the previous product will come back the next season, or they were just sold out of it. For example I went back for more adhesive hooks and the didn't have any. I just checked back once a week and three weeks later they got more in so I snagged up like 20 packages. And of course check other stores in the area or online. But this really only applies to *their* brand of products. Their brand will say "Distributed by Greenbrier International" on the back.

[snorkie]

On a rare occasion, dollar tree would get in Aussie 3 minute miracle. That’s truly the only thing for my hair that I would get at the dollar venue.

[cjk]

At Dollar Tree I regularly buy my curly-girl compliant conditioner. 32oz Silkience Damage Repair with protein.

LA Looks blue gel, also curly-girl compliant.

All but one of my french barrettes.

And a set of flexi rods to help even my texture before I figured out my natural curls. They worked great, by the way.

I'm anxious to try their Shea moisture line, too, as it is very well reviewed on youtube and the ingredients are also CG friendly.

At Everything's a $1 I've gotten plastic tortoiseshell hair sticks.

At 99c Only store I got spandex headbands/buffs which I use, regularly. Scunci side combs. Accordion flexi-combs. 100x Goody bobby pins.

Lots of great dollar store finds! You just have to be open to it.

Now, if you open yourself up to the hardware store, my very favorite hairsticks are actually galvanized spikes (big nails) from the Home Depot hardware aisle. $0.35 each. And I found square horseshoe nails at McCoy's lumber, but haven't yet figured out how I will put them to use.