Where to Buy Raw Hair in London
Buying raw hair in London is easy. Buying raw hair in London and getting hair that is actually raw is the harder problem, because almost every seller in the city uses the word and there is no standard behind it.
This guide covers where raw hair is sold in London, how to tell a genuine supplier from a reseller, and the questions worth asking before you spend several hundred pounds.
Where raw hair is sold in London
There are broadly four routes, and they are not equivalent.
Online specialists
UK based businesses that source directly and hold their own stock. You are buying from the people who chose the hair. Delivery is usually next day within the UK, and the better ones will talk you through texture and length before you order rather than after.
Beauty supply shops
Convenient, and you can handle the hair before buying, which counts for something. The limitation is that most stock processed hair and use "raw" loosely, and the staff generally cannot tell you which donor or region the hair came from because the shop does not know.
Instagram and WhatsApp sellers
This is where a lot of London raw hair changes hands, and it is genuinely mixed. Some are careful independent sellers. Others are reselling the same drop-shipped stock as everyone else, with no returns process and no address. The absence of a website is not automatically a red flag, but the absence of a returns policy is.
Salons
Many London salons will supply the hair as part of the install. That is the most convenient option and usually the most expensive, because you are paying a retail margin on the hair on top of the fitting.
How to tell whether hair is actually raw
You cannot tell from a photograph and you usually cannot tell from the product page. These are the things that separate a real supplier from a reseller.
They can tell you the origin, specifically. Not "Asian hair" but the actual sourcing region, and why they buy from there. A reseller cannot answer this because they do not know.
They do not have every texture in every length, always in stock. Single donor hair does not work like that. Permanent full availability across a wide range is a strong indication of processed factory stock.
They will tell you what the hair cannot do. If a seller says the hair will hold any texture, take any colour and last indefinitely, that is not raw hair being described. Raw hair has a natural texture and it returns to it.
The price makes sense. For reference, our own raw bundles start at £115 at shorter lengths and climb from there. Hair advertised as raw at £40 a bundle is something else. We break the numbers down in how much raw hair costs in the UK.
There is a real business behind it. A registered company, a returns policy, a contactable address. It is the difference between a supplier and an account.
Questions worth asking before you buy
- Is this single donor or mixed donor hair?
- Is it single drawn or double drawn, and what is the weight per bundle?
- Is the texture natural or steam processed?
- If it is a closure or frontal, is the lace HD or Swiss?
- What happens if the hair is not what I expected when it arrives?
A seller who can answer all five without hesitation is worth buying from. A seller who deflects on the first two is selling processed hair.
What to budget
For a standard install in London, plan for the hair and the fitting separately. Three bundles and a closure will run somewhere around £570 to £935 for the hair depending on length and texture. Fitting is charged separately by whoever installs it, and varies considerably across the city.
If you are not ready to commit to an install, clip-ins from £260 and ponytails from £210 are single purchases with nothing to fit.
Buying from Schwan Hair
We are a London based raw hair company. We source single donor hair from India, Cambodia, Vietnam and Burma, one donor at a time, and we sell it in the state it grew in. Nothing is acid washed, colour stripped or steamed into a texture it never had.
Practically, that means:
- Bundles from £115, closures from £180, frontals from £230
- Clip-ins, tape-ins and ponytails if you are not installing
- UK delivery, with a published returns policy and a processing time you can read before you order
- A trade programme for salons and stylists
If you want help choosing rather than a catalogue, the hair finder narrows it down in a couple of minutes, or message us and we will talk it through properly.
