Two mall shoppers went viral on TikTok after detailing their experiences dealing with a beauty kiosk. The visit didn’t go as planned. As of Sunday, the duo’s video detailing the incident had amassed more than 2.8 million views.
Alejandro (@alxalejandro) uploaded the video earlier this week. In it, he shows off one of his friends who apparently got duped by a beauty kiosk at the mall.
“Show them; show them,” Alejandro prodded his friend, who held her hair in her hand. She laughed before letting her hair fall down her back. It’s at this point that viewers see that only half of her hair is curled.
“The kiosk people got her,” Alejandro said of his friend. “Left her with a half-curls, half-straight. Wow.”
The two laughed before Alejandro asked her to stand facing forward so he could record her face from another angle.
“Learn how to say no, mama,” Alejandro advised his friend. “Nice hair.”
Kiosk workers at the mall have tricks up their sleeves
In the text overlay, Alejandro explained that the kiosk workers only curled half of his friends’ hair because she didn’t buy anything from them.
“POV: u didn’t buy the curling iron from the kiosk ppl so they didn’t finish curling ur hair,” he wrote.
He doubled down on the secondhand embarrassment he felt toward his friend in the accompanying video caption. “They got my sis!” he wrote, followed by two laughing emojis.
While it’s not clear which vendor the duo visited, others have warned about the dangers of buying products from mall kiosks. The issue, they said, is that it’s harder to return faulty products to them versus an actual retail store. In 2020, according to one Cincinnati-based local news station, a female customer said she got her hair straightened at a mall kiosk and ended up purchasing two straightening irons from the vendor. When she got home, however, she said that the device was nothing like the demo model used on her own hair. The woman complained that the straightener she bought “rip[ped] her hair… out” and said “it’s hot to touch down where you are supposed to hold it.”
@alxalejandro They got my sis !😭😂 #fyp ♬ Blue Blood – Heinz Kiessling
Because of the risks seemingly associated with mall kiosks—especially those who want to touch your hair or face—viewers warned Alejandro and his friend against going to them in the future.
“This why ignore em n keep walking,” one user said.
“This happened to my friend, but it was makeup,” another shared. “They literally did half her face.”
“Lmao I walk right by all them kiosk people like they’re not there,” a third person wrote.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Alejandro via TikTok comment.