Sourcing Spiral Hair Pins from China

Spiral hair pin duty and material controls

Read from the UK Trade Tariff on 1 October 2026, heading 9615 covers combs, hair slides, hairpins and non-electric curling accessories. Spiral hairpins sit within the other hair-accessory line, 9615 90 00 00, subject to confirmation of the finished article. The table shows product variants sharing that code.

The supplied record shows a flat 2% duty for goods from China throughout the heading, with no anti-dumping or countervailing duty and no suspension recorded. All lines carry cat and dog fur import and export controls: imports and exports of such fur and products made from it are banned. The wider heading's 9615 19 00 00 line also carries CITES controls; for listed-species decorations, confirm the applicable permit requirements with your customs broker before ordering.

Send your broker photographs, the material list and a description of how the pin twists into a bun. Confirm classification using the commodity code guide. See U-shaped hair bun pins for the wider heading and related pin specifications.

Specify the spiral, wire and tips

Specify wire material and diameter, overall length, coil diameter, pitch and winding direction. State the intended hair types and bun styles. Agree insertion, holding and removal checks against an approved sample, including whether pins are used together. Record the acceptable shape after repeated use.

Specify plating or paint, colour, surface coverage and tip treatment. Agree whether tips are rounded metal or separately capped, and how caps are retained. Ask for checks covering snagging, coating transfer and finish damage after contact with the hair products you intend to use.

Consumer products sold in Great Britain must be safe in normal or reasonably foreseeable use. Assess scalp contact, exposed wire ends and detachable caps when approving the design. Agree the retail card, importer address and necessary warnings, as described in the site's existing hair-accessory guides. Retain an approved packed sample.

Worked duty example

Illustrative example, not a quote: Illustrative order of assorted metal spiral hair pins for a retail range under 9615 90 00 00, invoiced at £7,500 free on board, with £900 of freight and insurance to the UK. The customs value is £8,400. Duty at 2% is £168. Import VAT at 20% is charged on the customs value plus duty, £8,568, so it is £1,713.60. Import taxes total £1,881.60; a VAT-registered importer can usually reclaim the VAT, so the lasting cost is the £168 of duty. The import duty and VAT guide explains each step.

Inspection checklist

Coil shape: compare length, pitch, diameter and winding direction with the approved sample; check distorted spirals and permanent bending after use.

Tips and grip: inspect wire ends and cap retention, then twist sampled pins into the intended hair types and remove them to check holding, snagging and scalp contact.

Finish: inspect exposed metal, rust, flaking and colour transfer; compare performance after contact with the agreed hair products.

Arrival and packing: check crushed or tangled pins, missing caps, colour mixes and pack counts; compare cards with approved artwork. Agree the same checks for quality inspection before dispatch.

What goes wrong

Changes to wire stiffness or coil pitch can make production pins harder to insert or easier to dislodge than the sample. Distorted spirals can catch neighbouring pins or pull hair during removal. Compare actual holding and removal performance, rather than accepting a batch by colour alone.

Rough cut ends snag hair, caps can loosen and coating can crack where the wire bends. Loose bulk packing can leave pins tangled or flattened. Separate these defects in the inspection record and agree corrective work before accepting the batch.

Cambridge China Bridge sources these products for UK businesses, checking the factory and the documents before shipment. See factory verification. For own-brand ranges, see sourcing for brands.