Buyer Guides
Importing Human Hair Into the USA: HS Codes, Duties & Paperwork (2026)
Every week a first-time US buyer asks us the same three questions: will customs stop it, what will I pay, and what paperwork do I need? Here are the real answers — the same ones we give clients who already receive our shipments in the United States.
The Three HS Codes That Matter
- 0501.00 — human hair, unworked. Raw cut hair that has only been washed or sorted. US base duty: Free.
- 6703.00.30 — human hair, dressed or otherwise worked. Hair that has been drawn, layered or prepared for wig making — the code most wholesale bundles ship under. US base duty: Free.
- 6704.20 — wigs and hairpieces of human hair. Finished products. US base duty: Free.
One honest caveat: those are the base rates in the US tariff schedule. Since 2025, additional country-based surcharges have applied to imports from many countries on top of base rates, and they change with trade policy. Before a large order, have your customs broker (or the courier's brokerage desk) confirm the current all-in rate for the country your shipment exports from. It's a five-minute call that prevents surprises.
The Paperwork Your Shipment Travels With
- Commercial invoice — seller, buyer, accurate description ("human hair, unworked" or "human hair, dressed, for wig making"), HS code, weight, unit price and total value. Accurate values matter: undervaluing an invoice to save duty on a duty-free product is all risk, no reward.
- Packing list — bundles, weights, box count.
- Certificate of origin — issued in the exporting country by its chamber of commerce. Our lots ship from Türkiye or the UAE with full export documentation prepared there.
- Air waybill — created by the courier; you just receive the tracking number.
How Clearance Actually Works
For courier shipments — how nearly all wholesale hair moves — you don't deal with customs yourself. DHL, FedEx and UPS operate their own brokerage: they file the entry, front any charges and invoice you. Shipments under the US de minimis/informal-entry thresholds clear with even less friction. Typical door-to-door from our Istanbul or Dubai warehouses to a US address: 3–6 business days. Hair is not regulated by the FDA — it is not a cosmetic — so there is no product registration to worry about.
Cost Math for a Real Order
Say you buy a 3 kg lot at $2,700/kg from the live pricing table: $8,100 in product. Air courier from Istanbul runs roughly $80–150 for that weight, insurance is a small add-on, and the base duty line is zero. The variable to confirm is the country surcharge of the moment — your broker call. Compare that landed cost against 12–18 finished wigs of sellable product and the freight line disappears into rounding.
Before You Order From Anyone
Import mechanics are the easy half. The hard half is making sure the hair itself is what the label claims — run the 7 vendor tests including a live bleach test before any payment, ours included.
US buyer? Start with the numbers
Tell us your state and target weight — we'll quote landed cost with courier and timing, in writing.
GET A LANDED-COST QUOTE