Our friends over at Edward’s Hair Solutions have pointed us in the direction of a very disturbing trend: counterfeit GHD hair straighteners. In recent months, fake straighteners from the Far East have caused household fires in the United Kingdom and Canada. These deceptive knock-offs lack the safety features that have made GHDs so popular in the first place, and are of a lower build quality that helps to keep the prices down.

Edward’s offers a handy guide on how to spot fake GHD hair straighteners and the comments on that article point to this being a worldwide problem.

It’s a shame that consumers and shops alike (not to mention GHD) are suffering from these knockoff products. Shops like Edward’s Hair Solutions, which is an authorised seller of GHD hair straighteners, not only have to compete against the prices of counterfeit products but must convince informed consumers that they’re the real deal. It’s a conundrum - you either have people shopping on price alone who would much rather pay £50 than £85, or you have saavy consumers who are skeptical that a non-High Street store could be legit. (Worth noting that fakes have even been reported on Amazon, so nobody is immune to this criticism.)

What are you doing this holiday season? Are you even going to try to buy straighteners with all the confusion in the marketplace?

San Diego Padres reliever Heath Bell went through something this offseason that tons of armchair managers have also experienced. He stepped on the Wii Fit board and the game labelled him “obese” (which, in turn, makes your character look like David Wells).

And, like many of the Wii Fit’s biggest - and less famous - fans, he did something about it. Bell lost 25lbs this offseason in a workout regimen that included playing games on the Wii Fit. It’s now being reported that he looks “svelte” and better than ever, with his coaches even asking him not to lose more weight in order to keep his velocity up.

Heath Bell may be the first athlete to unofficially endorse the Wii Fit. How about the rest of us? Have you lost weight using the Wii Fit, or did you throw the balance board back into the box when the game called you fat?

Ask anyone who has applied for a business loan, mortgage or even a credit card in the past year, and there’s no disputing that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to secure a line of credit. Businesses, in particular, are hurting from this belt-tightening - moreso than individuals, many businesses live on credit and floated money. With the world credit markets in crisis, many businesses are facing the option of changing the way they handle their finances, or going under.

Businesses who have been let down by banks and other traditional lenders in the past 12-18 months are increasingly looking to alternative methods to pad their capital requirements and pay the bills each month. Alternative services include seeking financial services from third-parties, who have the ability to transfer funds through ACH processing, eliminating a company’s need to rely strictly on banks for their loan needs. For many businesses, this means getting instant access to cash without delays due to paperwork, payment hold times or snail mail applications.

With electronic payment processing, businesses are able to move money securely and instantaneously, benefiting their customers and their supply chain in the process. It may be a break from popular, traditional methods, but there’s nothing popular about the current economic situation!

This blog post is as “live” as you’ll ever get on Modern Cheek. I’m typing it, and then I’ll post it, and you’ll read it and that’ll be it. Simply put, I don’t “get” live blogging.

Take the Super Bowl, for instance. Several popular blogs are live blogging the Super Bowl and its commercials. The theory is to have people follow the blog for 4+ hours during the game, reloading the page and, presumably, seeing as many ads as possible. Live blogging is also popular during events like the Academy Awards and last year’s U.S. presidential debates.

Sorry, but I don’t see the allure of live blogging for the audience. While it seems to be popular, you must remember it’s happening on sites that are pretty popular to begin with; your average Joe Blog is live blogging to a zero audience. So it takes popularity, and I think that ought to be enough. Live blogging might make some readers feel in touch with what’s going on, but so does actually watching the game or attending a Super Bowl party. But instead, live blog readers are commenting on people commenting on an event, and spending countless hours giving up watching the actual event in exchange for someone else’s opinion.

For people who actually care about the Super Bowl, wouldn’t you rather see a nice catch than read, “Fitzgerald takes it to the house! Cardinals lead!”? I know I would.

Giving Jason Shankey and his fabulous hair a run for his money is Edward’s Hair Solutions, a new UK hair products site.

Edward’s is based around a quaint Southampton salon of the same name and offers GHD and Wella hair products direct to consumers. Visitors can also get hair advice from Edward’s head stylist (pun intended) via the “Ask Giles” feature. This looks like a great idea; and Giles seems to know his way around a head of hair too! I wonder what he’d do with my ever-present ponytail?

Stores like Edward’s that focus on one or two brands can be a blessing or a curse; on one hand, you aren’t getting the extensive selection you might find on the high street. On the other hand, you’re not getting the crazy-extensive selection you’d find on the high street! As long as you’re buying quality brands (like Wella and GHD), it’s okay to shop at a specialty store. Not only can they steer you in the right direction with how to use their products, but they’ll often have deals that far surpass what you’d find at Boots or other high street retailers.

Case in point: Edward’s Hair currently has the UK’s best price on the super-popular GHD IV styler. They actually manage to beat Amazon! That makes Edward’s the place to go for GHD hair straighteners (well, maybe not the obnoxious pink one) and lots of other GHD and Wella products. Add to that the advice they offer - what does Amazon know about hair anyway? - and Edward’s Hair Solutions looks like a winner.

Watch out, Jason Shankey!