Saturday 23 May 2015

Hairloss scamming... Treatments that overpromise...

Hairloss can understandably make people down in the dumps (understatement of the year right there) and can create a feeling of vulnerability for men, women and children alike. The good news is that over time these feelings can and most probably will pass, but is acceptance the same as happiness with the way things are? Honestly? I don't know the answer to that! What I do know though is that I have reached a stage where my lack of hair is merely part of who I am, and the idea of risking my body to replenish my hair seems, quite frankly, bonkers!

The other day (and I am kicking myself for not taking a screenshot), I spotted a Facebook Advert which promised me hair regrowth and up to six times faster growth than you would normally expect! First, clearly I speak too much about my hairloss and am being advert stalked (oops), but that aside, I was astounded by the content of the advert! I clicked through (naturally) and read the rather convincing 'scientific' research and saw the 'week by week' growth pictures that showed almost ten inches of growth in a month! A month?! Ten inches?!

As I said, I am pretty settled with my hairloss (you can read more about that here), so I am not actively pursuing hair regrowth and I certainly wouldn't put my health in jeopardy for the purpose! That aside, it's worth noting that I am a hugely cynical person anyway and I tend to err on the side of 'that's rubbish' than the 'bring it on' one!

Once I'd read it a few times, I pinged it straight to my friendly, neighbourhood Trichologist Mark Blake, with the title 'Heard of this....?' asking Mark about his opinion on 'UltrActiv' and requesting his expert assessment. His response was, as expected, quite dismissive, and his first sentence said it all. "Pure Fantasy" he called it! According to Mark, apart from the fact that a product achieving these results would have countless medical research assessments, not to mention a patent and the backing of a pharmaceutical company, a stimulant like this would also cause excessive nail growth and you'd have to cut them at least once, if not twice a day! No mention of that in the article hey?!

Mark's expert opinion is that these claims are preposterous and unfounded, but he also makes one additional valid point...

"The company you sent me are making outrageous claims & playing on people's emotions to purely sell products."

That's the sad fact of it... Hairloss can make us vulnerable and in many cases desperate to find something to reverse it, and there are unethical company's out there who will prey on that! What this serves to highlight is the need to be careful, and think before you act - if it seems too good to be true, the answer is, it probably is!

This has inspired a few posts on hairloss scamming and I will be writing them up soon! Keep your eyes peeled...

Victoria x

www.prettybald.co.uk Twitter: @PrettyBald

1 comment:

  1. Not only am I not balding, I have thick, healthy hair that blocks light from behind me. My hair still does not grow ten inches a month, and in fact nobody has hair which does. It is literally impossible. Hopefully the sheer excessive nature of their claims will protect even the most gullible and desperate from being parted from their money.

    ReplyDelete