Hairloss treatment scams... How to spot them!

If you've been keeping up with the blog recently, you may have spotted my outrage at a hairloss advert that promised six times faster hair growth than normal. You may also have spotted Trichologist Mark Blake's comment labelling claims like these 'Pure Fantasy'. So, how can you protect yourself against common scams that seem oh so convincing, yet can leave you disheartened, out of pocket and potentially even in ill health?

As you can imagine, there is no hard and fast rule that will 100% highlight a scam, but I've compiled a general checklist that you can compare them against, and use as a guide to make your decision...

1. Don't get drawn in... first and foremost, don't get drawn in by the words they use. Any advert hoping to gain money on at best vague promises will use tempting words that hope to draw you in. Take a step back and look at what they are actually promising, not what they are writing - is it faster hair growth or stimulation, healthier locks or damage repair. A lot (but not all) supplements will have some basis in truth and may well help in some cases, but they aren't miracle workers, so the promises have to at least be realistic, and you have to be sure it is what you want and need. 
2. Is it realistic...? Whilst hairloss still has some medical mysteries, there are some agreed facts and triggers, even if it isn't fully understood. There are also a set number of treatments which are medically approved and clinically recommended and only these will have some likelihood of helping significantly reduce or reverse hairloss. Anything else is likely at best to have minor benefits, if they can help at all. If in doubt, you can also ask a Doctor or Clinician about the claims, but it should be fairly obvious if they are overselling the product. 
3. Has it been in the News? A cure for hairloss would be worth billions on the market, whether as an over-the-counter product or a prescription only medicine, a pharmaceutical company would LOVE to bring it to market. If it hasn't been in the news (on a credible website) at some point, then it is likely that any big claims will be grossly overstated.
4. Look for the obvious... Is it spelled correctly? Does it make sense? Don't get me wrong, spelling isn't everyone's forte and we won't all be perfect (I myself have spotted a few typos on this blog), but things should be spelled correctly most of the way through. Obvious errors can give an indication that the company is less than professional. You should also take the product name and Google it - it should pop up multiple times and have the same sort of promises, written in lots of different ways.
5. Are there reviews? Reviews can be hugely beneficial to determine whether a product may work, but they are also opinion based. First, make sure the review is from someone you trust - a friend, a blog you follow and have tried something from before, someone else in the same position as you etc. It should be independent though and not on the first blog / article / resource that you come across, because they can of course be faked too! It's also worth noting that unless a photo is time-stamped from the camera, time between photos can be adjusted to suggest better or faster results than actually exist.   
6. Is it clinically tested? This is probably the single most important one... Is a product clinically and independently tested? Whilst a plant extract that *may* promote glossy hair won't need to be clinically tested, it equally won't have significant benefits either. If a product promises full regrowth or six times faster growth, then it will need clinical testing and it will have scientifically proven results and probably a write-up in a medical journal too. This is the case with the JAKs inhibitors which had much media attention at the end of last year, and which have yet to be fully researched let alone released on the market.   

At the end of the day, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and if it promises instant regrowth, it probably won't! Much as you would like the promises to be true, just remember, if you buy in and it doesn't deliver, you'll be left feeling totally disappointed.

Victoria x

www.prettybald.co.uk Twitter: @PrettyBald

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