Hair Loss & Grey Hair Product Reviews
Rogaine Foam Consumer Reviews
The best version of minoxidil I have used
By evergreen from Bristol UK, age 45, who has been using this product for 8 months:
I’ve used liquid Rogaine for about three and a half years, sometimes experiencing itchy scalp and dandruff, which caused me to break off the treatment quite a few times. I have tried other oily generic lotions too but the problem has always been the same, they took long hours to dry and made my hair sticky. In April, I started using Rogaine foam and I think I will stay with it as long as there is no better hair-growth stimulant available. It is easy to apply, dries quickly, visually it cannot be recognised and it is not giving me dandruff. It is, though, a lot more expensive than the liquid. The weakness is its unpleasant chemical scent. I do not know what is in it that it smells so weird but its smell will be with you for about half an hour. The foam appears to me to be just as effective as the liquid Rogaine in stopping my hair loss. I have not experienced any regrowth before and I doubt Rogaine foam will give me any either. I am using it as a prevention and to thicken my existing hair and I am not combining it with any other hair-growth treatment.
Permanent link December 1, 2008
Five Major Rules to Follow When Treating Hair Loss
1) Start early
The greatest mistake many hair loss patients make is denying they are suffering from hair loss. Typically you have to lose about 50% of your hair in the thinning area to notice that you are balding. Many sufferers are extremely pessimistic about being able to regrow lost hair and do not want to try anything. Only after they have lost a substantial portion of their hair do they realise they are looking older than their age and decide to try something. But reversing hair loss is a lot more difficult task and takes much longer to register results than halting the further progression of baldness.
2) Start with proven remedies
Most hair loss sufferers begin approaching their problem cautiously. They get scared by proven medicinal products, such as finasteride and minoxidil, because of the many negative reviews regarding their alleged side effects. This is a catch used by the marketers of various hair scams who spread stories about the negative side effects of medicinal treatments in order to lure you in to their scam. As a result many people decide to begin with natural alternatives. This usually wastes their time and they keep losing further hair. It is very strongly recommended to start with proven medicinal remedies and try alternative treatments only as a support therapy or if medicinal drugs have failed or caused side effects. The chances of medicinal products actually causing negative side effects are typically less than one percent.
3) Take pictures of your scalp
Since most hair loss sufferers do not believe they can really regrow lost hair, they do not take any pictures of their scalp at the beginning of their treatment. Thus, whether things are improving or not, they have no old photos for later comparisons and cannot evaluate the effectiveness of their treatment.
4) No Overdosing or Using Multiple Treatments Simultaneously
Another common mistake is overdosing and using multiple treatments simultaneously. If you want to try different things, do not start applying them all at the same time. Any treatment requires a minimum of four months to kick in and you should allow it at least six months to deliver results. Please note that overdosing will not speed up or improve results either but it can lead to the emergence of negative side effects. Be consistent and patient.
5) Do Not Overreact to Shedding
Do not overreact to shedding by discontinuing the treatment. You are not balding because your hair is falling out, but because it is getting finer and thinner with every hair’s life cycle until it is not replaced by another hair at all. Shedding is often a good sign, telling you that the new treatment is working. Hair follicles must shed the old thin fibre, in order to rearrange themselves and start producing thicker hair. Get over it and you will most likely be rewarded.
Tags: hair loss, hair loss treatment, baldness, shedding
Pantostin Consumer Reviews (Ell-Cranell Alpha)
For me (not yet bald and just thinning), this stuff is great
By Young American from USA, age 52 who has been using this product for 6 weeks:
So I have a lot of hair but beginning around 3 years ago, stylists began noticing thinness and they are really talking about it lately, sometimes recommending quack remedies.
I used minoxidil, supposedly a one-month bottle and it was gone in just over 2 weeks (my fault, naturally, how could I be so careless as to use it up too fast, blah-blah). I tried this stuff instead and after only a few weeks my hair is now bushy and full, the stylists won't shut up about it. No joke. The product will not grow hair on bald spots it seems, but if you are losing hair, this could be the ticket, despite the "weak weapon" meme that everybody likes to repeat.
Permanent link November 20, 2008
Is It Possible to Reverse Grey Hair?
Reversing grey hair is similar to regrowing lost hair due to hereditary factors in that it requires interference with our genes and resetting our internal clock. Although there are various other causes of grey hair, such as excessive stress, bad diet, vitamin B deficiency and smoking, all of them put together account for less grey than the single biggest cause - genetics. There is no essential difference between premature and normal, age-related greying process. The pigment that determines the colour of our hair is produced by special cells at the root of our hair called melanocytes. It is the lifespan of melanocytes that determines the onset of the greying process. This lifespan is genetically given and has little to do with our age or life-expectancy. Once melanocytes die, the hair turns white. It is by virtue of nature that some people will experience their first grey in their teens while others take all their black hair to the grave. If more than 50% of a person’s hair is white by the age of 40, it is considered premature. No matter whether we are treating grey hair in a twenty year old or in a seventy year old person, the approach should be the same.
Many people, most recently and increasingly men, are dyeing their hair. Whether you use conventional, permanent or semi-permanent hair dyes or progressive grey hair colorants, the results are usually satisfactory. That is provided you do not suffer from an allergy. However, many grey hair sufferers believe they can reverse their greying hair naturally. But is it possible? Given the currently available treatment options, it seems it is not. Reversing the greying of hair naturally appears at least as difficult as regrowing lost hair from a bald spot. There is no scientific evidence that any existing medicinal substance, herb, dietary supplement or natural product can prevent or reverse greying hair. Several cosmetic and pharmaceutical giants are working on the discovery of the ultimate cure for greying hair but no satisfactory solution is available yet. There are some promising lines of genetic research, most notably telomere research, that could produce the ultimate answer to greying hair but their practical applications are a good ten years away.
Despite the lack of scientific and consumer evidence about reversing grey hair, there are some commercial products that claim to rejuvenate the dead melanocytes and reverse greying. Most anti-grey hair products either use Fo-Ti, referring to the centuries old legend of Mr He, who recovered his original hair colour, youthful appearance and vitality from traditional Chinese medicinal herb (also known as He Shou Wu), or use B vitamins (mostly PABA and folic acid) as their main ingredients, since some forms of premature greying are believed to be caused by vitamin B deficiency. However, such products are ineffective for the vast majority of grey hair sufferers. The sad truth is that most anti-grey hair products are a scam.
Tags: grey hair, gray hair, greying hair, premature greying, white hair
GreyBan Consumer Reviews
Having continued success
By Nick, age 51, who has been using GreyBan for one year:
I had been using Grecian formula before trying GreyBan. It had worked for me but it became seemingly less effective after many years of continued use. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that GreyBan does a better job of blending white hair with my remaining dark brown hair. It seems to work better for brownish hair, whereas Grecian is more suitable for shades of black. But GreyBan should not be expected to dye all your hair in one application. It needs to be applied regularly and will never cover all your white hair. My worst areas of white are on the sides and some of the hairs there never grow dark. I give it only four stars because it needs to be applied at least twice a week which is much less convenient than using a permanent hair dye.
Permanent link November 14, 2008
Melancor NH Consumer Reviews
Save your money and nerves
By Martin, age 42 who has been using this product for 6 months:
I have tried it for the full six months and my gray hair is as gray as it ever was. All I got was diarrhoea after each morning pill. I regret I did not study the consumer reviews more carefully before I got into it. This product is a nutritional supplement and might work well for those who want to lose weight. I am not balding so I cannot comment on its ability to regrow hair but I am sceptical it can help with that either.
Permanent link November 7, 2008
Will Recent Advances in Hair Science Put Hair Transplant Clinics Out of Business?
Hair transplant clinics have been experiencing a tremendous rise in popularity and patient numbers in recent years, which is mainly due to improvements in the hair surgery techniques they use. Today’s hair transplants can give you a completely natural look, particularly thanks to the advent of follicular unit extraction technology. But all hair transplantation techniques face one constraint - a limited supply of donor hair. The maximum number of grafts that can be transplanted is, depending on the individual’s hair density in the donor area, between 10,000 and 12,000, which numbers about 20,000 - 24,000 hairs. A full head of hair is about 100,000 hairs. But there is the possibility that this weakness could be finally overcome in the not too distant future. The easiest solution to this problem would be a pill or a topical solution but, despite significant advances in the development of novel medicinal drugs and promising genetic research into telomeres, the ultimate oral or topical cure for baldness is not expected to emerge within the next ten years. However, there are some promising technologies that might become commercially available within about five to seven years.
Hair multiplication is one of them. It is often referred to as hair cloning or follicular neogenesis. It consists of the culturing and multiplying of cells that come from hair follicles which have been extracted from the donor area at the back of the head and injecting these cultivated dermal papilla cells into the bald scalp where they are expected to induce new hair growth. The second promising line of development involves generating new hair follicles in wounds of hair-free skin. Both of these methods might be good for generating new hair follicles in bald areas but they may not be so good when it comes to controlling the thickness and the shade of newly-grown hair and the direction of its growth. Therefore, seeding follicle implants into the frontal area of the scalp will probably remain necessary. In addition, both of these new techniques are expected to be performed at hair transplant clinics. Although some hair transplant surgeons may sound sceptical when it comes to commenting on recent advances in these new techniques, they might, in the future, become their greatest providers, as the popularity of hair surgery gets a further boost due to the unlimited supply of donor hair. The benefit to the consumer, besides the unlimited supply of donor hair, should be that the quality should correspond to the best that hair surgery technology has to offer today but at a lower price.
Tags: hair surgery, hair transplant surgery, hair transplantation, hair transplant, hair multiplication
HairMax LaserComb Consumer Reviews
Too expensive for what it does
by Rob70 from Ontario, age 38, who has been using this product for four months:
I have only been using HairMax for four months now and I cannot say yet how effective it is in regrowing hair but it has made my hair feel thicker, which is a better result than I expected. I still have my natural hairline and am thinning only in the crown area, which is where HairMax is thought to work best. Customer reviews of other types of lasercombs that I saw confirm my experience with HairMax in relation to it causing accelerated shedding in the first two months of treatment. It worried me at first but now I think I have recovered all the hair I lost during the shedding phase. I should mention that I had been using minoxidil for two and a half years prior to buying HairMax and I was happy to ditch the drug on the day I started with the laser treatment. Since I do not want to use drugs again, I will continue with this non-chemical treatment, hoping to get at least the same results as from minoxidil. The greatest drawback of this product is its price, as it cost me more than my previous two and a half years of minoxidil. This is a big investment if you do not know whether it is going to work, but it comes with a 20-week, money-back guarantee. There are other types of less expensive lasercombs that may work equally well.
Permanent link October 29, 2008
Have You Ever Been the Victim of a Hair Scam?
It is an accepted fact that at least 90% of all hair loss products available on the market today are a scam. However, this general knowledge does not prevent many of us from falling into the same old marketing trap and buying some. Billions of dollars spent annually on useless rubbish confirm this statement. Although some hair frauds have been brought to court, most of the fraudulent businesses continue as usual. But how is it possible that hundreds of thousands of hair loss sufferers from all corners of the world get caught every year, year after year? Do they sue anybody or, if nothing else works, do they at least complain and spread their word? The vast majority of them don’t. They are happy if they can recover at least a small fraction of their initial investment through any money-back guarantee and are too ashamed to tell anybody of their bad experience, whereas others blame themselves for not adhering to the instructions provided by the manufacturer and accept their own responsibility for failure. And after all, buying a useless, six-month, hair loss treatment does not ruin you financially, anyway.
It is not easy to draw a dividing line between a hair scam and a product sold with good intentions but which fails to live up to your expectations. Very often consumers fail to follow instructions and abandon their treatment when it is yet too early to tell whether it is working. But many of us have tried a product and followed all the instructions religiously and seen no improvement. Admittedly, we do not know whether this product works for other hair loss sufferers but we know with absolute certainty it doesn’t for us. This knowledge alone may not be of much value but if shared it could become an effective weapon in the fight against hair loss fraud. It is astonishing that fraudulent businesses can continue selling their rubbish in this day and age when most of their customers have internet access.
For those who would like to have their opinion spread, there are some platforms that can be used to share your experiences with the hair loss products you have tried, such as independent hair loss forums, hair loss blogs such as this one; and some marketers’ websites also encourage their customers to write independent product reviews. It is unfortunate that to this day many of these platforms are more often used by the marketers to promote their own products rather than experience-sharing consumers who they were originally designed for.
Tags: hair scam, hair fraud, baldness, hair loss
