SCAM ALERT: The Regrow Hair Protocol and other shaggy tales

Hair loss is a common but vexing condition for both men and women.   However,  Internet scammers, like the ones pedding Regrow Hair Protocol, see hair loss as an opportunity to hawk free or misleading information to consumers at inflated prices.  If you search online for “natural hair loss treatments,” a long list of tonics, creams, and supplements appears. There are so many hair loss restoration treatment scams out there that both the FTC and FDA have taken significant steps to stop these companies. The FTC alone has shut down more than 100 “baldness cures.”  Regrow Hair Protocol is one of many examples of such scams. It peddles unscientific pablum for the “low price” of $29.95 for what appears to be an ebook or a “program” that “guarantees” hair restoration.  This is a textbook version of the numerous other  infoscams that have infected the Web over the last three years.  Most of them sell overpriced creams, potions or supplements to “cure” your hair loss.  Recently, some scams like Regrow have seized upon arguing that foods you eat are the villain.   Here are the actual facts about hair loss:

And, for many people, losing hair is entirely natural and healthy.   Little known fact:  You can expect to shed up to 100 hairs per day as part of the natural hair-renewal process. While you will not shed 100 hairs all at once, many become entangled with other hairs or get held in place by styling products. Brushing and shampooing releases all of the shed hairs at one time, which may lead you to believe that your hair is falling out when you wash it.   But it’s entirely healthy.  It is only when you lose more than 100 hairs per day or more than your body can replace that thinning occurs.  So hair loss may be no more than the natural and beneficial renewal of your hair.

The first (and most important thing) you can do to combat hair loss is to identify which of the three possible causes at play.   Anything you do to address hair loss will be meaningless unless you know what is causing it.  And to best figure out the cause, you should consult a professional.  That professional will conduct blood tests, a “pull” test, scalp biopsy and/or light microscopy.   Only after conducting this analysis will you have an informed sense of the causes behind your hair loss.

Only after you know the cause should you begin to look for a “cure”.   And here’s another important fact,  there are only three recognized cures to the most common causes of hair loss:

1.  Hair transplants
2.  Hair growth drugs.  The FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) has approved only two hair growth drugs: Rogaine and Propecia.
3.  Dietary changes to restore clear nutritional deficiencies.

Most of the Hair loss restoration scams will give you some science. They may even mention DHT.  Hair loss restoration researchers are pretty sure that when there is too much DHT hormone in the scalp, hair follicles shrink and hair falls out. They think it’s the leading cause of most baldness.  For reasons that are not well understood, DHT is essential for most hair growth, but it is detrimental to head hair growth. The only way to restore or prevent hair loss is to block the effects of DHT. What they rarely do is come out and say that their product will block DHT and prevent or restore hair loss. Take the Vinegar Scam for example. They talk about DHT and mention that “the Ancients” knew that vinegar was good for the hair and scalp. What they don’t do is say that vinegar will block DHT. Instead, they dance right up to the subject then dance away again — talking about how their vinegar treatment will clean the follicles and unclog the scalp. They never bring up DHT again.   There’s a reason for that;  there are only a handful of provable ways of reducing DHT.  The primary way is to inhibit this enzyme. Finasteride, or Propecia, was approved for safety and efficacy in 1997, by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is a selective inhibitor of type 2 5-AR. It is thought to act on the 5-AR enzyme that concentrates in the hair follicles to inhibit production of DHT.  However, Propecia has a big catch:  it causes loss of libido, a reduced ability to develop and maintain an erection, and a decrease in ejaculate.   So men are often reluctant to go down that road.

Unsavory Internet marketers have seized upon some of the scientific jargon relating to hair loss and mixed in some snake-oil solutions.   Here’s how it works:  you are treated to a videomercial that touts the “proven way to cure hair loss;  many of them are targeted specifically at men.   Is it a scam?   Is it a rip-off?  Does it work?   You’ll never find out, largely because of an increasingly pernicious Internet industry that uses fake product review sites to hide customer reactions.   So, should you spend the $29.95?   We recommend not, for the following reasons:

1.  There’s a reason this sales pitch is slick — they spend a lot of marketing money to get it to you.   Who is paying for that?  You are.   And, like many scammers, they are using Clickbank to sell their ebook so don’t assume you’ll get a refund.  “Rock solid guarantee”…..don’t bet on it.   The scammers bet on the fact that most consumers won’t seek refunds until after the 60-day period expires.   In fact, they count on it.   Moreover, they are betting on their ability to “upsell” you.   This is marketing-speak for efforts to sell you more than you want or need.   And you can bet that the they will be doing some heavy upselling of other products and services.

2.  If you look for a review of the product, you are deluged with lots of fake review or “scam” sites that simply direct you to the main sales site or offer some officious pablum talking about how the product is highly rated or recommended.   The marketers for this service large commissions for any referrals they generate.   So these “affiliate marketers” create create fake review sites which effectively thwart any customer who is looking for real reviews.   It is also a tactic to obscure any customers who have posted complaints or alerts about fraudulent claims.  This affiliate marketing trick makes it very difficult for consumers to detect this and other such scams,  As one persevering blogger has noted, scam artists rely upon these fraudulent reviewers to be using tags like:  “does it work?”, “is it a scam?” or “verified review” to suck unsuspecting consumers into this fraud.

3.  Perhaps most importantly, there is an abundance of free or low-cost information about hair loss and cures available on line.  Sadly, most all of them don’t work.  Fad cures been around for so long that we lose hair just calculating all of the hair loss schemes out there.    They are all appealing because they make it look as though others have succeeded.

You don’t have to pay $40 for the information.    Begin by going to this free and reputable website and then follow-up with your doctor to determine the cause of your hair loss.   You can also go to the Mayo Clinic’s discussion about hair loss to get up to speed about causes and treatment.

Our bottom line: Avoid David McKenna’s mission:   His mission is, in reality, to get you to spend $30 on a dubious hair cure and to get you locked into all of the other things that he’s planning to sell you.   Importantly, you don’t have to spend $29.95 to get information about how to regain your hair; it’s already available on the Net at a fraction of the cost of most weight loss schemes.  Save your hard-earned money.  And beware ANY Net-based sales pitch that has uncredentialed, slick video presentations with no independent reviews. It may not be a scam, but it is probably a rip-off because it is overpriced for what it is offering.

One additional warning:  once you give them your money, you’ll be tagged as “meat”.  Once they know that you’ll fall for this pitch, the same marketers will be coming back to you over and over and over for other such pitches.  So understand that if you pay these marketers anything….let alone $30…..they’ll continue to hound you with more slick schemes designed to prey on your fears and concerns.  Don’t open your door or wallet to them.

And, since you are trying to learn about hair loss, here are some other myths and truths about hair loss from Express: