You are experiencing hair loss and are becoming more concerned by the day. He wants to figure out the best way to deal with the problem, so he goes online and digs deeper. Near the top of the list, under the search term “hair loss product reviews,” you’ll find a heading that says something like “Get unbiased hair loss product reviews.” Another high on the list reads “Hair Loss Expert Reveals the Truth”. So you click and land on a website that seems to offer sensible and factual comparative information. A lot of product brands are reviewed, but one seems to rank highest on several of these so-called comparison websites. The alleged parent brand is described as possessing “clinically researched ingredients, at the clinical dose.” The purveyors of this advice go on to proclaim that “there are some hair loss products that have chosen to go this route, and our favorite is the XYZ brand.” Sounds like good advice, right? Actually bad. This is why.
Just like snake oil peddlers, flim flam artists, and the worst used car salesmen, the hair loss treatment industry has been contaminated by crooks who have honed their skills and are now using the internet to scam to the public. These are hard words. They are fully deserved. As in the example noted at the beginning of this article, certain marketing entities purport to offer unbiased third-party advice on hair loss treatment products. However, they are neither objective nor genuinely third party. Instead, the deck is stacked, the dice are loaded, the game is rigged. So-called targeted third parties either work directly for a certain trademark, or receive generous direct compensation from a certain trademark. Either way, his advice is anything but objective.
Ironically, one of the brands these characters criticize is the only natural product with real, valid third-party data. And ironically, they do so by claiming that the genuine article is not based on “clinically researched ingredients, at the clinical dose” but rather that their chosen brand is. This is ironic specifically because the genuine article is backed by peer-reviewed research showing the safety and efficacy of its “clinically researched ingredients, at clinical doses,” and the purported best brand is not at all.
Since the consumer may not know better and fall for this type of blatant scam, the inferior brand cleans up by making undeserved sales, while the good, hardworking, proven brands lose sales because they refuse to stoop to the level that these slime merchants occupy. If you have to lie, cheat, and steal to make a sale, who exactly are you? More to the point, what business are scammers like this in allowing them to make a profit perpetrating such low-level deceptions?
So what is a consumer to do? How, in this category, can anyone tell the good from the bad? One way is to look for a resource that publishes real, valid scientific and medical research from third parties. The Gold Standard in this area is Medline, also known as Pubmed (http://www.pubmed.com).
For example, a representative example of valid medical research supporting a commercially sold brand of hair growth treatment can be found on Pubmed here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19692448.
So why is this so important? Is this why? There are very few hair loss treatment products that have actually been shown to work. If you’re losing your hair, wouldn’t you rather use something that’s in the “proven work” category? Of course you would! That’s why you need to know where to look, and regardless of the medical condition, Pubmed is the best resource for this information. Or, you could take a chance on a product brand that began a relationship with you by conning you into thinking they were something they weren’t. Your choice…