No baldness cure, says institute

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33413, 20 December 1973, Page 13

No baldness cure, says institute

The Consumers’ Institute has issued another warning about expensive courses of baldness treatment which, it considers, are virtually worthless. It has examples of people who have paid from $2OO to $6OO and are still going bald. One firm offers a $3OOO life course.

“About 5 per cent of male> baldness may be due to* disease or bodily disorder. Sometimes it is temporary! and may cure itself, though it I is advisable to see your doctor,” says the institute in its! magazine, “Consumer.” | “The remaining 95 per cent 1 of baldness in men is common male baldness. It cannot be cured or prevented by any known preparation, and almost certainly cannot be slowed down. “Apart from castration the only known solutions to common baldness are a transplant of hair from another! part of your head, or a hair-' piece.” The institute warns par-' ticularly about one large, firm which advertises widely.’ The institute says most of the firm’s advertisements contain untrue and misleading claims; its diagnoses of hair and scalp conditions have been shown frequently to be wrong when matched with reports of qualified skin

(specialists; and the formulae *in the firm’s courses of treatment contain common cosImetics, which in the opinion |of skin specialists would not i affect the hair growth in any way. I The institute first reported on baldness treatiments in 1968, and its latest findings are similar to its earlier ones. For an even longer period : the New Zealand faculty of the Australasian College of Dermatologists and the New Zealand Dermatological Society “have been blunt in I their opinions that unqualified hair and scalp consultants should not be allowed ■'to take money from the public on the basis of false or misleading claims for pre- ’ parations which will not pre- ; vent baldness.” The institute says the law ' in New Zealand should pre- > vent medically unqualified ■ people from treating the I scalp or hair, except for nori mal hairdressing.