Are the Propecia Site Photos Altered?

dr. Rassman,

I read one of your articles about laser light therapy and the results of the pictures from the LLT could be altered or they could have been touched up to make it look as if more hair growth occurred. Saying that, how do we know that the people on the propecia.com website didn’t alter their images or the images you see from propecia or avodart results are altered?

Yeah, propecia could work, but to what degree and I personally thing propecia just maintains what you have unless you use minoxidil. What do you think?

The studies that show the benefits of Propecia used in Merck’s material are the results of well controlled and audited scientific studies, some of them done under FDA guidance. I would trust official Propecia photographs from Merck, but I would not trust many of the commercial photographs that are produced just to ‘prove’ that the changes are real. If you look carefully on many photographs used for the various potions, lotions, and herbal solutions for hair loss, the lighting, the hair length, the view — they are all different. On some photographs I have even seen scalp coloring agents used in advertisements, particularly for the crown shots on many commercial products.

So, always check the authority of photograph sourcing. For hair transplantation, I offer open house events at both of my offices just because even from the photographs on our website, the average person may have difficulty in determining just what the change really is. When you meet a patient face to face, what you see is reality and not the best view or an illusion created by the person taking the pictures. Of interest, at each of our open house events, we often have a person present who had created all of the benefits on Propecia alone (no transplants) and they have their before shots to prove where they came from. I still believe and preach: Let the Buyer Beware.