ProFollica

Hi Dr.Rass . Please go through the following website and give your comments.

Profollica.com

You want my comments about their website? Sure. The generic sounding “ProFollica” name reminds me of so many other hair products, which they probably chose to capitalize on the other treatments that advertise more. Their website has a nice blue color behind the content, but the main background looks like the floor of a fraternity bathroom after a night of binge-drinking and eating Skittles. It looks like a rainbow exploded. I’m also not a fan of the prominent use of stock photos of smiling, well-coiffed men (or the other photos of pensive men with great hair, perhaps considering a purchase of this garbage). The site tries to debunk some myths in its filler content, but it gets some of them wrong. One of the myths it correctly debunks was one I hadn’t heard before in all my years of working with hair loss patients — the one about hair loss not being caused by “thinking too much”. They’re right, using your brain can’t harm your hair. Thanks for clarifying that, ProFollica team!

But I suppose when you asked for my comments, you wanted my 2 cents on the product itself. I could point you to probably a dozen past blog entries about these “treatments” that aren’t FDA approved and aren’t going to do what they claim… but I’ll just break down the three main ProFollica selling points from their site, followed by my commentary:

1. They claim their shampoo removes sebum. Sounds good, except sebum doesn’t cause hair loss.
2. They claim their shampoo and lotion will reduce scalp DHT. Wouldn’t it make more sense to inhibit the DHT rather than just washing it away after the fact? Also, scalp DHT is only 1 of the 2 types of DHT.
3. They claim their supplement will help blood flow to the scalp. Again, sounds good, but blood flow to follicles isn’t the cause of genetic hair loss.

Before the parade of “they can’t get FDA approval because it is too expensive” emails come in, just realize that they can’t get FDA approval because they make grandiose claims that can’t be backed up. The FDA would require companies to outline all side effects and provide actual factual information about success rates — something products like this gladly avoid, because if you had the real facts you’d be less inclined to waste your money. Luckily for them (and unluckily for you), since these products are considered supplements they aren’t required to go through the approval process like pharmaceuticals would be.