Mane Hair Spray Comes Under Fire

June 3, 2006

Article taken from The Times Online

Hair 'growth' advert that proved a bit thin on facts

IN MAN'S endless and mainly hopeless war against baldness, a Bobby Charlton comb-over is about as much use as the ancient Egyptian remedy of smearing a shining pate with hippopotamus fat. Especially if you face south in a westerly gale.

But the hucksters and snake-oil pedlars never relent in their claims to restore a chap's brain fur.
Yesterday the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned a television commercial for a product that apparently delivered far less hair than it promised. The commercial asserted that Mane, a hairspray, "gives your hair a fuller, natural appearance in seconds". On close examination of the seemingly miraculous transformation of a male head from desert to rainforest, the ASA decided that the effect had been achieved largely by rerranging existing hair.

Charlton, Arthur Scargill, the former miners' leader, and Gregor Fisher, who played a comb-over king in a memorable cigar commercial, all know the trick of growing the hair long on one side so that it can be swept over - and possibly glued down - on the other. It is about as convincing as thatching the dome of St Paul's.

Mane objected to the ban and defended its product, but the ASA ruled: "We considered the man's hair in the 'before' photograph seemed wet or greasy and, as a result, looked thinner. The thick head of hair in the man's 'after' photograph appeared to have been achieved largely through a comb-over of dry, fluffier hair and not only through use of the product."

The apparent restorative growth on a woman's head in the same commercial was also deemed to be misleading. The transformation from thinning, curly hair into luxuriant, flowing locks was helped by different lighting and an alternative pose, the ASA ruled, despite a denial from the manufacturer.

The ASA said: "Factors other than the product's performance affected the 'after' impression. The claims to build thinning hair into a 'fuller' head of hair were exaggerated and therefore misleading."

Three quarters of men aged 40 or older experience some degree of hair loss. Some, such as Sir Elton John - and Frank Sinatra before him - retaliate with hair transplant surgery. Others resort to hairpieces, but when is the last time you saw a convincing one?

Besides hippo fat, the ancient Egyptians prescribed toes of a dog, refuse of dates, hoof of an ass and blood from the neck of the Gabgu bird. A millennium later Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine, favoured a potion of cumin, pigeon droppings, horseradish and beetroot.

The prescription drugs Rogaine and Propecia can have some effect on stopping hair loss and promoting regrowth. Many men, however, will concur with John Glenn, the follically challenged pioneer US astronaut, who said: "The good Lord gave men only so many hormones, and if others want to waste theirs on growing hair, that's up to them."

By Alan Hamilton

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