Regular visitors to www.hairgenesis.com will already know that it is not our practice to slam the competition.  There are indeed worthy brands of hair treatment products available, aside from our own. However, the type of activity that one competitor, Provillus, seems to be engaged in takes the category down into swampy depths that well-define the perjorative "snake oil salesman".  It's a game of win by any means.  Twist and bend the truth if you must.  Screw the consumer.  But the guy with the most money at the end of the game wins.  Here's what's going on.  By typing "Hair Genesis" in the Google search box, a quick review of the sponsor link ads brings up one that reads 

Is This Just A Scam?

Click through to the landing page of this ad and one comes upon what appears to be an objective third party review of HairGenesis®, in this case by a nice looking fellow who goes by the moniker " Honest Advice From Your Friend Josh.  Okay, fair enough so far.  Read a bit further and you see Josh seems to be comparing HairGenesis® against Nisim and several other brands, particularly Provillus.  But here is where things take a turn toward the blatantly deceptive.  "Josh" states "So what is in  exactly? Well, like I said, the shampoo is like Nisim Biofactors, only less effective for some reason. Then the gel is apparently somewhat of a watered-down home remedy, and the supplement has a few good ingredients, but not the full list of ingredients that you can get in a product like Provillus, which is what I use."

This is interesting inasmuch as Provillus appears to be based on two ingredients, saw palmetto and minoxidil, which constitute the active composition of HairGenesis® --- circa 1996!  In 1999 HairGenesis® was improved and no longer required minoxidil to perform.  In 2002, a peer-reviewed clinical trial demonstrated the safety and benefit of the new and improved formulation.  Moreover, a recent peer-reviewed and published university study reported evidence that the new Generation IV HairGenesis® formula operates through two distinct mechanisms of action, inhibition of pathologic inflammation of the hair follicle and blockade of both 5 alpha-reductase isoforms.  Where is the evidence that the Provillus product provides benefit?

Reading further on our friend Josh's site, the site visitor may chance to see a number of 'what look like' blog entries from legitimate consumers who have had experience with both HairGenesis® and Provillus.  In each instance however, the purported consumers invariably choose Provillus over HairGenesis®, often slamming HairGenesis® in the process.  Is this merely a case where the better product, purportedly Provillus, wins?  

There are several facts that will help us think this question through.  To begin, let us consider which product line, HairGenesis® or Provillus is supported with true third party empirical evidence demonstrating safety and efficacy.  As previously noted, HairGenesis® has two peer-reviewed and published studies, the first a 2002 IRB monitored clinical, the second, a 2009 university-based basic science study.  In each of these studies, HairGenesis® demonstrates objective evidence showing that the formula does what it purports to do. 

To our knowledge, and to this point in time, no objective third party evidence supports the safety or efficacy of Provillus. 

Here is another interesting fact.  Go to Google and type in the words "Provillus and scam" and you will see numerous web pages that appear to start out by examining the question of whether Provillus is in fact a scam.  All good so far.  However, it soon becomes clear that these same web pages go on to, almost invariably, conclude that Provillus is a wonderful product that every man and woman concerned about hair loss should use. 

 Unfortunately, each of these web pages turns out to be basically a dead end --- meaning that they lead to no genuine objective third party.  Thus, they are by definition neither truly objective nor truly independent.  Instead, it appears that the folks behind Provillus have been putting these web pages up, either directly or indirectly and thereby engaging in an elaborate campaign of deception wherein they dupe susceptible consumers into believing that these so called 'consumer review' websites are what they appear to be.  One has to hand it to Provillus, because by flooding the search results with fake positive web pages, they have basically covered themselves from being unmasked for the deceptive purveyors of fakery that they are. 

The ad posted at the top of this blog entry is yet another example of this nasty, deceptive, ultimately cruel game.  Of course, the true losers in the game are the guileless consumers who end up being taken in by the ruse.  But is this what it takes to be successful in the hair treatment business.  Personally, I think not.

By way of contrast, at HairGenesis® we realize that we are in business, not just to make money, but to serve the hair loss consumer.  I've invested the better part of the past twenty years in practicing what I preach.  As a starting point and also a finishing point,  a philosophy of veracity requires us to back up our product claims with genuine evidence, the kind that comes from true critical analysis.  For those in the industry who build their product sales on fantasy testimonials and fake consumer reviews, we have only scorn.  Consider yourself warned, Provillus.  In our eyes, you're lying and you're cheating.  We're on to you.  And we are going to do our best to blow the whistle so that the hair loss consumer has a chance to make their decision on the basis of facts, not fiction.