Scalpmed’s Scary Scam
Submitted by The Beauty Brains Blog
Jane’s hairy dilemma: My husband and I have seen the commercials for Scalpmed, and are wondering if it really works….he’s just beginning to lose his hair, and is interested in a preventative measure. Is Scalpmed worth it?
The Left Brain’s response:
First of all, if there really was a product that worked better than the approved drugs that are on the market, don’t you think the major Pharm companies would be all over it? The fact that Scalpmed comes from “GR Hair Solutions, LLC ,” a small company we’ve never even heard of is enough to start my BS alarm bells ringing.
I see from their website that Scalpmed actually consists of several products. Two of those products, their Vitadil-5A and Vitadil-2A formulas, “contain FDA-approved formulas for hair growth” and they state that the active ingredient in both of these products is minoxidil. Ok, so far so, good. Minoxidil (aka Rogaine) is an FDA approved drug to treat hair loss. So what’s the problem?
The devil, as they say, is in the details. Apparently you can’t just buy the minoxidil treatment, you have to buy three products that come in a kit: Vitadil 5A, Nutrisol-RM, and Cortex Enlarger. Only the Vitadil 5A contain the active drug. The kit costs $160 plus about $20 for shipping for a 2 month supply. Let me crunch some numbers and see if that’s a good deal.
Scalpmed: smart shopping?
I’ll assume that all three of the products in the kit are of equal value, even though I’d expect the drug product to be more expensive. With that assumption, the Vitadil product costs a third of that $180, or about $60 out of your hard earned cash for a two months supply. That’s about $30 per month. You can buy a 6 month supply of Minoxidil on Amazon.com for $38. That’s only about $6.00 per month. So not only is Scalpmed charging you 5 times more than you should pay for a Minoxidil product, but you have to pay ANOTHER $120 for the other two products in their kit that you DON’T really need. So really you’re paying about $90 per month for what really should cost you $6.00.
Scalpmed: superior science?
Ok, clearly this is NOT a good deal. But is it possible that Scalpmed is selling some kind of special version of Minoxidil that works better? While there’s no information on their website to indicate that’s the case, the rumor on the ‘net is that Scalpmed may be combining minoxidil with tretinoin (aka Retin-A). We have no way of knowing if this is true or not, but there is some research on the combination. According to some studies, this combination can increase penetration of the minoxidil and result in even greater hair growth than minoxidil alone. But even the best studies (like this one from Seoul National University College of Medicine) indicate that the only benefit of this combination is that a single dose of the minoxidil-tretinoin mixture works the same as a double does of minoxidil alone. So let’s say that this research works out, you could cut your minoxidil cost in half. But remember, Scalpmed is already charging you 5 times more plus the additional $120, so you’re still losing money with this product.
Finally, the other issue with the minoxidil-tretinoin combo, according to studies like this one, is that it causes scalp eruptions and irritation. So given the marginal benefit and the potential side effects, using the combination hardly seems worth it. Maybe that’s why none of the drug companies have pursued this approach.
The Beauty Brains bottom line
IF (and that’s a HUGE if) Scalpmed can produce clinical data that indicates their product is safe and that it works better than Minoxidil, then they might be worth considering. But I say skip Scalpmed, buy some Minoxidil, and tell your husband to take you to dinner with all the money you saved.
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