Avishek Chaturvedi, a 23-year-old student of library science at Calcutta University, was losing a lot of hair. “Every time I shampooed or combed my hair, clumps would come out,” he agonises. “I was so afraid of going bald that I decided to do something about it.” He was considering consulting a homeopath when one day he was pleasantly surprised to find an ad in the newspaper announcing the opening of a homeopathic clinic in the city for the treatment of patients with the problem of hair loss. “I decided to go for their promotional offer of a free computerised hair analysis to determine what was the cause of the hair loss and I ended up enrolling in their one-year hair treatment programme.” While admitting that he doesn’t really know how effective the treatment will be, he says that he’s “willing to try it out”.

Suddenly there seems to be a deluge of ‘speciality clinics’ which lure consumers with hair rejuvenation products and treatments. Dr Batra’s started in the city in August 2000 with a clinic at Minto Park and then opened a second branch in Ultadanga. Health and Glow, which started its operations in Salt Lake in January 2004, opened two branches in Lake Market and Siliguri this year. Even Kaya which is primarily known as a skin care clinic is advertising its hair care packages, imploring the consumer to get there “before it’s too late”.

But while the consumer is indeed falling for it — consider Health and Glow’s over 5,000 customer base in the three centres — lured by the promise of a head full of healthy hair, the question is, are the claims made by the clinics as indicated in the ads just tall promises or are they nothing short of the truth?

For one, the claims are pretty tall. “Hair Fall to Hair Full,” says one Dr Batra’s ad. “Hair loss problems?” a Kaya pamphlet asks and then tells you, “Kaya has the solution.” In one of its ad, Health and Glow announces various schemes that “will help put an end to your hair problems”.

“In the absence of any significant research into whether or not certain products or services deliver what they promise, it is difficult to establish the veracity of certain claims,” says Prabir Basu of the State Consumer Protection Council, government of West Bengal. “According to the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, and the Monopolies & Restrictive Trade Practices Act, if a consumer is misled into buying or investing money for a product or service, it amounts to an unfair trade practice,” he points out.

But as far as the dispensing of drugs at these clinics is concerned, says Loknath Pramanik, former additional director of the Directorate of Drugs Control, West Bengal, “the government’s Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, makes it legal for clinics to dispense, distribute or sell over-the-counter drugs provided that they are procured from licenced and registered manufacturers.”

Spokespersons associated with various clinics agree that they are delivering on the promises. “We have a 94 per cent success rate,” says Dr Piyali Sen of Dr Batra’s. And Health and Glow is happy to provide you with phone numbers of people with success stories. Aparna Dasgupta, a 56-year-old teacher, is one of them. “Even at this age, I have grown back some of the hair I lost,” she laughs, “and though I still don’t have a lot of hair, I’m happy with the results of the treatment.” And though 45-year-old Nanda Mallick has not grown back lost hair, she says in the two years or so that she has been taking the medicine “the hair loss has been checked”. Piyali Chatterjee, associate medical coordinator of Kaya adds, “though it is too early to talk about the results, as far as Calcutta is concerned, we have had reasonable success in the six months that we have opened shop.” She explains ‘reasonable success’ as having achieved satisfactory results in hair therapy through the allopathic system of medicine.

But then what about say the six per cent at Dr Batra’s who don’t fall into the category of success stories? Or, as a patient of Health and Glow says, “I’m beginning to wonder if my hair will ever grow back.”

“You have to consider that in any kind of medical treatment there cannot be cent per cent guarantee,” argues Dr Anand Galgali of Health and Glow. “But each and every case that comes to us is given the utmost attention in terms of diagnosis by our panel of doctors, determining the symptoms and causes of the disease and formulation of specific custom-made medical plans by our registered homeopathy practitioners. Even in the unlikely scenario that the patient will follow all the directions properly, there are chances that a person may not respond to treatment to the optimum level.” Dr Sen of Dr Batra’s corroborates this: “Not every case is a success”.

Moreover, some customers are not very happy that “in order to enrol in a treatment plan you have to dish out a pretty large sum of money (a minimum of Rs 5,000 in most cases) as the cost of therapy. What if I want to discontinue with the treatment in the middle of the programme?” a patient enrolled in one of the clinics asks. Dr Galgali answers, “In homeopathy, it takes time for the medicine to show results. If you pay a lump sum, it helps dissuade you from discontinuing in the middle of therapy. However, in some cases we do refund the money.” Dr Sen says that at Dr Batra’s, earlier they had a monthly system. “But too many people dropped out without giving it the requisite time. So we devised this system.”

Indeed for some, this is what makes them want to stick it out. As Chaturvedi says, “I’ve paid for a year’s supply of medicine, so I’ll give it that much time and hope for the best.”

money matters

• Mong Kaya’s current three hair care services, the most recent is the monthly ‘Hair Health Solution’ programme, which costs Rs 990.

• Dr Batra’s treatment programmes are based on the individual needs of patients. The clinic claims the pricing is very reasonable and affordable to a middle income clientele.

• Health and Glow has four hair treatment programmes for a duration of six months, one year, two years and three years. The prices are: Rs 4,000, Rs 6,500, Rs 10,500, Rs 14,500, respectively.