I emailed Nevershaveagain.com about their product, demanding some sort of truth (in vain) and they replied with this…
“I know that we have some bad press on the Internet web site Hair Facts which is run by the electrolysis group which is one of our major competitors.”
What the heck??
This is a rumor that has been floating around a while, popularized by www.consumerbeware.com (currently offline) and www.truehairfacts.com (currently arrested).
When I first started writing about hair removal, I was critical of several companies that were making unsubstantiated claims:
www.removatron.com (out of business)
www.hairfree.com (out of business)
SoftLight laser (out of business)
Carol Block’s D’Plume photoepilator (no longer used)
I was also critical of several companies making opverpromotion regarding results. Some of this material was put on other sites, like QuackWatch and eMedicine, and American Electrology Association (AEA), an electrolysis trade group. The AEA site used to have an article of mine on lasers called “Blinded by the Light,” which looked at some of the overpromotion and misrepresentation that was occurring between 1995 and 1998. It appears they have since taken that down (which is fine, because I prefer to have people read my stuff here, where I can update it more easily).
Some other electrology trade groups are engaged in a turf war with AEA (which is too boring and complicated to get into here). Anyway, the AEA and I certainly do not always agree on things, but they and I both feel that hair removal should be regulated and licensed in all states. Because of this and their commitment to consumer protection, some people have suggested that I work for them or various other versions of that. They have asked me to speak at their convention this year on scams and misinformation, which is very exciting for me. I have never met any of the officers in AEA, so it will be nice to thank them in person for the work they do.
Finally Free is an ancient scam started by a guy named Thomas Mehl, who used to sell those scam devices under names like Classy Lady by Mehl of Puerto Rico, etc. He also scammed a lot of people with a laser scheme called Mehl Biophile. Anyway, his kids took over Finally Free after he died. There’s also a knockoff called Forever Free. All that stuff is just variation on very old electric tweezer quackery first invented in 1959.
[ July 02, 2004, 02:58 AM: Message edited by: Andrea ]
It’s hilarious how these websites change names, domains, and hosts so frequently.