Complaints received regarding various UK hair clinics
Unfortunately there are many non-medical hair clinics in the UK that use pushy and unethical tactics to sell their product.
Belgravia trichologists and treatment advisors frequently meet people who visit us after paying for treatment that was force-sold by London (or non-London) hair clinics.
Most of the time, not only are the treatments that many of these hair clinics sell astronomically expensive, but they have minimal efficacy or proof.
Here are some details on some of the complaints that we receive:
If you have an issue with any hair clinic, email the full details and copies of any correspondence and we will try to resolve the matter for you. In any serious case of misrepresentation we may investigate it and post the details (with your written permission) on our website to warn others.
Hair Clinic 1 – London, UK
We have received many serious complaints about one London hair clinic
operated and run by a male with a female assistant. The consultant and director of this hair clinic frequently tells visitors to the hair centre that they can take one bottle of the treatment away with them at no cost in the hope that they will try it and come back for the rest of the course. A bill is then received in the post for the cost of the full treatment course and the clinic tries to force the client to pay for the treatment that they did not agree to purchase, by using the scare tactics of a threatening debt-collection agency who repeatedly bully the client into paying for the hair loss or scalp treatment.
The agency which this hair clinic has been using has recently been featured on Watchdog for their dealings (See Watchdog article). It is likely that if this practice is still being carried out, the hair clinic will now be using an alternative debt-collection agency. It is only women that have reported being handled in this way by the hair clinic. It seems the consultant at hair clinic 1 is happier to use his tactics on women who he does not believe are a threat to him. He does not accept credit card payments and prefers cash wherever possible.
The treatments that this hair clinic advertises are unproven and there is no evidence that they are effective.
Hair Clinic 2 – London Branch, UK:
Hair Clinic 2, Client A (male): Product - Laser, Regaine and Herbal Tablet. Duration - 6 months, Price - £2500
Patient A reported to the Belgravia Centre that after using the treatment that was sold to him by a hard-selling sales consultant at the studio hair clinic he visited, there were no noticeable results in spite of the fact that he was told by the consultant at the hair clinic that he would definitely see a big improvement in hair growth. The client reported the service and hair clinic 2 to be so slap-dash, that on many occasions he had to leave the cubical in which the laser was carried out because nobody attended to him to finish the treatment. When he asked the London hair clinic consultant for a refund it was flatly refused.
Hair Clinic 2, Client B (male) - January 2006: Product – Hair replacement system. Price - £2200
Patient A visited the Belgravia Centre after purchasing a hair replacement system (hairpiece) from the same studio hair clinic in London, UK. This system was sold by the clinic as a custom-made piece (a tailored piece, produced to the client’s measurements) and fitted following a stylist at the hair clinic shaving much of the hair that was growing on the patient’s head.
After examining the hair system sold by this hair clinic, we found that it did not appear to be custom made. As well as the piece not fitting perfectly, the roots of the hair were blonde whilst the hairpiece was brunette, showing evidence that the hairpiece had in fact been dyed by the hair clinic to match the patient’s hair colour.
Belgravia have since provided patient A with a smaller custom-made hair replacement system aimed specifically at the bald area of his scalp, whilst areas where hair is still growing are being treated with a pharmaceutical prescription treatment course.
If you feel you still have a fair amount of hair make sure that you try a clinically proven prescription treatment before resorting to surgical or non-surgical hair replacement. If a hair clinic advises you to shave a fair amount of hair for a hair replacement system to be fitted, make sure that you get a second opinion as to whether this is necessary.
Make sure you check the quality of any hair system purchased from a hair clinic before it is fitted and, if custom made, make sure that the quality is high and the system seems new and untouched.
Hair Clinic 3 – London, UK: -
Client C (female) - January 2006: Product - Herbal tablet, lotion and laser. Price undisclosed
A lady visited Belgravia after purchasing a 6 month treatment course at a London hair clinic. During every visit to the hair clinic she would be escorted to the consultant’s office where he would attempt to sell her another one of the hair clinic’s products. In the end she gave up going because she felt that the hair clinic’s only concern was to extract more money from her.
Unfortunately this is a common practice with some unscrupulous hair clinics. If you feel that a hair clinic is more interested in taking your money than helping your problem then it is important that you get further advice elsewhere.
