Here is another "hair inhibitor" i found.This one is very funny since its about "hair diet".

http://www.bcm-care.org/2.htm

Yep, all the earmarks of an unproven product:

"Exclusive" ingredients (SR-active 96 and hefeglugan) with mysterious formulations.

Claims of reduction without clinical proof.

Unnamed "specialist professors" at a prestigious university (data can't be verified).

One to avoid till they prove their claims.

As BCM-Care AG (Switzerland), manufacturers of bio depiless, we would like to join the forum and clarify the questions/doubts raised by Quaterman and Andrea (I answer each point below).

This reply is meant as a clarification, not a defence.

You are absolutely correct to question effectiveness of hair retardation products, many of which make wild, irresponsible and impossible claims.

bio depiless is sold in more than 40.000 retail outlets (perfumeries, drugstores, beauty shops, department stores etc) in Europe and Japan and has been on the market for the past 5 years. I believe that the volume of sales, relative longevity in the market and lack of any negative publicity do give some credibility to our line.

Naturally, we provide full documentation to the relevant authorities in each country where we are present, which give full clinical proof of our claims (otherwise we would not be allowed to advertise such claims, not to mention the fact that we would not be on the shelves of such top retail outlets as Harrods, Selfridges etc., which we are). In Europe, we certainly could not get away with making the vastly misleading claims which often appear in TV advertisements and TV sales channels the USA about "miracle" products (including depilatories, hair retardants, etc. etc. etc.)

bio depiless is not a "miracle" product. It is a "dual function" range of high quality Swiss skin care products (face cream, body lotion, deodorant cream, dodorant roll-on) which also have active ingredients to retard hair growth by 50% (see below) meaning "more skin care, less hair removal". We also have a bio depiless concentrate spray so that the consumer can enjoy the hair retardation benefits while using their own preferred face cream, body lotion, deodorant etc.

We not claim anything more than this and do not allow our international distributors to do so either.

We do not have distribution in Israel (Quaterman)or the USA (Andrea) at this time (although we have FDA approval and are negotiating a market introduction to the USA next year) and we presume that bio depiless is not known well in these markets.

Now to your questions/doubts:

Quaterman:
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Your comment:

"Here is another "hair inhibitor" i found.This one is very funny since its about "hair diet"."

Answer:

We use the term "hair diet" term to make it easy for the average consumer to understand.

However, to be a little more technical, the active ingredients support the inhibition of keratin formation. Keratin is responsible for the mechanical strength of the horny layer of the skin and the hair. Keratin is made up of about 18 different amino acids, some of which are more active than others in facilitating and ensuring the formation of the strengthening compounds in the keratin, and thus its strength. The same also applies to hair growth. With bio depiless, certain amino acids reaching the hair promote neither hair growth not hair strength. These amino acids constitute a kind of "roughage" for the hair and have no "nutritional value". As a result, as far as length is concerned, the hair does not grow to its full potential. Within a cosmetic framework, figuratively speaking, the hair is "put on a diet". Here, the most important active principles involve a protein and protein derivative complex, as well as plant extracts.

Andrea
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Your comment:

1."Exclusive" ingredients (SR-active 96 and hefeglugan) with mysterious formulations."

Answer:

Absolutely correct. There is nothing "mysterious" about the formulation but, in order to make products more difficult to copy, cosmetics companies do try to be as vague as possible about the precise description, within CTFA limits.

Your comment:

2."Claims of reduction without clinical proof."

Stringent clinical tests were carried out on safety (skin patch, Ames test) sensitization (Magnussen), effectiveness (Janzen product test, sensory, statistical test, placebo) etc. by Professor. Dr. Hans Dutler of the Laboratory for Organic Chemistry in Zurich, prior to launching the bio depiless range in Europe.

Prof. Dutler's conclusions were that the average suppression of hair growth obtained with bio depiless is 50% (HGS Factor). This is what we claim in our advertising.

In addition, we carried out Focus Group testing with 12 groups of 50 women (all of whom regularly remove hair from legs, underarm, bikini line), aged between 20 and 50 years old (40% fair haired and 60% dark haired)over an 8 week period. Results were that 94% of the test participants observed pronounced hair suppression, 6% considered the effect to be slight or negligible.

Your comment:

3."Unnamed "specialist professors" at a prestigious university (data can't be verified)."

Answer:

bio depiless was developed with Professor Dr. Ph. Birrer of The University of Zurich.

If you would like fuller information about the products, you can see them on our web-site at http://www.bcm-care.org (we do not sell products on this site) or, for another good overview in English, our UK distributor's web-site at: http://www.biodepiless.co.uk

Thank you for the opportunity to clarify.

BCM-Care AG
Hinwil
SWITZERLAND

smoore@bcm-care.org

Welcome, rmdalia, and thank you for your detailed response to comments on this forum. It's my goal that this be a place where this sort of information can be discussed openly and respectfully.

1. The vagueness of active ingredients in products making health claims is a problem in my opinion.

2. While you make a quantified claim of 50% reduction, I do not believe this has been backed with published clinical data. I could not find Dr. Dutler's information on your site.

In the 600 women who tested the product, eight weeks is often too short a time to determine changes in hair growth patterns. Vaniqa, for instance, found that you couldn't even tell any difference until 8 weeks after starting, and they had significant follow-up beyond that (six monmths total).

3. I'd like to see the data collected by Drs. Birer and Dutler.

Until there is published proof that a product can have an effect on hair growth under controlled clinical conditions, I recommend that consumers avoid the product.

Again, thank you for being open about your company and your claims. If you have any further information, I'd love to see it.

Andrea,

Thank you for your comments which I will answer below (like many other companies in Europe, we are on vacation through August so I have plenty of time!):

1. The full list of CTFA ingredients (although not percentages) appears on all of our product packaging (as required by European - and Japanese)law).

2. The claims are certainly backed up by clinical data. We have literally hundreds of pages of such data which we have submitted to the various Health Authorities etc. in Europe and Japan (allowing us/our distributors to make the claims in advertising) prior to launching in each market. The 2 most relevant studies are:

bio depiless - Suppression of hair growth by Professor Dr. Birrer (19th May 1996)

bi depiless - Research and Trial Programme by Pro. Dr. H. Dutler (April 1997)

Our web-site is simply a "showcase" for potential importers and distributors to have a "first look" at our product lines (i.e. consumers cannot purchase products from us directly), hence, we do not provide all of the clinical data on any of our products on the site (if we did, the site would be huge!).

3. If you would like me to send you the clinical data by Drs. Birrer and Dutler, please send me your fax number to either info@bcm-care.org or smoore@bcm-care.org

1. Many of these products list something vague like "herbal extracts." What do you claim is the active ingredient which causes this hair reduction?

2. I was unable to find either study you cite on the PubMed database of medical articles. Are then unpublished?