If you go back that far you must remember the Helsinki Formula. I remember seeing this on TV, home shopping network I think, way before I was even interested in the topic as a kid. I remember how in the before and after pics they would have the before pic with greased or wetted down hair, then the after pic with dry hair and different lighting. I guess that's how they did it before Photoshop came out. And it looks like Helsinki Formula is still sold today, must work to some extent for some people?
I have written earlier today about New Generation, a polysorbate 60, and about the Helsinki Formula, a polysorbate 80, and have been giving them praise as the remedy that I used from 20 years of age until the age of 24, exclusively, until 1988 when Rogaine came out. Rogaine was much pricier at the time and hard to find without a prescription but since I was living in Brazil, I found it down there sold out of some ramshackle vendor.
I believe that polysorbates might benefit many looking for organic or natural solutions although I guess they are still man-made. The reason that they went out of popularity was minoxidil and then Dr. Lee's version, which had presumably inactive spironolactone in it since spironolactone doesn't work as a topical and boy, did it smell bad. It also coagulated so you had the persistent bottle that you didn't use often but couldn't bear to throw out. It probably did work much better for non-responders to 2% and 5% as it contained 12 to 15 percent minoxidil, which is about the limit, since it too goes out of solution.
Back to polysorbates, both versions had great, campy informercials with Robert Vaughn from 60's television hosting for the Helsinki Formula while Bob Adams, I think, was the homespun vendor who "discovered" polysorbate 60 handling the other informercial which even had a live audience from Sacramento where the product was manufactured. The FDA put them and Lee out of business and the polysorbates became hard to find except in health food stores for much, much less dough. Lee had problems related to prescribing across borders. He still touts different formulas on here.
The main difference between the two polysorbates is that 60 has a consistency that makes it work well as a hair dressing. Polysorbate 80 has to be rinsed thorougly and you were supposed to leave it in either overnight or right after bathing, with recommended times of 5 to 30 minutes at the least.
The best infomercial of all back then was for Hair in a Spray Can, which was stupendous and far, far more effective and easy to use than those that cover, or the crap that you shake on your hair which goes everywhere and makes a big mess. I tried it during my shed and the stuff is bloody expensive and disappointing. I looked all over for a spray version and couldn't find Hair in a Spray Can. Maybe it was bad for the environment.
Poor Jeff Bridge's brother, Beau, uses Hair in a Spray Can on his bald spot to cover it in the Fabulous Baker Boys. It must suck to be brothers with Jeff Bridges or son of Lloyd Bridges hair-wise. I know because my father is 83 and has Ronald Reagan-like hair. My siblings and I do not and my sister especially has poor hair compared to her two brothers.
The other reason that they lost favor was because the sebum plug theory of hair loss was discredited in the 80's and they no longer had a basis for selling them except "try this; promise that it works". Without a huge amount of research, I believe that they might have served as maintenance and since I started on them at 20, I still had and kept until going on HRT, a respectable XY head of hair. Even in my before pics, as bad is they look, finasteride/Duta plus minoxidil kept me in the game, and something was needed to bridge the four year gap until minoxidil was approved. The theory could be that they worked similarly to ketoconozole by altering and lessening inflammation of the scalp by decreasing furfur yeast colonies from overpopulating. Given my persistent dermatitis which is similarly caused by DHT and bacteria and yeast, it seems plausible since Keto is used against dandruff and yeast/dermatitis.
I don't believe that either New Generation or the Helsinki Formula tried to doctor photos, though since there was never any growth/regrowth beyond what minoxidil or finasteride do for the fortunate. Instead, it is hair that was on the verge of going out of cycle. Virtually, always, such hair is not cosmetically significant to anyone else but the balding person, who is happy of course to see any "improvement". But none of the pics from polysorbate 60 and 80 that they showed were likely to make anyone think that it was a "cure" and this is important because my feeling is that both companies were on the up and up. There was literally no other treatment available back then except for estrogen and AA's for females. My doctor refused to prescribe either and told me "to just man up about hair loss". As if....
The pics looked very much like minoxidil regrowth for a very few and for the rest it was assumed to only be maintenance because mathematically, decreasing the rate of hair loss looks pretty much the same as slight "regrowth". For the truly afflicted or non-responders (and now we know why, we think, minoxidil doesn't work for half of us, being due to the lack of certain sulfuric enzymes in the scalp), even if the hair med "works", the hair fall just overwhelms it. Guys with stretched out scalps in the after pics, seem to be fighting an upstream battle to even maintain on finasteride and if they lack the right amount of enzymes, to use minoxidil to good purpose.
After polysorbates came formulas from France (must be good, right, if French?) touting ampoules of liquid with placental factors that were really, really expensive and they had commercials towards the end of the 80's but those were pretty much snake oil although I see "female" hair products that still tout placental "factors" even today. I only bought a few and probably not enough for "results" but I pretty much determined quickly that polysorbates were the cheaper, more efficacious path. Placebo effects? Possibly but I used them on and off until about the age of 49, along with more so Min/finasteride.
