Hair, Beauty & Fashion News
Natural Hair Growth Institute Sued
Chicago, Illinois, USA - According to a Chicago Sun-Times article by Lisa Donovan, when laser therapy, scalp massages and dietary supplements didn’t work, two clients of Deerfield-based Natural Hair
Growth Institute held out their hands for a refund.
The two former clients, Virgus Jacques and Margaret Farrell, have now filed a class action breach-of-contract and consumer fraud lawsuit against the company, saying they’re part of a larger group that used the program,
saw no success and, ultimately, didn’t get their thousands of dollars back despite a guarantee.
“NHGI’s routine practice of informing its customers that they will be refunded the total cost of the program if there is no hair growth progress by the program end — when NHGI has no intention of refunding the money —
and telling clients that the program is virtually always successful — when the program many times does not work — deceives customers,” the suit states.
A woman who would only identify herself as general counsel for company owner Steve Bennis said “they’re all just allegations; there’s no foundation to it whatsoever to where I stand.”
Jacques and Farrell separately visited the Oakbrook Terrace office during summer 2008, seeking help with their thinning hair.
In those meetings, Bennis allegedly told Jacques the success rate was so great that only one refund had been issued by the company. He allegedly told Farrell no refunds had been issued, according to the suit filed
Tuesday in Cook County Circuit Court.
Both were told in their separate meetings about a 100 percent money-back guarantee if the program doesn’t work.
But nothing worked — not the the scalp massages, the specialty hair products or the “orbit laser light” therapy, described on the company’s Web site as directing “biostimulative energy to the body’s cells, where it
is converted into chemical energy to promote healthy rejuvenation of hair.”
Now Jacques is seeking the $11,124 he spent and Farrell wants her $8,800 back.
While the company’s Web site touts success stories along with the money-back guarantee, the suit claims the company “doesn’t provide such refunds and never intends to provide the refund at the time of contract formation
with its clients.”
The Better Business Bureau revoked NHGI’s accreditation in September 2008 and has given the company an F, its lowest grade. The Illinois Department of Professional Regulation fined Bennis $10,000 in November 2008 and
ordered him to stop using laser treatment for hair loss without a license, said spokeswoman Susan Hofer.
(2009/08/06)
Diamond Company Lifegem Turning Lock of Michael Jackson's Hair into Jewels
Chicago, Illinois, USA - LifeGem, a Chicago diamond-producing company, has plans to turn locks of Michael Jackson's hair into bling.
LifeGem founder, Dean VandenBiesen, said his company will extract carbon from the King of Pop's hair and turn it into crystals, which can be refined into diamonds. And LifeGem claims to have done it before with locks
from another musical icon -- Beethoven.
VandenBiesen said the company obtained a chunk of the pop star's hair from the producer of an infamous 1984 Pepsi commercial shoot during which Jackson's hair caught on fire. The company should be able to extract about 10
diamonds from the hair, he said. LifeGem has not set a price for the gems, but Beethoven's went for $240,000 each.
The announcement from LifeGem comes in a string of bizarre Jackson body part bombshells. London's Daily Mail reported Sunday that a witness said Jackson was missing his nose when he died. Instead, there was just "a small
hole where the singer's nose should have been. The prosthesis he normally attached to his damaged nose was missing, revealing bits of cartilage surrounding a small dark hole."
London's Mirror reported last month that the King of Pop was to be buried without his brain, claiming it was removed by the coroner to complete an autopsy. Jackson died from a cardiac arrest at his Beverly Hills mansion
on June 25.
(2009/08/06)
Lancashire County Council Warns over Fake Hair Straighteners
Lancashire County, U.K. - According to an article in the Lancashire Telegraph, trading standards chiefs are warning internet shoppers not to get stung by a website selling dangerous fake hair
straighteners. Three people in Lancashire have already fallen afoul of a Chinese website claiming to sell a top brand of straighteners at bargain prices.
The shoppers each paid around £60 for what they thought were genuine products, only to find they were fakes when they attempted to register them with GHD in the UK. There are also safety concerns as genuine GHD
products have a safety cut-off facility to prevent overheating, which do not feature in the fakes.
County Councilor Mike France, lead member for Trading Standards, said: “People need to be extremely careful when buying goods over the internet – particularly cheap, branded goods from overseas.
“When a seller is based abroad, if things go wrong it can be very difficult for the buyer to sort things out. These fakes are potentially unsafe as they are missing important safety features which are designed to reduce
the risk of overheating or fire.”
Anyone with information can report the matter to Trading Standards via Consumer Direct telephone 08454 04 05 06.
(2009/08/06)
Nashville Gets a Handle(bar) on Facial Hair
Minnesota, USA - According to John Lamb, in the Washington Daily Globe, the area’s biggest country music concert series is starting on August 7th, and it’s time to go over your WE Fest fashion checklist:
Cowboy hat? Check. Sleeveless T-shirt? Check. Sleeveless snap-button checkered shirt? Check. Check. Check. Mustache? Check! Apparently, these days, cowboys can keep their hat on, but they’ll want to show off their
facial follicles.
Mustaches are the must-have fashion statement for male country performers this year, with all three headliners, Toby Keith, Brooks & Dunn and Tim McGraw, sporting ’staches, as well as marquee acts Trace Adkins and Big &
Rich. The relatively unknown country act Heartland could even find a spot on this year’s bill with its new single, “Mustache.”
It’s true that facial hair is currently sprouting a resurgence. Actors grow beards between shoots, and “beard rock” is a label slapped on loud indie bands whose members look like lumberjacks. Last November the Hotel
Donaldson hosted a mustache-growing fundraiser called Mo-vember that aimed to raise funds and awareness for male prostate health.
But country musicians have had facial hair covered for a long time. When was the last time you saw Willie Nelson without a beard? Or William Lee Golden, the mountain man lookalike from the Oak Ridge Boys? Kenny Rogers
got a new face but held on to his silvery goatee.
“Toby Keith has had a beard forever,” points out Chris Hanson, morning DJ at Bob 95 FM. Well, maybe not forever, but at least since his debut disc in 1993, when the now much more rugged singer was wearing bolo ties and
combing his curls into a mullet.
The mustache has always held the upper hand, or lip, for men in country music. Singer/guitarists John Rich and Kix Brooks have never gone all in for the beard. Nor has Joe Bonsall, the Oak Ridge Boys singer who looks
like former North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer. So what’s with all the fuzz?
“It just gives them a rougher look,” says Hoppy Gilmore, program director for Froggy 99.9. “Maybe it’s because they’re lazy.”
“I could see where facial hair speaks to country people,” Stacey Lentz, owner and director of The Academie Agencie, a Fargo-based modeling and acting company. “It’s definitely more rugged, more macho.” That said, she
added that such a look wouldn’t fly with area clients looking for models. Perhaps a five o’clock shadow?
So if facial hair isn’t popular, why do singers cling to their whiskers? “I think it would mess up their million-dollar look,” Hanson says. “Once you are who you are, it’s important not to change.”
“Their brand or look is already established,” says Lentz. She refers to Keith’s ever-present hat and beard. “I think that’s an important part of his brand.” And shaving, well that could cut a little too close in country.
“Country fans are much more passionate about the artists they follow,” adds Gilmore. “It’s hard for singers to change.” As an illustration, he points to the time when Sawyer Brown singer Mark Miller shaved his head. “Everyone was
shocked by that,” Gilmore says. Not that it mattered. Miller’s reputation has always been as an energetic entertainer, not a hair model. In truth, the singer had been wearing hats for years before shaving his head.
And when Dierks Bentley clipped his locks after 2006’s “Long Trip Alone,” it was like the second coming of the “Felicity” fiasco. “That was major news, ‘Dierks cut his wonderful, curly hair,’ ” says Gilmore. When his new
disc, “Feel That Fire,” came out in January, fans breathed easier seeing Bentley’s locks were growing back.
And “the look” is contagious, rubbing off a bit on the men who spin the discs. Recently, Hanson spent five weeks trying to grow a beard to no avail. “Coming from a person who can’t grow facial hair, I am extremely jealous
of people like Tim McGraw who can grow a perfect goatee,” he says.
“I just grew my goatee back for WE Fest, and I don’t know why,” says Gilmore.
(2009/08/06)
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