new thread
has anybody heard of this product http://www.shenminhaircare.com/what.htm to help grow ur hair out?? i went to the gnc store today to pick up another months supply of gnc hair vitamins when i saw shen min it cost 30.00 dollars a bottle but i'm not sure if i want to try it yet,
I've heard of it, but not overmuch. I wouldn't put much confidence in it. Half of the stuff you will find in the GNC (and other supplement shops) has no evidence for it at all, and most of the other half has evidence against it. Save your money and use that $30 to get really good conditioner and a good brush.
MJ
thankz for the advice bro,,,
,
This is a great advice. Congratulations
i used shen min for about 3 months in my search for the perfect product i only notice that it made my hair thicker that's about it,,,
Um... isn't that still a GOOD thing? At least if your hair is thinning?
Incidentally, the Vitamin Shoppe has "Shen Min for Women" and apparently some liquid forms for 40% off at their website (www.vitaminshoppe.com) - so one bottle is $17.99 rather than $30.
The thing to remember with any sort of product like this is that no one is immune to the placebo effect. If you take something expecting your hair to get fuller or grow faster, there is a pretty good chance that you will perceive it as working. Kind of like back when I was using mane & tail conditioner some years back, which was supposed to make your hair grow faster... it felt like it was growing faster, but when I actually took measurements, there was no effect at all. Very, very little of the stuff in health food stores has actually been tested in controlled studies. $18 for something that is probably a placebo is still too much.
MJ
That is not the placebo effect. With the placebo effect, your hair actually would grow faster in response to taking something you believe will make it grow faster. To eliminate the placebo effect, you must do tests that control for it. There are certain studies that are faulty in this respect. One that jumps immediately to mind is the testing that has been done with Cold Eeze. Supposedly, there have been placebo controlled blind tests with Cold Eeze. There are two problems with the studies. First, the studies were run by the company that makes the product. Second, it was not a true placebo controlled test. The placebos used in the test were readily distinguished from the actual product by taste (it is very hard to avoid that zinc taste). As a result of this faulty test, those people who took the product, were able to tell they were taking the product. The placebo effect kicked in, and they recovered measurably quicker than the "control".
so what u saying is if somebody takes something that has no effect on the body (like saying lemon water will make ur hair grow 6in in 6 days or ur money back) the person taking the product will belive in the product so badly that his mind makes it happen?? that's interesting,
That's about the size of it. However, it is not so much a force of will as it is a subconscious phenomenon. It is well established that the placebo effect is powerful. As far as I know, how it works is still a mystery, though.
I'm still skeptical about th eplacebo effect fro one simple reason: can you imagine all those bald men believing that a certain product will grow hair out of their superhighways? it just does not happen
You probably wouldn't see *that* much of an effect (6 inches or hair in 6 days). Otherwise, given all the 'lose 20 pounds in a week!' sort of diets, pills, and potions that proliferate in this country, we wouldn't have any overweight people at all. The placebo effect is powerful, but it does have its limits. Although, as it happens there are, for instance, some psychologists who believe that most antidepressants are almost entirely placebo. My ex-girlfriend suffered from clinical depression, and after seeing the effects that antidepressants had on her, I would say that the placebo effect is quite powerful in some cases.
MJ
I would tend to agree with you here. I suspect that hair growth is one of those things not affected very much by the placebo effect. I can't say why. I guess it's just a hunch. On the other hand, I have a personal experience that shows the power of the mind over the body, essentially what the placebo effect is, in my view. I read somewhere that warts could be made to disappear by hypnosis or sometimes by simply wishing them away. It so happened that I had a wart on my right ring finger that I'd had for most of my life. I decided to do a wart test. That day I decided to wish it away. Less than a week later it was completely gone, and it has never returned after 20 years.
I've since read that warts are unusually vulnerable to suggestion, to the point that subjects, under hypnosis, can be made to have warts on half of their body, for example.
Another interesting aspect of the mind is illustrated in the book, "The Minds of Billy Milligan", a book that is a biography of Billy Milligan, who suffered from multiple personality disorder. At one point during his treatment, he was tested in several of his personalities. Interestingly, each personality had its unique signature of blood pressure, IQ, allergies, and other things you'd think would be entirely physiological and not mental.
Thanks, Victor, you are correct. I believe I was thinking of confirmation bias or selective thinking, both of which are also problems that require careful study design to eliminate, and which are two of the main reasons why testimonials are always suspect without experimental backing.
MJ
Hi,
Have you found the product yet for thickening you hair? If so please forward I would really appreciate it.