» Now look what we have to do deal with? Acell freaks. I thought they were
» gone, nope. But I do have a theory, and this is from expirience, be it a
» different field but still applicable. Companies pay people, generally
» hourly employees to go online all day to different sites and either talk
» up, or talk down a particular product or procedure.
i agree with you totally about acell, or at least about the part that it’s a total waste of our time on this website, and will not grow hair. it is effectively one of the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated on hairsite.
what’s different about acell, though, is this hoax wasn’t a malicious one, there was no idea of scamming people or conning anyone, this hoax evolved out of sheer stupidity and ignorance. it was innocent stupidity and ignorance, not meant to hurt anyone or take away their money, but stupidity and ignorance nevertheless.
and the problem with this kind of innocent stupidity and ignorance, as opposed to the malicious and greedy kind, is that eventually the malicious and greedy kind is found out and someone realizes it’s a scam, and the whistle is blown, and the red flags are raised, and everybody becomes aware that it was just a scam. but with a hoax arising out of pure stupidity and ignorance, that never happens. the truth never comes out, or if it does, it is drowned out by the corps of ignorant believers and cheerleaders… it takes on a life of its own and lots of people cheer for it and wave the flags and inflate the balloons and get excited and go “rah-rah”, and can’t get it out of their mind that it’s some kind of cure, or near-cure, or maybe-cure, or kinda-cure.
and when it’s proven not to work, the original ignorant perpetrators of the hoax who basically duped themselves into believing something that wasn’t true in the first place, re-set the bar. they change the goal posts, they lower the bar and say, “ok, maybe it doesn’t grow much hair… maybe it doesn’t grow any hair… but it’s great at relieving scar tissue… it’s exciting… look, ma, it works!!!” yah, rah-rah, and all that!
and people forget that IT DOESN’T GROW HAIR… they still start threads about it, hype it, and hairsite starts threads and unwittingly hypes this product that grows no hair. a lot of excitement and hype happens for no reason. a lot of threads are started, buzz is created, posts are made, phonecalls are placed, patients are signed up, but everyone’s forgetting the damn thing doesn’t grow any hair, so what are we all getting so excited about, huh?
but people forget that. they wanna believe in something, they HAVE TO BELIEVE in the latest thing… the latest hype… for the past 6-8 months here, maybe a year, acell has been the new new thing…
and whenever you have a hoax like this, which was started not by a desire to scam anyone, but out of legitimate (but mistaken) reasons, it gathers a cult following, tens and scores and then hundreds of followers, each with their pet theories as to why and how and who and the biochemistry and all that…
and then you get a few nuts who even go so far as to carve up their own scalps and put this or that lotion on themselves, on their carved scalps, to prove some kind of follica theory or acell or maybe a vague combination of the two… who knows how many theories there are? who’s counting? i lost count!
as far as i can tell (and smart people will take note), this whole “acell” thing started when one of our hairsite members, someone calling himself willy, chanced upon the website of a company called acell which is a small biotechnology company which was experimenting with some kind of extracellular matrix product to use in VETERINARY MEDICINE, to heal wounds on animals…
and willy just looked at some pictures on the site, before and after pictures of wounded dogs’ legs, and saw how the wounds were closing when the product was applied, and how IT LOOKED LIKE “new” hair was growing in the wounded space on the dogs’ legs.
based ONLY UPON HIS OWN SUBJECTIVE INTERPRETATION OF THOSE PICTURES, willy got excited that acell might grow hair on bald people’s heads, or be useful for growing back removed donor hair when people have hair transplants, so that there would EFFECTIVELY be an unlimited supply of donor hair, and that means there would be an effective cure for male pattern baldness, because you could theoretically remove as much donor hair as you want, and if you applied this acell shyte, the removed donor hair would eventually all grow back, and that would be our cure!
so, based ONLY UPON HIS OWN SUBJECTIVE READING OF THOSE DOG PICTURES, willy contacted acell and told them he thought their product would be great for use by hair transplant surgeons. willy also then contacted a bunch of hair transplant surgeons and told them about his theory, how acell might regrow hair, specifically removed donor hair, and he introduced these hair transplant docs to the acell company and their product.
willy got acell to send its product (which is like a powder) to a bunch of hair transplant surgeons, and he actually got a bunch of these surgeons interested in testing the acell product?
and why not test it? they have absolutely nothing to lose. if they test it and it works, great, they might be able to sign a deal with acell to use it, and then they can advertise to everyone that they have effectively cured male pattern baldness and now you can have unlimited donor hair harvested, and it will all grow back and everything will be cool and peachy in the end, and you’ll end up with a full head of hair. the ht docs were thinking, even if there is only like a 1% chance of it working like that, it’s still worth trying because there is no real big expense they have to make, they are just using it on volunteer patients anyway, and those volunteer patients are by the way, PAYING for their hair transplants. and since the product has already been approved for veterinary use, it’s really cool because there’s no liability for the doctors, since doctors can use ANY drug that has already been approved for ANY REASON, especially just in a test.
ok… so what if it doesn’t work like this? it’s STILL a big win for the ht docs, because even if it does not grow one shred of hair, not one new strand of hair (and i think that’s what we’re seeing, that is what is dawning on the smarter people around here), it’s STILL a major coup for the ht docs who use it, because now they can convince everyone that it’ll reduce scarring in the donor area.
reduce scarring? you ask. “so what if it reduces scarring? didn’t they first tell us it was gonna cure male pattern baldness?”
“oh yeah, that” they answer. “yah, well we weren’t really too sure of that in the first place. we didn’t know that for sure! but, isn’t it cool that this stuff reduces scarring?”
“uhh… yah, i guess” you say.
so now, have they actually proved it reduces scarring?
“uhhh… we don’t exactly have the data on that. in fact, it’s kind of hard to determine how it reduces scarring. that kind of thing takes very detailed studies to prove, you have to look at the donor areas under a microscope, and really examine the area very closely, and examine the skin, and see what’s there, and compare it with people who didn’t have acell used on them… you have to take tissue samples… it’s hard work!!!”
“oh really?” you say. “how long will all that take?”
“uhhh… we don’t know… we’ll have to apply with the fda for a formal application process and present it as a new drug application and then go through clinical trials that will take, maybe three years… maybe more”
“oh really?” you say, scratching your (balding) head. “clinical trials and a three year… maybe more application process, all to do what, you say? NOT to grow hair, not to grow any new hair and cure male pattern baldness, NOT to give us full heads of hair like they hyped on hairsite for a year with all those posts and threads about acell… but JUST to prove that it MAY reduce scarring on the donor area of a hair transplant that i don’t really want anyway, and don’t really plan to get… and y’all don’t even have any idea of HOW MUCH it will reduce scarring… a little bit… a medium bit… a lot? who knows???”
uhh… why bother, then, you probably think to yourself, as you walk away.