TrichoKare @ Lot 10 – BOYCOTT!…

At the recent International Beauty Expo 2008 (IBE08), I came across this TrichoKare booth offering free scalp analysis, and let’s just say the camera images of my scalp were less than stellar. Since they were having an introductory promotion (I think it was about RM68 or so) for two ‘deep cleansing’ sessions plus an additional free ‘treatment’ and a RM60 voucher redeemable on their products, I decided to give it a try.

They only have one outlet in Malaysia at the moment, which is on the 3rd floor of Lot 10. Prior to the first appointment, I was actually quite impressed by their service. This lady Joanna called me to set up an appointment, gave me a reminder the day before the appointment and even sent me a SMS reminder the morning itself, which I thought was quite unusual. BUT, that’s where my good perception of them ended. Hence, the serious BOYCOTT.

I arrived there on Saturday at 4.10pm and was immediately ushered into a room by one of their senior consultants, Eileen. She was cordial in her greeting, and promptly gave me a detailed questionnaire to fill out about my hair condition and lifestyle.

The consultant just left me there with the questionnaire for at least 15 minutes, and didn’t bother to explain any of the questions. (I’m quite anal about grammar and spelling in documents, and there were some bad mistakes in the questionnaire – but that turned out to be the least of my problems!)

The survey was two entire pages long!!

When Eileen finally came back into the room, it all went downhill from there. From the minute she started talking about TrichoKare, her tone of voice was patronizing and extremely hardsell. And the sequence of events that took place that entire session was extremely dissatisfying, not to mention pissed me off!

Part 1: She took 10 or so camera slides of my hair, not bothering to explain much but just kept saying I have an ‘extremely greasy’ scalp with weak follicles…total time – 5mins.

Part 2: A long-winded history of TrichoKare’s ‘illustrious’ history and their multiple affiliations in the UK and what they could do for me…total time – 20mins. (see the difference in time spent on actual consulting and self-promotion?)

The most telling thing was, she made a really big boo-boo and tried to brush it off. She was telling me “oh, you’ve got receding hairline…see, your forehead is getting wider and wider, you must treat it now” (to clarify, I was BORN with, and have always had a wide forehead – YES, the same kind that made my grandma say I was going to be a smart kid, and NO, it’s not due to hair loss…silly woman!)

Better yet, if I’m supposed to have a receding hairline, the hair along my hairline would have less follicles right? Why then do I have a healthy amount of follicles along my forehead? (if she had said SIDES, I MIGHT has been inclined to believe her) When I told her otherwise, she just went “Oh, but your hairline WILL recede if you don’t do anything about it.” What the…??

Almost everything that she told me went against commonly accepted haircare norms. Maybe I could accept the ones about using my fingertips instead of my fingernails to GENTLY massage my scalp, and the one about not using a hairdryer unless I absolutely have to, but she also told me to wash my hair every single day, and DOUBLE shampoo (shampoo, rinse, shampoo AGAIN and rinse). If you ask me, it’s a good way for them to drum up extra business when clients silly enough to follow that advice come running back because their hair has gone all dry, frizzy, brittle and starts falling off! Not to mention that their scalp will also be so irritated and dry by then, I’ll be surprised if they DON’T have dandruff.

The consultant kept trying to sell me an additional mask for the two treatments I had prepaid for. She was irritatingly persistent, saying I MUST add on a mask and infrared therapy to make it “more effective”. When I asked her how much the price was for this 20min mask?

“It’s ONLY RM280 EACH – but with discount, ONLY RM300 for 2 sessions, paid up front. For that, we will give you the two infrared sessions free…but you also have to buy a bottle of shampoo which is RM99. Once you deduct the RM60 voucher, it’s ONLY RM339, such a bargain.” (by the way, my friend signed up for the same promotional package but had the treatment done in Singapore – they gave the infrared treatment FREE even without purchase of the mask!)

Hello? Asking me to pay an ADDITIONAL RM339, BEFORE I’ve had any treatment? Gee, they must think I’m seriously naïve…I just curtly told her that I’d rather see the results from the treatment first before I decide on any additional treatment. “Oh, but you’ll see, the difference will be very obvious, you can see from the ‘after’ camera images.” Yeah whatever…she also loved to use the statement “so, how do YOU want us to HELP YOU?” (giving a false sense of control to the client)

Treatment only started at 5.00pm – almost an HOUR after I first walked into the centre. Another girl led me to the treatment area and started washing my hair – double shampooing for almost 20mins. Remember what I said about the consultant telling me to gently massage my scalp? Well, I couldn’t see how the treatment girl’s hard rubbing on my scalp with her rubber-gloved hands was any better than if I had used my fingernails to grate on my scalp. This girl was literally TUGGING on my hair!

The treatment area

Better still, she actually had the audacity to come to me afterwards while I was waiting for the treatment with a whole lot of my hair, ROLLING IT INTO A CLUMP in front of me and saying “Wah, you losing a lot of hair hor? Good thing you came to us to fix it” (when I’ve NEVER lost that much washing my hair before…then again I haven’t been rubbing violently on my scalp with rubber-gloved hands right?) If that was their tactic of trying to scare me into thinking I’m going bald and sign up for their hair treatment courses, too bad – I didn’t buy it.

The treatment girl never bothered to explain anything during the entire process until I prompted her. And talk about such hypocrisy, she started using a hairdryer on me despite the consultant telling me NOT to use one. What’s more, she actually whacked me on the head THREE TIMES because she was more interested in trying to read my magazine over my shoulder!

Application of the treatment was no more than spraying some funky smelling stuff on my scalp (the stuff smells similar to ‘minyak gamat’) and made my scalp tingle/sting – no warning, mind you. After that, I was left for 10mins to allow the treatment to ‘sink in’, she blowdried my hair some more and that was it. Entire ‘treatment’ time – less than 40mins (blardy hell, her hard sell of the company was longer!)

To recap, when I first came in, the consultant Eileen said I would be able to see a drastic difference. When I came out, she was outside at the counter area. When I asked her about whether there would be any comparison done, her reply was “No need, because you won’t be able to see an obvious difference if you don’t do the mask. Would you still like to purchase the masks, infrared sessions and shampoo?”

Puhleez…if you don’t show me ANY results at all, why would I want to buy ANYTHING from you? Slimming centres have a fantastic way of doing this – they give you intensive treatment the first time to maximize your loss (even if it's mostly water) and show that you’ve lost xx cm, which prompts you to go back there because you feel that it works. TrichoKare, you MIGHT want to take some lessons from them.

And you know the part that just sounded SO WRONG about the mask? Eileen said my hair would feel drier AFTER the mask session, so apply more leave in conditioner. So does that mean I’m drying out my hair and oiling it up with leave in conditioner to compensate just so that they have more reason to say “Oh, you have a very greasy scalp, you need treatment”

Their treatment courses are also insanely expensive. They recommend 4 stages of treatment – 1st one is deep cleansing over 5 months, once a week…original price is about RM10,000 but ONLY RM5,899 on promotion (just to break it down, that works out to be almost RM300 per 'deep cleansing' session, and at the promotional rate!). 2nd one was treatment also once a week…dunno for how long, but original price was RM20,000 (even more insane, right?) but ONLY RM9,588 on promo. I didn’t bother listening after that, especially since she said that results are not guaranteed.

In short, this was the WORST treatment I have ever gone through, and a total scam. I rarely blacklist products unless they are really bad, and this one holds a record of being the first to rate a total ZERO rating. Do NOT ever go to TrichoKare, especially the outlet in Lot 10. Hair loss is completely NATURAL, but if you have abnormal hair loss, then please, go and see an actual specialist at a hospital or clinic rather than these nuts.


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