It is rightly said that “selling a hair raising yarn to a bald headed man is sheer waste of energy.”
So, to those of you who have nothing on your pate, this review would certainly be of no use, and those with a decent crown of hair will have little time for my review. But, extremes apart, there are a great many people in between who are suffering from the problem of thinning or falling hair. This review (or, hair raising yarn if you’d like to call it) could be useful to such not so fortunate people.
There are people who are worrying so much about their moon’s growing luminosity that (unke chikne sar ki kasam) they are inadvertently hastening the balding process. The logic is simple - if you worry too much about something that is happening to you, then the worry will indeed act as a catalyst to speed up the hateful process resulting in even greater worry for you. I won’t insult your intelligence by trying to tell you what the end result would be in this case.
Yule Bryner might have popularized the ‘skinhead’ look. But, today we find people like Firoz Khan, and Raakesh Roshan doing the honours. These guys are used to acting in different roles, so the role of a baldy in real life may not look that bad for them, at least. For most people, however, the process of balding is a traumatic experience. Balding can cause drastic changes in the personality of people who are sensitive about their appearance. Obviously, having a three-fourth shining moon at a comparatively young age of 25 or 30 years is not any given youngster’s idea of being ‘Cool’.
Hritik Roshan might not mind being called a ‘Chikna’ by the underworld but, he sure would have pulled at his hair if those people referred to him as the scion of ‘Chikna Roshandar’. Poor Fardeen Khan’s fate seems to be no different.
Some say baldness is directly proportional to the amount of mental activity one does. A lot of others (those who have already turned bald) believe that baldness is the prerogative of the brainy types. I say its sheer balderdash! I’ve suffered enough bald idiots in my life, to toe that line.
There is also a line of thought that bald men are sexually more active than normal people, thereby, granting a macho aura around them. Now, that’s just about as much ‘ribaldry’ as I can take.
It’s a paradox that, these days, you find people growing more and more hair in unwanted places and less and less of it where they really need to. You are more likely to find a man with a balding pate, and with a lovely thick beard trying in vain to compensate for it.
That brings me to a question - Why do people lose hair at places where they don’t want to, and grow hair where they really don’t need to? I have come across a number of hirsute males who have hair all over their body but none where it really counts.
Honestly, I too was experiencing severe problems of falling hair and losing confidence, and thereby, hangs a tale...
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I tried various types of hair tonics, medicines, vitamins, etc. In fact, all the known and unknown methods to rid myself of this most embarrassing of all afflictions that I tried out only managed to burn a big h*le in my pocket, and did little else. I presumed that I was well on my way to acquiring a Bryneresque moonscape. That is, until I came across Anoop Herbal Hair Oil.
Gopalkrishnan Nair, a chemist by profession, managed to concoct a potent potion for arresting hair fall in 1982. Though he was still unsure how to make best use of it, he nevertheless, had the sense to quietly get a licence for it from the Drugs Controller. Gopalkrishnan continued to perfect his product till 1989 when he decided to make a formal announcement of his discovery.
As is the case with such things, there was a lot of positive response from the public but also a lot of mud slinging indulged by Nair’s detractors who were bent upon showing him up. The fact that among Nair’s detractors were some from the Ayurveda establishment in his own state didn’t help matters for Nair. The formula however, was guarded zealously by Nair and his band of workers.
After 15 years, today, gone are the mischief makers, the unyielding ayurveda practitioners, the negative publicity, even the unassuming Gopalkrishnan Nair’s name on the label. In their place is one of the largest consumer companies in India – “Godrej Consumer Products Limited, ” which has taken over the retailing of this ‘hair oil’ under the brand name ‘Anoop’.
Nair no longer sells this proprietary ayurvedic medicine on his own, as he used to do in the early days of his creation. Today, this medicine is produced by ‘Arshik Herbal Remedies (India)’ under license from Nair and is the sole supplier to Godrej for retailing purposes.
There are advantages and disadvantages in this kind of arrangement. The advantage is that Godrej being a financially strong company with an international presence the product has a better chance of finding its way to the shelves of the most fashionable shops and malls. The downside is that this arrangement with Godrej makes the product more expensive than it should normally have been. Rupees 150/- for a 50 ml bottle is not exactly cheap by Indian standards.
Coconut oil is used as the base in which various herbs and extracts are mixed in the right quantities and in a unique way to get the end product. The entire process, however, is kept a secret. Anoop Herbal Hair Oil does not make use of false claims to increase sales. In fact, the punch line on the box is a rather subdued one - “Arrests hair fall, tones Scalp” But , the results are much better than what is claimed through the punch line. Almost 80 percent of the users find it highly effective in what it is expected to do. The remaining 20 percent are non committal about its efficacy.
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I found this product to be highly useful to me, but of course, it all depends on how often one uses it, life style, food and sleeping habits, stress patterns, belief in the restorative properties of the product, etc.
Applying about 10 to 15 drops of the oil three times a week on slightly moist hair and gently rubbing it into the scalp and hair follicles should do wonders to your lifeless looking, and thinning hair. The best time is to apply it in the night before sleep and have a shampoo in the morning. In a matter of 2 to 3 months results will begin to show. Once, the hair stops falling, you can apply it once in a week just to tone the scalp.
The shelf life of this product is about 3 years from the date of manufacture. At the time of purchasing this product, don’t forget to look for the embossed “anoop” logo on the cap of the bottle to avoid spurious stuff. This hair oil is devoid of any artificial perfumes so may not smell great when you apply it. That is why the best time to apply it is in the night before you dive into the pillow, in search of your eluding sweet dreams.
Now, you too can say goodbye to ‘Moonshine'!
MB Farookh