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Chewable hair vitamins
Claims chewable vitamins that have been promoted by celebrities can help boost hair health are based on "pseudoscience", an expert says.
The sweet-like pills, costing up to Β£30 a month and promoted by the likes of Kylie Jenner have hundreds of thousands of fans on social media.
The two biggest brands, SugarBearHair and Hairburst, say vitamins in the pills will improve hair growth.
But dietician Aisling Pigott-Jones expressed scepticism over the claims.
Both firms claim the biotin, or vitamin B7, and vitamin B12, contained in the pills leads to improved hair health and growth.
Hairburst has 850,000 Instagram followers and is promoted by Hayley Hughes from Love Island, Made in Chelsea's Louise Thompson and Geordie Shore's Charlotte Crosby.
Entrepreneur and model Kylie Jenner has said on social media: "SugarBearHair is one of my favourite hair care secrets and they are delicious."
But experts and hair professionals have expressed their scepticism.
"If you're deficient you may have some hair loss, or some reduced growth, but taking biotin when you're not deficient isn't going to improve your hair health," Ms Pigott-Jones, from Cardiff, of the British Dietetic Association, told ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Wales' X-Ray programme.
"There is nothing in this that would make your hair grow quicker or look better.
"If you want to take multi-vitamins I would, [but] I always advise there is no pill that will replace a healthy balanced diet."
Hair stylist Matthew Arnold, of Cardiff's Bauhaus hair salon, also warned celebrities advertising on social media often have a "team of hairdressers."
He added: "It could be a weave, it could be a wig, but again people are buying into that image that if they use these products they are going to get that sort of hair growth, which isn't always the case."
A Hairburst spokesman said its products contain ingredients the European Commission has found contributes to the "maintenance of normal hair", which encourage overall healthier hair growth.
Asked whether it was misleading to plug their products using celebrities with hair weaves and wigs, the spokesperson said hair extensions could be a short-term solution for people waiting for their hair to grow.
SugarBearHair declined to comment.
Vale Orangeries
A family who spent a fortune on a luxury conservatory have been left devastated after it had to be pulled down.
Andrew and Natasha Eyles have lived in their home in Merthyr Tydfil for eight years. They decided they needed more space after the birth of their first child.Β The couple decided to build a large modern conservatory called a Skyroom and re-mortgaged their house to fund the project.
They contracted Barry-based construction firm Vale Orangeries, run by husband and wife team Dean and Leanne Edmonds, to build it.
The job was supposed to take twelve weeks and the price tag was a whopping Β£53,500.
Work began in August 2017, but a catalogue of planning and design issues soon set the schedule back by months. Then, when the roof finally went on, it became clear there were bigger problems.
Natasha said: βAs soon as it started raining that was when the next problems occurred, there was a massive leak and we had water pouring through the new roof.β
Vale Orangeries promised to sort it out, but fixing the leaks turned out to be anything but easy.
Natasha said: βI think they came out about 5 times in total to try and fix this leak and it never got any better.β
The Skyroom was now 10 months behind schedule. The couple had completely lost faith in the company and decided to cancel the contract. They called in a new builder, but they raised concerns that the cavity walls did not comply with building regulations. This was later confirmed by a building inspector.
Andrew said: βThe contractor said it would be too much effort to do any remedial work and that we needed to demolish the building down to the foundations.β
The couple turned to a dispute resolution service run by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and Vale Orangeries were ordered to pay Β£18,500 back to the couple.
Andrew and Natasha have now been forced to get new contractors to take down the walls and start again β at an additional cost of over Β£25,000.
Natasha said: βWe haven't got any more money to put into this building, We are obviously going to have to get ourselves more in debt to try and get this to something that is, you know is useable.β
X-Ray contacted Dean and Leanne Edmonds, who run Vale Orangeries. They told us they are really sorry for the problems, blaming sub-contractors and suppliers. They said they did want to put things right, but that Andrew and Natasha refused and went to adjudication instead. Β They now say they can't afford to pay the Β£18,500 adjudication awarded against them, and are restructuring their business.
Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Presenter | Lucy Owen |
Series Producer | Nick Skinner |
Presenter | Rachel Treadaway-Williams |
Executive Producer | Samantha Rosie |
Presenter | Omar Hamdi |
Broadcasts
- Mon 11 Mar 2019 20:30ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ One Wales & Wales HD only
- Tue 12 Mar 2019 11:45ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ One Wales & Wales HD only