Photographs. Some scam web sites have numerous photographs to demonstrate just how much hair regrowth their product gives. The camera never lies right? Wrong!!

First, several sites have before and after pictures of individuals who are clearly undergoing hair transplantation, and not very good hair transplants at that. The hair plugs from transplanting are clearly visible and the pictures simply record the growth of hair after the surgical procedure. It is possible the pictures were actually scanned from a dermatologist hair transplant book or were obtained from a transplant clinic. Some clinics operating in poorer parts of Europe, Asia and Africa are less than scrupulous in protecting patient confidentiality and who obtains their photographic records.

Second, changes in hair styling and or use of cosmetic hair thickeners will change the look of the hair density. One or two before and after photographs simply show someone with a short hair cut and then a few weeks later with longer hair to cover the bald areas.

Third, The angle of the head at which the photo is taken is important. Looking along the top of the head rather than down on it will show an apparently dense crop of hair in someone with a diffuse hair loss. Looking down on the top of the head of the same person may show the distribution of hair to be quite sparse.

Fourth, there are some technical aspects of taking portrait photographs that alter the look of a person and their hair density. a) Using zoom lenses, photos can be taken of the same person to fill the camera frame but with the photographer at different distances from the subject. The further away the photographer the less reflected light on the skin between hair shows up in the picture. b) The photographer may use a flash. This will provide an intense light that bounces off the skin from in between hair making the individual look very bald. c) Using a polarized filter on the camera reduces this reflected light and allows any hair present to become more obvious in the photograph. d) In the same way, the color of clothing and background is also important in determining the amount of light reflected onto the head and into the camera. Some before and after photographs are clearly taken within a few minutes of each other, the model doesn't even bother to change his shirt!

Of course in this day and age of computers it is very easy to manipulate photogrpahs with the appropriate software. There are some very good examples of computer manipulated images on snake oil selling web sites. There are also some very obvious fake phots on the more amature web sites!