I was foolish enough to pay way too much money (prepaid by credit card, what an idiot) for a 'consultation' with Ms Riquette Hofstein in Beverly Hills. I was desperate, seeing my hair fall out in clumps from one day to the next for apparently no reason, and a friend of mine had read her book and thought she sounded interesting. Make no bones about it, this woman is a charlatan. She handed me a long list of supplements I needed to buy from her as soon as i walked in, before even looking at me. She then read in my 'aura' that i had had hair extensions in the past. (i have big gaps in my hair where they pulled it out, difficult not to notice!) She told me all about how famous she was, about her television appearances (in the 1980s), her ' 9,000 celebrity clients', and how she heals people's karmas with hypnotherapy and iridology (just two in a long list) in order to cure their hair loss issues. (I, apparently, was depressed and overworked) Eventually she took a hair from my head and looked at it under a dusty microscope on top of a dresser. She pronounced it dead, overloaded with natural oil and grease. (It looked fine. Anyway, isn't all hair dead?) She said the only way to bring it back to life I would have to do a series of 12 weekly 'super serum treatments' that she would personally mix up for me at a cost of $900 per treatment. When I told her there was no way in hell I could afford even one treatment at $900 she informed me she could make a 'weak' version for me for $100, but it wouldn't be as effective and I would have to do more than 12 of them to see any improvement at all in my hair.
I was somewhat surprised. From what I'd read, Ms Hofstein's book was all about natural remedies using fruit and essential oils and things you might use in cooking (her wall is full of pics of models applying half tomatoes to their forheads and cucumbers on their eyes.) So I asked her if I couldnt use something containing alcohol instead. She shook her head in shock and said that alcohol would 'completely dry the root out and kill the hair. You would lose ALL your hair.'
Now isn't her book all about how you can stimulate your hair root using vodka and cayenne pepper? I don't know why I didn't mention this, but I didn't have the courage in the moment. Plus I was creeped out and just wanted to leave. When I tried to go she stopped me, saying ' Don't leave! You will never get your hair back. Believe me this is the only way! Everyone who comes to me gets their hair back!' (debatable, she showed me many before and after pics. While some showed a healthier head of hair and slightly more downy bald patches, the ones with really bad hair loss looked just about the same after "2 years intensive treatment" (at $900 a week?)
So I left, poorer and angrier, without even taking her 'incredible Riquette' shampoo. 'It wont work without my serum' she had said earlier. 'Nothing works without my serum.' Good to know.
So I wanted to post this to say that although I haven't personally tried any of the hair recipes in her book, SHE personally doesn't endorse them, as she only endorses her gold dust priced serum. She is a charlatan, a vacuous, rambling self publicist and con artist who makes a quick buck telling follically challenged people like me she can bring their precious hair back. She can't.