It’s getting worse on Instagram; miracle growth oils are everywhere: miracle herbs, more herbs, miracle growth herbs and butter, miracle growth oils and herbs, miracle oils with rice water . Okay, I’ve not seen that last one yet, but it’s coming. Why are we bent on finding growth products in a bottle? because, sadly, we are hard-wired that way.
Some of you with experience in behavioural science or economics will understand where I am going with this. We, as consumers, are not as rational as we think we are when it comes to purchasing – neuroscience has a lot of receipts on how we make purchasing decisions! and it often makes no rational sense.
“ we are constrained by time and information and our brain is primed to act fast”
There is such a thing as cognitive bias, put simply, this is a limitation in rational thinking caused by the tendency for the human brain to take short cuts to save energy. Your brain wants to solve a problem quickly and conserve its energy. In this case, you have a problem, hair loss, or hair thinning, and you need a solution. A growth product is offered, solution found. Your brain can move onto other things – it does not need to wade through other information that questions the validity of the claim or the evidence for it. This would be the rational thing to do, but it is not how we make decisions generally unless you train yourself to.
This is a very common way of making a decision, and might even appear rational to you, but often, this quick-fire way of deciding gets in the way of reasonable decision making. You buying a growth product is not stupidity, you’ve merely relied on the part of your brain that wants to solve a problem quickly.
But the growth oil will not work, because there is no quick solution for hair loss. And the solutions known to work are not in a bottle. The solutions are sometimes in the long term commitment to do better with your hair. That long term commitment includes developing healthy hair practices and supporting your new haircare regiment with great products designed for your hair’s needs. To help your brain, you need to recognize cognitive bias and work against the tendency to make quick decisions.
It is not always easy, but it’s possible and if you even try, just a little, you may stop falling for growth oils, but also fad diets, slimming teas, waist trainers, fat burners, and anti-aging creams.
