200 women sue popular hair care line over hair loss
(WTNH)- Over 200 women are suing WEN Hair Care claiming the product caused their hair to fall out.
According to the Daily Beast, the class action lawsuit filed by over 200 women in 40 states is against WEN by Chaz Dean and marketing company Gunthy-Renker. The lawsuit claims that the product caused hair loss, breakage, scalp irritation and a rash. It also says that WEN’s advertisements are misleading in that they promised positive results.
The creator, Chaz Dean, is well known for appearing on Reality TV shows and styling A-list celebrities, including Brooke Shields and Alyssa Milano. Shields and Milano even appear on the site and late night commercials promoting the $30 shampoo.
According to WEN.com the product is supposed to “replace shampoo, conditioner, deep conditioner, detangler and leave-in conditioner” and includes “natural botanicals and herbs.” The hair care line was so successful that in 2010 Forbes reported it had raked in $100 million in only its second year of sales.
After complaints built for several years on various online forums, a Florida woman named Amy Friedman filed a class action lawsuit on July 31, 2014. She claimed that her hair began falling out within two weeks of using the WEN Cleansing Conditioner and continued to fall out for three more weeks. To regrow her hair, Friedman said she had to spend a substantial amount of money on vitamins and extensions.
Several other women have posted photos of their hair loss on the WEN Facebook page. Buzzfeed reports that the lawsuit claims that WEN should have known about the hair loss issue after receiving so any complaints.
WEN has released the following statement to Buzzfeed:
“We take great pride in the quality of our products and believe every product meets our high standards. We want all of our customers to have positive experiences with our products, and we encourage any customer with any questions to contact us.With well over 10 million Wen products shipped since 2008, our customers’ overwhelmingly positive response to Wen is a testament to the benefits it can deliver for its users. These benefits are reflected in consistently high rankings from independent consumer product sites as well.Importantly, there is no scientific evidence whatsoever to support any claim that our hair care products caused anyone to lose their hair. There are many reasons why individuals may lose their hair, all unrelated to Wen hair care products. We intend to vigorously contest the allegations made against our products.”