X-ray hair removal Basic facts
Potentially permanent, but potentially deadly. Banned for cosmetic
uses in the U.S.
Quack claims
 "Harmless"
"No scars or other injury"
"Scientific-safe-sure"
History
The discovery of x-rays in 1895 captured the imagination of both
scientists and the general public. Before the effects of x-rays
were fully understood, x-rays also captured the imagination of
quacks, who began opening women's hair removal clinics almost
as soon as x-ray researchers began reporting they were losing
their hair. [1]
Murray Bookchin notes, “By the 1920's many physicians, beauticians,
and self-appointed 'epilation specialists' had begun to treat
women with radiation for the removal of 'superfluous hair.'”
[2]
This led to the darkest chapter of hair removal quackery in U.S.
history: The heavily-marketed Tricho System by Albert C. Geyser,
M.D. At his New York “Tricho Institute,” Dr. Geyser
trained beauticians for two weeks and then leased his x-ray device
to them for use in salons across the U.S. and Canada. [3]
According to Tricho System ads gathered by the Museum of Questionable
Medical Devices, the Tricho x-ray method was a “harmless”
way to avoid "futile, dangerous and injurious means of removing
disfiguring superfluous hair." [4]
Young female clients would receive a four-minute dose of x-rays
directly to the face, often once a week for several months. The
treatments often caused permanent removal of hair, but they also
eventually resulted in wrinkling, atrophy, white or brown fibrous
splotches, keratoses, ulcerations, carcinoma, and death for many
clients. [5].
Tricho System victims have been estimated in the thousands. Some
ended up severely disfigured, and many required multiple surgeries
to remove cancerous growths and tumors. By 1970, one study estimated
that over one-third of all radiation-induced cancer in women over
a 46-year period could be traced to x-ray hair removal. [6] The
characteristic effects were dubbed “North American Hiroshima
maiden syndrome” due to similar effects seen in Japanese
nuclear bomb survivors. [7]
Although x-ray hair removal is now outlawed in the U.S., it was
ultimately bad press and word of mouth that discredited this quack
device in the 1940's. The FDA ban was merely a formality. This
is a valuable lesson for all consumer activists. Since regulation
can take years to be enacted, the best way to fight quackery is
to get the word out to the public as quickly and pervasively as
possible.
References
- Leinhard J. Engines of our Ingenuity series
online: Episode #654 (see also #1494). From Dr. Leinhard's
KUHF-FM Public Radio program.
- Bookchin M. (pseud. Lewis Herber) Our Synthetic Environment,
ch. 6. New York: Knopf, 1962. Currently out of print: available
online via Anarchist Archives.
- Caufield C. Multiple Exposures: Chronicles of the Radiation
Age. New York: Harper & Row, 1989. ISBN 0-06-015900-6.
- McCoy B. Tricho System promotional literature. Ephemera Collection,
Museum of Questionable Medical Devices
Online (includes vintage illustrations of the device in use).
- Please see my selected list of the x-ray medical literature.
- Herzig R. Removing Roots: "North American Hiroshima
Maidens" and the X Ray. Technology and Culture, Vol.
40, No. 4, October 1999, pp. 723-745.
- Rosen IB, Walfish PG. Sequelae of radiation facial epilation
(North American Hiroshima maiden syndrome). Surgery 1989
Dec;106(6):946-50. PMID: 2588120
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