Brooke Shields Has Hypotrichosis
Oh no! Brooke Shields used to have stringy, stick-figure eyelashes! I figured this out after watching Consumer Reports' video dissection of a new commercial for Latisse, the glaucoma medication that has been rebranded as an expensive, temporary eyelash enhancer with side effects.
Since it's still a drug and not an actual beauty product, you have to have some sort of medical condition to take it. That's why one of the first bits of fine print in the commercial says that the drug is only for people who suffer from "inadequate or not enough lashes, also known as hypotrichosis." Like Brooke, apparently.
"Ad for eyelash drug Latisse goes too far" [Consumer Reports Health Blog]
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Comments:
...and this is why I have trouble trusting big pharmaceutical companies.
I'm sure we've all thought that she could actually be a really pretty woman if only she fixed her horrible eyelashes.
Its sad that we live in a world like this these days.
I don't understand people's obsession with having thick, long eyelashes. Whatever your eyelashes are like, they're fine-- just like Brooke's were!
I went a "girls night out" event promoting the product with special guest Brooke Shields about a month ago. Don't hate, I only wanted to meet Brooke and had no interest in the product : ) The turnout was astonishing. The auditorium was packed with women who were so excited about the product, that everytime the guests said something great about it, the women would cheer as if the Red Sox had won the world series. Amazing.
I'm so glad they gave me a place to find a doctor so I could finally find out if Latisse is right for me. No - my lashes are fine, it's just that raccoon look I'm after. I think it'd be hawt.
@sixseeds: There is way too much bleeding the line between medical care and the beauty salon.
Does the FDA even have any rules regarding medical usefulness? This seems purely cosmetic. Did it get approved based on some super rare condition where people lose all their eyelashes but is being marketed as a cosmetic drug?
@bohemian: I believe the drug was originally approved to treat glaucoma. Somebody discovered this handy side effect, and started prescribing it off label.
And it's not just the beauty salon aspect, although that bothers me (if you must do this, just stick with mascara, ye gods!). These companies blur the line between really helpful, necessary drugs and unhelpful or unnecessary/ineffective drugs and there seems to be very little enforcement regarding information, testing, etc.
Yeah, gotta say.... I was so completely on Brooke Shields' side after the jerk Tom Cruise made of himself. But I think it's at the least irresponsible, and possibly unethical, for Brooke Shields to be hawking a medication for glaucoma for beauty purposes. And not just any beauty purpose, but a fairly frivolous one.
Hopefully doctors are laughing off anyone who comes to them with a request for this drug.
@GitEmSteveDave_Right: 1 Wrong: ∞: After she revealed she farted once on the set of Blue Lagoon, it was all downhill from there.
This ad makes me want to rub my eyes almost every time it comes on. What freaks me out is that your eyes can change color. No, I like green eyes. Don't want brown. If I did, I would have colored contacts.
I'm sure there are some people who could really benefit from this, but I don't think Brooke Shields is one of them. She benefits from the money, though, even if the commercial is silly and patronizing. It's like if she was promoting postpartum depression awareness by showing a bunch of well-lit and snappily dressed people tossing a baby around like a hot potato, until one sad woman throws it out the window.
OK, maybe not. But this just blows my mind that advertisers can get away with this.
All Brooke needs to do now is actually develop glaucoma. Maybe in a few decades...
/ Wouldn't wish it upon anyone.
@sixseeds: Sadly, I found out a surgeon I once saw for legitimate (not cosmetic) purposes prescribes Latisse!
The horror! (He does great work, otherwise.)
@The Porkchop Express:
Yep. I remember back when my peer group was making fun of her for the shaggy brows. I assume that shaggy brows must be "back" or some pharma co. would be pushing a "cure" for *that*, too.
Glaucoma causes one's eyelashes to thin? I thought it just gave you bulgy eyes!
There are medically legitimate uses for this - if you lost your lashes to chemotherapy and they never grew back. If they've thinned to the point where you can no longer get the protection you're normally afforded from your lashes (they do serve a purpose). Or if you have alopecia.
Of course, most of those individuals will consider an eyelash implant instead - [hubpages.com] - at 3 grand, I can't imagine that you wouldn't hit the payout for Latisse at some point. And insurance would probably pick up the tab for the surgery before Latisse if it were medically necessary.
@floraposte: Yeah, someone should really take care of those lashes.
...but I don't think this medicine will adequately take care of that annoying
"Brook Shields" growth. HEY-OH!
Whatever happened to just getting fake eyelashes? At least then any redness and puffiness is only a result of me poking myself in the eye while applying them.
@barb95: Thank you for letting everyone in on the reason I'm divorced. Cheering for make-up is crazy talk.
@floraposte: And as a woman of luscious eyebrows, like Brooke's, I refuse to believe she doesn't have equally thick lashes, frankly.
@Stephmo:
And those are good reasons to take it. However, the ad is directed soleley at people who want to use it to look better, not out of necessity. It's being marketed as a cosmetic product! If it was purely medical, they wouldn't use a famous model to promote it.
@sixseeds: IIRC they only need to show a 20% effectiveness of a drug to get it approved. IE: it only needs to work for 20% of the people who used it. If you have a really low effectiveness along with some really extreme side effects it seems like a problem.
People might be willing to tolerate the low effectiveness and high dangerous side effects if it was for a hard to treat disabling or life threatening condition. Many of these drugs are for trivial issues.
Latisse is a lower concentration of the Glaucoma medication Lumigan(made by Allergan). Lumigan side effects are basically eye lash growth, darker color iris (for example a browner pigmentation of the iris), also darker pigmentation of the skin around the eyes, and also redness of the eye. Lumigan is instilled directly into the eyes. Latisse is applied differently.
Latisse is only applied to the top lid eyelashes. Should never come into contact with the eyeball at all. This would prevent eye color change and should only promote eyelash growth.
Pharmaceutical companies pump a lot of money into R&D so selling one product that has many different useful is golden.
But yeah, I hate when I see the abuse of a medication just for purely cosmetic reason.
@sixseeds: Fortunately, Pfizer has a new drug for you. Taking Confidy once a week will allow you to have unshakable faith in big pharma. It's only intended for people diagnosed with hypercynicism though.
@GitEmSteveDave_Right: 1 Wrong: ∞: Didn't she go to harvard? (or one of the other ivy leagues) I'd say she could have a career besides poor acting.
This is stupid. Don't take a drug to make you look better because you'll still be ugly on the inside.
Is there a reverse-Latisse for guys? My eyelashes are longer and fuller than almost any woman's natural lashes. They distract from my multi-thousand dollar suits.
@laughingisfree: You may be right, but Latisse still carries the warning about eye color change. I'm with lalaland13. I wouldn't want to take the chance and ruin my green eyes. Not that I need it. (I don't.)
@admiral_stabbin: hey now, i cheer for makeup all the time. special effects makeup that is. i could make her lashes thicker and longer but it would probably rip the original ones out when she removes the glue.
...back to making zombies now
@Stephmo: true enough.i have a friend whose anti depressants caused him to lose every bit of hair on his body, including eyelashes.
he's not interested in growing them back unless it can also put the hair back on his head
@geekgrrl77: yea - my attraction to a girl does not in any way depend on how thick her eye lashes are.
@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): And if you look at the picture, she's wearing a TON of eyeliner, too.
@azsumrg1rl: If you have green eyes, then DON'T ruin them; they're relatively rare.
That said, I like my deep brown eyes that turn black when I'm angry (or so I'm told). Maybe that's why when I lose my temper people do this:
:O
@HogwartsAlum: he's on a multi pill cocktail of stuff i don't know if it's one pill or a combo that does that or how common the side effect is. but he makes the best zombie ever because i can put gooey flesh on his whole head.
[www.flickr.com]
Seriously, politely. . . why does this matter to anyone?
If someone wants to take this, or anything else, and it doesn't hurt anyone else, than they shouldn't need anyone's permission to do so. Is risking eye color change that terrible a risk that people-- adults, like your or I-- should be prevented from making an informed decision? Have you SEEN what breast augmentation surgery looks like? Trust me, this is small beer in the pantheon of irrelevant cosmetic choices in comparison.
As for the sadly typical Consumerist comentariat venom directed towards any company that dares to make a profit, Allergan figured out a beneficial side effect for a drug they already had. Yes, the benefit is ludicrous, and in the storied halls of medical conditions, losing your eyelashes is the smallest of concerns. But again, it's stuff like this that pays for stuff we need. Or do folks think "Big Pharma" makes tons of money on glaucoma medication? Those R&D dollars have to come from somewhere-- why not from vain women?
BTW, in the interest of full disclosure, my GF uses this stuff (it works, incredibly, bizarrely). Do I make fun of her using it? Yes, I do, very much so. *I* think it's ridiculous, but again, she's an adult-- an RN with a Master's, in fact. She understands the risks, she weighed them, she takes this, and she likes it.
C'mon, folks-- this isn't fraud, it's not criminal, it's not evil.
Now, if only someone can explain to me what the difference between "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" and "Fibromyalgia" is, THEN we can talk about invented diseases requiring expensive-yet-needless pharmaceutical intervention...
;-)
@Chris Walters: he hammed it up for one pic but the red plastic cup in his hand is key to zombie happiness. turns out cheap scotch is a reasonable substitute for braaaaaains
@bohemian: There isn't an across board percentage requirement for approval. Like you mentioned, a disease with a high death rate should have an easier time getting approval over something more trivial. The FDA has the same guidelines.
The FDA actually has a really thorough system in place, the problem is money will always win out over ethics so, in practice the system loses a lot of its stringency. At least trial results have to be made public upon approval.
@sixseeds: Yup. Lutisse=Bimatoprost Ophthalmic =Lumigan
@GitEmSteveDave_Right: 1 Wrong: ∞: I'm waiting for Brooke Shields to undergo a medical procedure to cure her acting.
What if you used this product and turned out looking like one of those Groucho Marx glasses/eyebrow combinations? I also wonder if this can be used to obtain luxurious ear hair?
Wow, thankfully only NOW can Brooke Shields have a career.