Advanced Hair Studios customer 'did not get what he felt he was purchasing', says judge

A hair restoration procedure, promoted internationally by former cricketing ace Shane Warne, was put in the dock today by a hair loss victim and found wanting by a judge. 

Judge Raymond Groarke held it would have been ridiculous for garage worker Jeremy Keogh to have believed that having a wig or membrane glued to his head would have the effect of causing his hair to re-grow.

He said Keogh (aged 29) of St Killian’s Crescent, Staplestown Road, Co Carlow, had succeeded however in convincing the court he had not been provided with what he thought he had purchased at Advanced Hair Studios, Dublin, in March 2009.

Judge Groarke said the terminology and words used in a contract for the “strand by strand” hair procedure were undoubtedly intentionally deceptive and misleading and by no means clear as to what a purchaser was getting when they signed the agreement.

He told barrister John P. Kehoe, counsel for Mr Keogh, that the wording of the contract left Advanced Hair Studios, of Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin, open to any amount of claims.

In the judge’s view a potential customer should be given a video and documentation which set out in the simplest of terms and the utmost clarity what exactly it was that the customer was purchasing.

Judge Groarke said this had not been done and Mr Keogh had paid €3,600 for what was a hair piece.

“People who seek treatment of this nature might potentially be somewhat vulnerable and to leave the matter beyond doubt documentation in simple terms should be furnished to them,” he said.

Referring to evidence by Mr Keogh that he had been assured his hair would re-grow if a membrane or wig was glued to his scalp, Judge Groarke said he did not believe that Mr Keogh believed he was getting something that did not exist and never did exist.

“Mr Keogh was getting a hair piece and he knew he was getting a hair piece or hair pieces but I am satisfied he did not get what he felt he was purchasing,” the judge said.

Judge Groarke said Mr Keogh had great difficulty with glue appearing on the side of his head. No single individual had dealt with him and when he complained about it he had been seen by seven different managers.

Awarding Mr Keogh €5,100 for breach of contract, including a modest sum for general damages, Judge Groarke said Mr Keogh had been quite distraught and had suffered anxiety about his hair.

Advanced Hair Studio denied it had misled Mr Keogh. Maeve Duhy client relations manager for Ireland, the UK and South Africa, said Mr Keogh would have been told the membrane required monthly re-gluing at €50 a time for life.

She agreed with Mr Keogh’s counsel that Shane Warne was the company’s international “poster boy.”