KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Scalp sores, breakage, and hair falling-out in chunks on women even children who blame their problems on the Monat hair care product line. Monat executives disagree.
A Kansas City hair stylist told 41 Action News that she was approached by a person selling Monat who asked her to try it. She tried it and stopped because after using it, her hair felt dry and the texture was different.
Erin Ostby, who lives in Las Vegas, said she saw the product's impact in an old photo of herself.
"I took a picture of my hair, compared it to a picture of before I stared Monat, and my eyes just filled up with tears — it was so thin and it was stringy and I was just sick," said Ostby.
Women across the country have complained about the products. A woman in Phoenix said the effects were "devastating" and an Oklahoma City woman said it gave her bald spots.
They said they watched their hopes for beautiful, healthy hair wash down the drain after using Monat. A mother in California sent us these pictures of her 2-year-old son's abrupt and acute hair loss including a doctor's diagnosis tying it directly to Monat shampoo.
Heather Fox used it on her son too.
"And right away he had a reaction to his scalp. He had big, red, open sores throughout his scalp. It was really itchy," said Fox.
Otsby also sold the products. She's what the company calls a market partner.
"I have over 100 people in my downline — customers and market partners. I reached up to five figures in those eight months in additional income; so realizing what was happening was a hard pill to swallow," said Ostby.
Her decision to stop selling Monat didn't come easily.
"I was vacuuming every day because I was losing so much hair. And I think I was in denial. I didn't want to believe it was the product," Ostby added.
All three women said their market partners told them.
"This is you. There's something wrong with you. You need to go to the doctor," said Ostby.
Amber Alabaster from Oklahoma City said that she did go to the doctor. Fox said she had a full panel of blood work done and there was nothing that point to a reason — besides using the Monat products.
Hundreds of consumers who complained online were told it was a normal part of a detox process documented in the company's own sales literature.
Monat spokesperson Gene Grabowski said the company no longer promotes the detox explanation. He said so many complaints in such a short period of time, statistically is impossible.
"It's been a real challenge because we have seen the pictures online and we've heard the complaints but we haven't seen any documentation of accuracy of a single one," said Grabowski.
