History Main / NeverTrustAHairTonic

* In an ''Franchise/ArchieComics'' comic, Professor Flutesnoot invents a hair tonic which apparently does a great job growing one's hair back. Though he stresses that he's still testing it, Mr. Weatherby insists on secretly using it on himself. By the end of the comic, it's revealed that the tonic makes one grow a freakish amount of hair, with pouring water on it being the only way to stop the process.

* ''Webcomic/PvP'' had a storyline where Brent cuts off his ponytail to prove that he's just as confident and hip without it. Obviously, this quickly backfires, and he desperately tries to get his hair back, leading to Skull giving him a hair growth potion. Unfortunatly, Brent uses up most of the bottle, which was supposed to be diluted in water first, and he immediately grows hair so long he looks like [[Franchise/TheAddamsFamily Cousin It]], including [[BodyHorror on his hands]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', Dexter makes a hair tonic for Dee Dee after she accidently cuts off one of her pigtails. Despite repeated warnings to use only one drop, Dee Dee uses the entire bottle. Three guesses what happens next.

** In the episode, "Hothead", Eustace applies for an experimental hair tonic, with the warning that the recipient not be angry when in use. Little does Eustace know, is that every time he uses the tonic, it amplifies his anger to the point that he can cause explosions (and to add insult to injury, he doesn't grow any hair other than one long strand at the end of the episode, which immediatly wilts again, making him so angry he blows up the house with himself inside it, Courage escaping with Muriel at the last moment.)
** Another episode has Eustace's mother be involved in human experimentation for various hair related products. The twist here is that their method DOES work, extremely well in fact, causing people to grow huge amount of hair to be used in experiments. At the end, after Courage has freed Muriel from her unwilling participation, Eustace returns to the farm, now ''covered'' in a thick head of hair, and holding fistfuls of cash for his participation. This is pretty much the highpoint of Eustace's life on the show.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' has Billy use a magical potion in an attempt to grow a beard. Unfortunatly, not only does he overuse the potion on himself, he ''[[WhatAnIdiot drinks it]]'' as well! He soon grows a large beard, which turns into a Bigfoot pelt. Billy is fine with this... [[BodyHorror until he grows hair on his tongue as well]].

* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' episode "Bald Spot" depicts this straight. Muscle Man purhases a hair tonic that supposedly hides his bald spot, [[spoiler: which is later revealed to be an accidental haircut near the end]], only for said substance to leak off of it.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E20ItIsntTheManeThingAboutYou It Isn't the Mane Thing About You]]", when Rarity loses most of her mane in an accident involving misuse of a powerful magical cleaning product and tries to grow it back, it turns out that hair magic is ridiculously hard to use. When Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer (two of the setting's most powerful magic-users) try to use magic to restore Rarity's hair, the first spells they try taks the hair from another pony and transfer it Rarity (before said hair simply shatters), the second creates wooden hair from a chunk of a door, and the third causes RapunzelHair to appear on the castle's walls.

TruthInTelevision: most over the counter baldness remedies ''don't work or don't work well,'' especially when used once the condition is sufficiently advanced. Prescription systemic treatments are somewhat more likely to work (though they also come with bad side effects for men - namely, they work by reducing testosterone and/or its effects on the body in most cases). The gold standard of baldness treatment is hair transplant with ongoing maintenance, as it is the most likely to actually be worth the money spent on it with the least systemic side effects.

* An early ''Manga/InuYasha'' story has two demon brothers kidnap Kagome. She thinks they simply want to eat her, but it turns out one of them is severely balding and embarrassed about it, and he has heard you can get a hair growth potion by ''boiling down a human maiden''. At hearing this, Kagome angrily insists they eat her instead. (Not 100% really this trope, since we never learn whether the potion works - but the kidnapping does lead to the demon losing his last few hairs - before he is killed.)

* In an ''ComicBook/AchilleTalon'' comic strip, Achille tries multiple ways to cure his baldness, all of which turn out to be ineffective. His last attempt is a hair tonic that is revealed to work very well - too bad he accidentally falls into it, covering him of hair everywhere ''except'' on his scalp.

* In a DreamSequence on ''Series/TheDickVanDykeShow'' Rob's hair turned into lettuce, because he was given a baldness preventative[[note]]as opposed to cure - he had hair, he was just worried about losing it[[/note]] that was basically oil and vinegar - aka salad dressing.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

* One ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' arc featured a compound made from cat sweat, originally intended as an underarm deodorant, which caused massive hair growth wherever it was applied. Its [[MadScientist creator]] immediately turned it into a hair tonic instead. Sales were ridiculously, dangerously good for a while... and then customers' hair started falling out. As in, all at once, poof-gone-you're-a-bowling-ball.
** And it makes you start saying "ACK!", presumably because it was made from Bill the Cat's sweat.

[[folder:Web Comic]]

* Hazmat of the ''WhateleyUniverse'' is cueball-bald due to his failed hair tonic. Aquerna arranges for Phase to look at it and plans are put into place to sell it as a hair-removal application for women.

** Another episode has Eustace's mother be involved in human experimentation for various hair related products. The twist here is that their method DOES work, extremely well in fact, causing people to grow huge amount of air to be used in experiments. At the end, after Courage has freed Muriel from her unwilling participation, Eustace returns to the farm, now ''covered'' in a thick head of hair, and holding fistfuls of cash for his participation. This is pretty much the highpoint of Eustace's life on the show.

* Gargamel and Brainy learned this lesson the hard way in ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Symbols Of Wisdom" when they both try to grow their own beards, since it caused their beards to grow so long. Also, Papa Smurf had Hogatha's hair spell in "Smurfette's Golden Tresses" purposely altered by giving her bear fur dyed in the color of Smurfette's hair, which caused the hair to grow so long on Hogatha's head that it covered her face and immobilized her.

* ''TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy" story "Nose No Bounds" (Cartoon Network Block Party #41) has Grim letting Billy use some otherworldly hair tonic. He inhales it, and it causes his nose hairs to grow and gain sentient life.

* In ''Disney/PetesDragon'', when [[SnakeOilSalesman Dr. Terminus]] comes to town, the townspeople confront him about his various medicines that didn't work the last time he was there, including one man whose hair turned from gray to pink, thanks to the doctor.

It seems that a man's greatest fear is losing his hair, and once it's gone, it's gone for good. Which is why a bald character is bound to try using some kind of product that promises to grow back their hair. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin This product never works]]. Or rather, it usually works too well, with way more hair sprouting than necessary, and often in places that it wasn't wanted. Other side effects may occur as well, including, but not limited to, the hair turning an unnatural color or what little hair was left falling out completely.

* A WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck comics story "Black Wednesday", written by CarlBarks, features Uncle Scrooge selling hair tonic to the "Chillyboot Indians", which actually causes baldness. Donald later returns with a hair tonic made by Gyro Gearloose; that one works too well.

* ''Webcomic/PvP'' had a storyline where Brent cuts off his ponytail to prove that he's just as confident and hip without it. Obviously, this quickly backfires, and he desperatly tries to get his hair back, leading to Skull giving him a hair growth potion. Unfortunatly, Brent uses up most of the bottle, which was supposed to be diluted in water first, and he immediatly grows hair so long he looks like [[TheAddamsFamily Cousin It]], including [[BodyHorror on his hands]].

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'', "Hothead", Eustace applies for an experimental hair tonic, with the warning that the recipient not be angry when in use. Little does Eustace know, is that every time he uses the tonic, it amplifies his anger to the point that he can cause explosions (and to add insult to injury, he doesn't grow any hair other than one long strand at the end of the episode, which immediatly wilts again, making him so angry he blows up the house with himself inside it, Courage escaping with Muriel at the last moment.)

* In ''CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'', one of Flint's [[BunglingInventor failed inventions]] is "Hair Unbalder." A little bit squirted on the scalp causes his dad to burst out with hair on his entire face.
* Similarly, some hair-voodoo worked by Dr. Facilier in ''ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' initially grants a man a full head of hair, but it quickly spreads to the rest of his body. In this case, its not a potion but a magical powder Facilier blows in his face.
* In ''TheSpongebobSquarepantsMovie'', King Neptune tries to use some hair tonic, but accidentally it gets into his eye. So his eyeballs grow hair.

* In ''PetesDragon'', when [[SnakeOilSalesman Dr. Terminus]] comes to town, the townspeople confront him about his various medicines that didn't work the last time he was there, including one man whose hair turned from gray to pink, thanks to the doctor.

* In ''TheCityOfSilentRevolvers'', the main character is blackmailed into switching identities with a conman, and ends up getting in trouble for all of his earlier scams. A faulty hair tonic called Probatbicol is one these scams.

* ''TheTwoRonnies'' did a skit at an inventors' conferrence, one of the inventors had created a hair tonic with two problems. First it makes the hair grow pink and second is that it falls out if the drinker has a shock.

* In (what turned out to be) the final episode of ''TheBradyBunch'' Bobby gets some mail-order hair tonic to sell, which turns Greg's hair orange. In the [[http://jonrowe.blogspot.com/2004/11/my-sense-of-humor-my-best-friend-david.html memo]] attributed to Robert Reed about how weak the show's internal logic had become, he complains about this in particular:

* In a DreamSequence on ''TheDickVanDykeShow'' Rob's hair turned into lettuce, because he was given a baldness preventative[[note]]as opposed to cure - he had hair, he was just worried about losing it[[/note]] that was basically oil and vinegar - aka salad dressing.

* ''PvP'' had a storyline where Brent cuts off his ponytail to prove that he's just as confident and hip without it. Obviously, this quickly backfires, and he desperatly tries to get his hair back, leading to Skull giving him a hair growth potion. Unfortunatly, Brent uses up most of the bottle, which was supposed to be diluted in water first, and he immediatly grows hair so long he looks like [[TheAddamsFamily Cousin It]], including [[BodyHorror on his hands]].

* Gargamel and Brainy learned this lesson the hard way in ''TheSmurfs'' episode "Symbols Of Wisdom" when they both try to grow their own beards, since it caused their beards to grow so long. Also, Papa Smurf had Hogatha's hair spell in "Smurfette's Golden Tresses" purposely altered by giving her bear fur dyed in the color of Smurfette's hair, which caused the hair to grow so long on Hogatha's head that it covered her face and immobilized her.

* In ''Film/TheNakedGun 33 1/3'', there's a flashback with the detectives in what's supposed to be the 1970s. Drebin has long hair, and when Nordberg appears, he has an Afro so huge he can't fit through the door. After the movie returns to the present, Ed says to Nordberg, "I do remember! You were one of the first cases for minoxidil." [[note]]Minoxidil is probably best known to the general public under the name Rogaine.[[/note]]

* ''MahouSenseiNegima'' has a female variation, when short-haired Ako thinks she should grow her hair out to be more attractive. A (not so) helpful denizen of the magic world promptly gives her a magic hair-growth potion, which works perfectly for all of a minute before the hair begins to engulf her.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', Dexter makes a hair tonic for Dee-Dee after she accidently cuts off one of her pigtails. Despite repeated warnings to use only one drop, Dee Dee uses the entire bottle. Three guesses what happens next.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', Dexter makes a hair tonic for Dee-Dee after she accidently cuts off one of her pigtails. Despite repeated warnings to use only one drop, Dee-Dee uses the entire bottle. Three guesses what happens next.
--> '''Dee-Dee''': I ''did'' use one drop, just... a very big drop...

->''M is for Minoxidil,\\

Give it up! Buy a rug!''

* In the ''BetterOffTed'' episode "Father Can You Hair Me?", Ted tests an experimental hair tonic (packaged as an aerosol) on his arm, causing massive amounts of hair to grow not only on Ted's arm, but also on his desk.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' has a female example in "Bad Hair Day", when Candace uses a machine her brothers built for her in order to fix her hair after a botched attempt to cut it herself. Of course, she can't wait the designated time and decides to turn 30 mins into 10 seconds by cranking up the power level. Cue Candace getting covered in hair and being mistaken for a tangerine orangutan.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Gasp}}'': In "Hair of the Fish", Gasp buys a Peruvian hair tonic online in an attempt to cure the bald patch he accidentally created on Catflap. After he is doused in the tonic, Gasp ends up growing hair all over his body. Gasp, it should be pointed out, is a fish.

* An episode of [[TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy]] has Billy use a magical potion in an attempt to grow a beard. Unfortunatly, not only does he overuse the potion on himself, he ''[[WhatAnIdiot drinks it]]'' as well! He soon grows a large beard, which turns into a Bigfoot pelt. Billy is fine with this... [[BodyHorror until he grows hair on his tongue as well]].

* Similarly, some hair-voodoo worked by Dr. Facilier in ''ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' initially grants a man a full head of hair, but it quickly spreads to the rest of his body.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Simpson and Delilah", "dimoxonil" actually ''does'' grow hair on Homer's head, but the SnapBack to baldness comes because Bart spills Homer's bottle[[note]]splashing it on his face in hopes of growing a beard[[/note]] and he can't afford any more. Hasn't minoxodil (of which dimoxonil was obviously a parody) become a lot cheaper than it was in 1990? Homer could probably afford it now!

* Billy in ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' tried some hair tonic and ended up growing hair all over his body looking like a Bigfoot. It turns out that all he has to do was wash it off.
** Of course, the stuff was useless until he asked Grim to power it up.

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'', "Hothead", Eustace applies for an experimental hair tonic, with the warning that the recipient not be angry when in use. Little does Eustace know, is that every time he uses the tonic, it amplifies his anger to the point that he can cause explosions (and to add insult to injury, he doesn't grow any hair other than one long strand at the end of the episode, which makes him so angry he destroys the entire house.

* Used for {{squick}} factor when Disco Bear from ''HappyTreeFriends'' dunks his head in hair tonic after burning his afro. His hair grows back... but in his eyes. Cue EyeScream when he cuts his eyes off with a razor as he tries to remove the hair from his eyes. He slips on a bottle of hair tonic and falls to the tub of hair tonic and grows more hair.

* In an ''ComicBook/{{Archie}}'' comic, Professor Flutesnoot invents a hair tonic which apparently does a great job growing one's hair back. Though he stresses that he's still testing it, Mr. Weatherby insists on secretly using it on himself. By the end of the comic, it's revealed that the tonic makes one grow a freakish amount of hair, with pouring water on it being the only way to stop the process.