Meet Dr. Catalfo
Proud Creator of Follicare®

Dr. Chris Catalfo

The old saying, "if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself" definitely holds true for Dr. Chris Catalfo. And now the rest of us can benefit from his perseverance!

Growing up, Dr. Catalfo thought he was the last guy who would ever be concerned about hair loss. "As a teenager, I had thick, bushy black hair," recalls Dr. Catalfo. "Going to the barber shop for a haircut was always a spectacle. After they finished cutting my hair, there would be three guys sweeping the floor. My barber always joked that after I left, he had to close shop to get his scissors sharpened."

Olympic High Quickly Crashed Upon Viewing Photos of His Head

Dr. Catalfo was a collegiate All American Greco-Roman wrestler at Syracuse University, and was ultimately inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. He also had the honor of being chosen to represent the United States in the 1984 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles. However, one of the highlights of his life quickly turned into a major downer. "When I returned from the Games, I was looking at photos from my matches and said, WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO MY HAIR?" At 24 years old, Dr. Catalfo was rapidly going bald.

What did he do? "I panicked!" says Dr Catalfo. Over the next several years, he tried every hair growth product he saw advertised, but his hair loss kept getting worse. "I tried every product that you have heard of, and probably at least ten that I guarantee you have never heard of."

This Olympian Takes Matters into His Own Hands

Frustrated, he decided to take matters into his own hands. A benefit of studying to become a doctor was that he had great access to available research materials and clinical studies. "I wanted to take a totally different approach to a hair growth product. I wanted to identify all the likely reasons for my hair loss, and then create a formulation to address all of those problems," says Dr. Catalfo.

Single Approach Products Just Weren’t Working


Before	After

"Many of the existing products were not specifically designed for hair loss. For example, minoxidil initially was developed for treating hypertension. Researchers noticed a side effect --- it grew hair on some participants. So they decided to pursue approval to market it topically as a hair growth product. To this day, researchers aren't completely confident why or how minoxidil grows hair."

However, for most men, minoxidil alone is not enough. Says Dr. Catalfo, "the clinical data showed minoxidil, when used alone, is only effective on about 35% of men. Unfortunately, I was in the other 65%."

He continued to experiment with his own formulations, and after about four or five years developed the initial version of Follicare®. "I knew that I had something special on my hands when people started asking me if I had hair transplantation surgery."

Not Quite Ready for Prime Time

Still, Dr. Catalfo's formulation was not quite ready for prime time. "My initial formulation was gooey and smelled awful, but I didn't care because it was growing hair on my head!" The lady of the house had a slightly different opinion about the look and smell. "I would apply the topical formulation at night in the bathroom. After I was done, my wife would come into the bedroom screaming, what have you done to my bathroom?" Yet, laughs Dr. Catalfo, "she admitted that I looked A LOT better with a full head of hair, so she learned to deal with the mess."

Ten More Years and a Little Help to Perfect the Product

Over the next decade, Dr. Catalfo worked with chemists from Advanced BodyCare Solutions to refine and further test Follicare® and make the application of the topical spray cosmetically appealing. Today, Follicare® is a pristine product that takes less than 2 minutes a day to use and fits easily into one's daily routine. "If it weren't for the hair growing on your head, you would forget that you are using Follicare®", says Dr. Catalfo.