WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Rand Paul today released the latest edition of ‘The Waste Report,’ which is an ongoing project cataloguing egregious examples of waste within the U.S. government.

The latest edition calls attention to $15,000 granted by the National Institutes of Health to the 9^th World Congress for Hair Research. This year’s conference is being held in Miami, Fla., and includes sessions like: Growing Better Hair: Impacting Pre-Emergent Hair via Scalp Condition, Hair Dye, Hair Care, and Robotic Hair Transplants. Hair loss treatment is a whopping $3.5 billion industry and the conference is partially funded by numerous corporate sponsors. Why, then, are your tax dollars needed as well? It would take an average American two years, two months and two weeks before their taxes would pay for this grant.

‘The Waste Report’ can be found HERE or below.

Maybe the comb runs through your hair a little easier than it used to, or trips to the barber take less time these days.  But whether you have just accepted it, are trying to fight it, or are not even losing your hair at all, your tax dollars are going to combat baldness.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) spent $15,000 on a grant to put on the 9^th World Congress for Hair

Research which is being held in Miami, Florida this week.^[1]  Hair research is not uncommon for NIH and the National Science Foundation to fund.  But usually that research falls in one of two more metritis categories, the study of hair for forensic identification purposes, or the study of inner-ear hair and how it contributes to hearing loss.

But make no mistake the 9^th World Congress is definitely about baldness.  The theme this year’s conference is Reflect, Rejuvenate, and Regenerate, and includes sessions like, Growing Better Hair: Impacting Pre-Emergent Hair via Scalp Condition; Hair Dye; Hair Care; and Robotic Hair Transplants^.[2] 

Hair loss treatment by the way is a booming $3.5 billion industry.^[3]  So, aside from the obvious question, of why is the federal government is funding a hair loss conference, one has to wonder if this funding was needed in the first place.

In fact the World Congress has over twenty general sponsors including companies like Proctor and Gamble and Women’s Rogaine, who together contributed at least $125,000 in general sponsorship dollars, and more in event specific sponsorships.  In addition to the sponsors, participants in the conference must pay between $675 and almost $1,200, and just one booth in the exhibit hall costs $3,500.^[4] 

Some may argue that with a $3.7 trillion budget and hundreds of millions of dollars of waste already identified in The Waste Report, $15,000 is not that bad.  But consider the average American would have to work two years, two months, and almost two weeks before their taxes would pay this conference.  That’s enough to make you pull your hair out.

The Federal Government: Guaranteed to Grow Waste on Any Surface.