It is usual that, from time to time, advertising and commercials sell you miraculous products with surprising properties that will ‘undoubtedly’ alleviate all your ills. Fortunately, more and more people know that these products are often a scam thanks to more information. But this was not always the case.
One of the most famous ‘frauds’ was that of the Seven Sutherland Sisters, who claimed that with their magic tonic, anyone could achieve hair as long as theirs. How long exactly? Well, each one exceeded 3 feet in length (1 meter approx.), and together they reached 36 feet (11 meters approx.). And with this lie, they became millionaires.
The sisters didn’t start by selling tonics. They first showed a great interest in music, creating their own acts that made them be noticed, but not because of their musical gifts.
The Seven Sutherland Sisters
Born in New York between 1851 and 1865, they began to give concerts in different stages of the city, even reaching the Atlanta exhibition. But their first big leap was in 1884 while they were on tour with the Barnum & Bailey Circus.
There, more and more viewers came to see them, but not to hear them sing. Not that they were bad, but something about them was much more impressive: their hair. And the first to notice that was their father.
The miracle tonic
As a businessman he was, Fletcher Sutherland saw the potential in his daughters, and promptly created their own lotion that assured the public of hair as long as the sisters’.
He named it ‘Sutherland Sisters Hair Cultivators’, and to test the effectiveness of the product he got a chemist to approve it:
“Having made a chemical analysis of the hair tonic prepared by the Seven Sutherland Sisters, I hereby certify that I have found it free of all harmful substances. It is, beyond any doubt, the best hair preparation ever made”.
The product, of course, was a fraud. But the endorsement of this chemist convinced the public and, within the first year, it made $ 90,000, which for that time was too much.
Cultivated hair of the Sutherland Sisters
The Sutherlands’ hoax allowed them to raise as much as $ 3 million, selling more than 2.5 million bottles. Their lives were more than settled, and they even made the covers of Cosmopolitan, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Time.
With so much money, they did not hesitate to spend it in a big way, buying a real mansion with 14 rooms, marble bathrooms ,and many other luxuries of the time. Unfortunately, this lifestyle did not last forever.
Apparently, their last days were lived in poverty and they stayed like that until they died.
To add insult to injury, once they had already passed away, the mansion they had bought in their extravagance caught fire in 1938, erasing almost all traces of the sisters. Maybe karma went a little too far with this.
Translated by Gabriela Flores
Photos from: El Confidencial, Quo, Yoroboku
