FASHION : Some Say Thigh Cream Actually Measures Up : No one can explain exactly how it works, but the product has a horde of shoppers ready to believe in miracles.
Now and then a product comes to market that changes the face of America. It fills a need that has haunted humanity for centuries, and advances culture in undreamed-of ways.
Things like pantyhose, Super Glue and WD-40 --milestones of social progress we have come to count on in our daily lives. And now, another miracle of chemistry--thigh cream.
Of all the anatomical areas women find wanting, thighs probably bring the most grief. So, last fall when word spread that a solution to dimpled flesh on those pesky parts was near, a wave of frenzy washed over the nation.
“People called like crazy,” said Dr. Tom Barnes, medical director of The Right Solution of Newport Beach, one of three firms licensed to sell the original-formula cream. The other two are Nutri-System, which is marketing Smoothcontours and Herbalife, the distributor of Thermojetics.
“There were at least 50,000 calls to UCLA and Dr. (Bruce) Frome (who owned product development rights) in the first month.” The original story that ran on the cream, he said, “was the kind of advertising you can’t pay for.”
From that time on, manufacturers struggled to meet demand. Thigh cream was harder to get than a date with Fabio--and possibly more fulfilling. When distribution reached a new area, customers practically lined up hip by thigh to get it. Southern California had to wait its turn.
This spring, displays began appearing in Ventura County. Computer banners in front of drugstores and beauty salons announced THIGH CREAM IS HERE. Sales soared.
“It’s going like hot cakes,” said Diane Held at J&P; Beauty Supply in Thousand Oaks, where the cream arrived in April. “There’s one lady who’s on her fifth tube.”
We envisioned some severely out-of-control thighs--but it turns out the customer was applying the product to a number of body parts.
This is OK, Barnes assured us. Thighs were used for comparison studies because there are two of them, one for control. But the cream’s been found effective on “buttocks, double chins, love handles,” to name a few other unruly areas.
Is this good for us?
“It’s certainly not dangerous,” said Dr. Robert Byers, an internist in private practice in Santa Barbara. “It’s a stimulant, sort of like caffeine. . . . The little bit that gets into your blood really won’t cause any problem.”
Actually, the drug used in the cream is Aminophylline, a widely used asthma medication. Some creams may contain Theophylline, which is in the same family of asthma medications.
As to its effectiveness, Byers said, “It’s something in the hocus-pocus cosmetic world, but not really accepted in the medical world, because it hasn’t been scrutinized by (sufficient) studies and experiment. That’s not to say it may not prove to be effective down the road, but it’s not in that category now.”
Medical, schmedical as far as local folk are concerned. Thigh cream waiting lists formed. An Ojai pharmacist who didn’t wish to be named reported one customer had applied the cream to a sagging neck and avoided planned cosmetic surgery.
At Les Romantiques, a beauty boutique in Oxnard’s Esplanade Mall, owner Angela Rodkoff said she had run out of the cream several times in trying to meet demand.
We watched a Right Solution promotion of its product Cellution at her shop. Independent distributor R.C. Smith was on hand to show a videotape of a shrinking thighs experiment conducted by “Hard Copy,” using the original formula cream. Dr. Bruce Frome is shown measuring a chorus line of thighs, and announcing results.
As women paused to watch the tape, Smith explained the product’s use.
“It smoothes the dimpled effect out,” he told Dawn Citara of Oxnard.
She was skeptical. “It’s actually getting rid of it?”
“I can’t tell you exactly how it works. It really is designed to smooth and contour. . . . Is it a product you would use if it worked?”
“Oh, you bet,” she said. “It actually reduces the thighs? If it worked, it would be a miracle.”
“Oh, it does work. They did a clinical study. If ‘Hard Copy’ says it works, you know it does. I’m sure they probably weren’t happy about having to say it works.”
After more conversation, Citara decided to think it over, and departed without the cream.
A lot of people who shop in pairs return alone after the initial contact to buy the product, Smith said. “They don’t like other people to know they are buying it.”
Enough people are buying it that sales, unlike the thighs they target, continue to expand. The products could herald the dawn of a new age in thigh relief.
Those who may have had years of anxiety, uncertain how to dress for the beach, can now relax, secure in the assurance of a level playing field, so to speak.
We met one of them, an elated Ventura professional woman who declined to give her name, saying she had used the cream for three weeks with satisfaction.
“I haven’t noticed that I am any thinner, but I’ve definitely noticed that the lumps have smoothed out in my thighs,” she said, “I used to have curds; now I have whey.”
