Leahey.org

The short answer is, no. HeadOn is a product marketed by Miralus Healthcare, and pushed by an aggressive TV ad campaign. Its claims are, for all intents and purposes, homeopathic bits of mumbo jumbo. Any efficacy, based on ingredients, can only be thanks to the placebo effect.  

Apply Directly to Forehead!

First, to believe the product works as advertised, you must lack even the most rudimentary knowledge of how absorbtion through our skin works. Their advertisements contain numerous well-shot depictions of commercial models rubbing what appears to be a deodorant stick on their forehead. This is shockingly, shockingly stupid. I assume what they’re infering is that since your head is hurting, you apply their product to the skin…of your head? And the product will then, of course, penetrate through your skin, through your skull, and drip directly in to the gaping void you must have where your brain should be.

There is absolutely no viable mechanism by which this chain of events can occur. Your skin does most definitely absorb things applied topically to it. However the location of the topical application, in so far as rate absorbtion goes, much less final location of chemicals, is mostly insignificant. There are areas of your skin that have thicker layers, and thus take longer to absorb anything topically applied. However, once a chemical is absorbed, it is entered in to your blood stream and circulated through your body. Regardless of what portion of your skin it was introduced from. 

As if all of that wasn’t enough, the active ingredients in HeadOn are, as I stated before, homeopathic. The product is almost entirely comprised of wax. It has a few herbal ingredients at absolute trace amounts; nothing that could in any way “cure” a headache. It does, however, contain trace amounts of potassium dichromate, which (in larger doses) may cause cancer. 

A fact that is telling is that there are no dosage restrictions listed on the packaging. This betrays intellectual dishonesty on the part of the company. If they were true-believers, and they actually believed their product work, they would have to assume that whatever chemical properties it has to stop a headache may — in larger doses — also cause harm. Then, if for no other reason, they would include a dosage restriction and controindications.

The packaging contains nothing of the sort.

It is also telling that their research page contains much information on their packaging methods, and not a shred about the ingredients, or how they stumbled upon this “cure”. They mention being an FDA Registered Drug Establishment, but since HeadOn (and all their other *on products) are considered dietary supplements, there is no oversight by the government with regards to chemical composition and/or efficacy.

The disturbing truth is this product is selling quite well. In fact, they have an entire line of *on products for everything from scars to itch relief. Each more homeopathic and quackish than the next.