by Justin Davids

HAIR LOSS SOLUTIONS

When I first began to experience hair loss, In a way I was one of the luckier ones as I’ve always kept my hair quite short and cropped. So when my local barber mentioned in my ear that my hair was thinning I brushed the comment off and just replied “oh am I” and continued life as normal.

My hair loss Journey

Over the next few years my hair loss slowly but surely progressed, to a stage where I could clearly notice it thinning all over across the top of my head. Now it had become a problem

I mentioned my hair loss concerns to a family member who assured me that I look fine and not to worry, but this is the type of reply I expected I guess, not wanting to hurt my feeling by telling me what was in plain sight.

I was going bald!

On my trips to the barbers I would request for him to cut my hair shorter and shorter until I ended up with a zero grade shave all over. For a while this approach worked and my hair loss wasn’t anywhere near as noticeable, but clearly my male pattern baldness had other ideas and now at the shortest length which I could shave my head, I could still clearly see the areas where I was balding.

I began wearing hats, I’m not a massive fan of wearing hats, I would experiment with different styles until I found one which suited me. It worked until one evening my friends asked me to go for a few drinks at the pub. The door man looked at me and said “you’ll have to take off the hat if you want to come in”. There I was stood In a dilemma, take off the hat and expose my hair loss issue or just walk away. Believe it or not I walked away!

These were bad times for me

I began to experience similar scenarios to this a lot after my incident at the pub, even in the shopping centres I would have the security approach me and ask me to remove my hat. This was the era when public places had the hood and hat bans and ban the hoodie campaigns. It wasn’t helping me at all!

I needed options and I needed them fast. No way was I going to allow myself to be the balding guy that people would make comments about, but it happened; one of my friends on a night out cracked a joke about my hair loss, it wasn’t about me having a shaved head, it was definitely about my hair loss. I received a few more comments from various people who felt it was their job to point out that I was thinning or receding, so I took to the Internet in a search for a solution.

I needed a hair loss solution and fast!

Now I’m quite a sceptical person and I like to do my homework and find out as much information as I can about things.
The first stop was the hair transplant route, so I had my sights set on this option, I began making calls, and the clinics that I spoke to were helpful but it was only when I called one particular clinic that my search came to a stop! After a nice conversation with the lady from the clinic who was open and honest with me, she informing me that there is a chance that not all of the grafted hair which they would implant into my scalp would actually grow. Plus on top of this I would be left with a big scar around the back of my head.

hair transplant was not a option for me

After following certain celebrities and their hair loss stories and speaking with a few people who themselves had opted for hair transplants, I was also getting the picture that one transplant alone may not be enough and if I required more transplants the costs could spiral beyond what I could afford.
I left the transplant route alone, it seemed like too much work and money with no real guarantee.

could tablets and sprays be the answer?

Moving on in my search for a hair loss solution, I came across Finasterside tablets. I spoke with a clinic who recommended this option together with a Minoxidil spray. This had to be it, this had to be the solution that would work, I really needed to get my hair loss issue under control as it was now affecting my social life.
After a year and 3 months of taking Finasterside, spraying Minoxidil on my head and spending a lot of money each month to keep up the stocks of these items, all I could see was that I had lost more hair!

I was wearing hats when I really didn’t want to

By this time I’d truly had enough. I mean I was wearing hats when I really didn’t want to, on nights out If I was allowed entry to a pub with my hat on you’d always get that one drunken person who just had to pull my hat off. This couldn’t go on.

I was searching the internet again for solutions when I came across an advertisement for Scalp Micropigmentation. What on earth was it? I watched a video and it described how men are permanently disguising hair loss with a tattoo on their heads! Now obviously we all know tattoos are permanent but how was this going to work for hair loss and would it look real or ridiculous in real life?

A Tattoo for hair loss?

I did lots and lots of research over the following months and discovered that Scalp Micropigmentation may well be the option for me! It’s not actually a tattoo it comes under the term medical tattoo. It involves placing thousands of tiny micro dots of pigment ink into the scalp over a few sessions to create a build up to what resembles hair follicles which are about to grow, in other words short hair. Well this would obviously suit me as I’m already shaving my hair anyway! I still didn’t fully understand the process so I went for a consultation to find out more.

After the consultation I said the usual thing we all say “I’ll have a think about it” but then, on my way out of the clinic I spotted a guy who had actually had it done himself. I was truly amazed! There was no way I could tell that the man had his head tattooed whatsoever!

Progress at last

I went home and had a ponder over my discovery and with my hair loss constantly on my mind I booked to have my Scalp Micropigmentation treatment. When I put the cost of the SMP treatment into context, it wasn’t that expensive at all especially if it resolves my hair loss issue once and for all, and especially compared to the other options out there. A hair transplant could cost thousands and may require repeat transplants or a life on Finasterside and Minoxodil with an on going monthly fee.

Scalp Micropigmentation treatment was a one off payment

I arrived for my appointment, I was a little nervous but excited at the same time. I sat through my first treatment without so much as an ouch. Now I’ve never had a tattoo anywhere on my body so I wasn’t sure how painful it would be, It wasn’t. In fact it actually felt therapeutic in some areas, in others it was like a small pin pricking my scalp, well that,s exactly what it was. After the session was complete I looked in the mirror at myself like I was looking at an alien. Like something I’d never seen, (or hadn’t seen in a long time), my hair! It was complete all over, no more patchy thinning areas. I was smiling from ear to ear.

The Scalp Micropigmentation magic

After four days of the treatment I was able to wash my head. I had only undergone one SMP treatment session and I knew I had more to go.

Forwarding on to treatment four and I was a happy man, I had my hairline back and felt great! I could say it took a few years off of my appearance too!

It’s been a few years since I had the SMP treatment. Nowadays all I do is shave my hair over every other day to keep it looking the same density all over and I’m ready to walk out the door! No more hats!

Natural looking and subtle

The SMP treatment gives me a natural subtle look, it isn’t something that stands out or has people commenting on it, on the contrary people are no longer commenting on my hair loss, which is exactly what I wanted.