Jackmouse

Hey tonk,....I replied to your post....but I received an email saying that my post contained "trigger" words (?) and that they would have to review it further before posting. I don't know what that means but the gist of my reply was: I've had my current procedure by Ahead Ink for around 4 months, and it still looks great. I would recommend them 100%.----Absolutely no regrets with my current Smp, but plenty of regrets with my previous smps(plural) and the experiences I had at those locations.------I only hear ,and read,good things about Scalp Micro and Matt Iulo. Although, I have no personal experience with him, he seems to be one of the good guys in the Smp world. And, he is obviously very talented. Oh well,.....I am only trying to help other people in their quest to find a quality Smp provider. It would have saved me so much time and so much money, had I been able to correspond with someone like me before I started down the Smp path. ----

Hi tonkadiesel. It is still looking good. He estimated that I would need to go back in a little over a year. I've had this procedure for around 4 months. --- In all of my experience with Smp providers, Matt Iulo seems to have a great reputation with most everyone, including his competitors. You may want to message Nicole at Shapiro medical for more info on him and the difference between temporary and permanent Smp. She does trichopigmentation for Shapiro, but she used to work at a "permanent" Smp place. The same place where I received my first permanent Smp procedure. ---She told me that temporary(trichopigmentation) looks the most natural as it uses the smallest dots and it never bleeds or turns blue or green. This has been my experience as well. ----However, she said that Matt Iulo at Scalp Micro would be the person she would recommend if one was going to go with the "permanent" option. She also said that she was experimenting with a more permanent pigment at Shapiro. This was back in May. I emailed her to get an update on her progress with this new pigment, but didn't receive a reply. I'll probably write her again, as I like to keep up with any and all advances in this field. I am guessing that the ink that Matt Iulo uses is also temporary to some degree (maybe his lasts 3 to 5 yrs..?)because any truly permanent ink will eventually change color and will bleed together. And once this happens, you cannot simply add touch up ink on top of the old ink. You will have to get the old ink lasered off, as I did. This was painful and costly. -----You want the pigment to slowly fade away, not to fade into a different, blurry color. ----So, anyway,....I recommend trichopigmentation. Erik, at Ahead Ink, did mine, and he did a great job. Nicole ,at Shapiro in Minnesota, is also trained in trichopigmentation and she knows a lot about permanent Smp too. I'd definitely email her. And, if you aren't getting tricho.----Matt Iulo seems to be the man to go to. ---- Also, Vinci would be the only other permanent place that I would even consider (in the U.S.). -----Avoid Scalp Aesthetics, HIS ,GLI...and most all other places actually. Unless recommended by a good transplant doc, and most of them use or recommend tricho. or another temporary process. Although, a Dr. Puig, in Houston, uses a temporary pigment that only last 3 or 4 months,..which is way too short.-------Best of luck!......I hope you can avoid going through all of the grief that I went through. That is the reason I am on here!

I had a permanent make up "artist" try to fill in my scars and create density, just a few years after getting hair transplants. This was before smp existed. It looked horrible so I had it lasered off. All of the ink didn't come out, so I ended up wearing a hair piece for several years.-----I then had permanent smp done(on my entire head) at two different providers. The results were unacceptable. I had all of this ink lasered off over a year's period. I finally got it done "right" by Eric(k?) at Ahead Ink. ------The transplanted hair lasted for 10 to 15 years, although it was never as dense as I would have liked. And the scars were worse than I had expected. I had to keep my hair relatively long in the back,..this, along with my hair being very curly, covered the scars to some extent.....but it still was far from ideal. ----The transplant doc was/is considered one of the best. He was featured on NBC nightly news when I was seeing him and they featured me as an ideal example of before and after.....even interviewing me. In recent years, all of the hair left on my head has become sparse. I believe all of the lasering may have something to do with it. Also, the hair piece glue seemed to thin out the transplants. Maybe stress had something to do with it as well?---I was tested, and I do not have any scalp disorder or inflammation etc. It is simply regular old male pattern baldness, albeit more extreme than most men. I started losing it at 15, so, I guess that should have been a clue.------Anyway,.....I can provide more info. on particular providers and/or dr.'s if anyone is interested. ---,......I mostly wanted to praise and thank Ahead Ink!! I would recommend them to anyone looking into smp.