H&W SMP January 2013

[Jotronic]

It's official. As of January 2013 Hasson & Wong will be offering temporary SMP featuring the Beauty Medical system as developed by Milena Lardi. Pricing and options will be revealed at a later date.

 

We sent two technicians to Milan, Italy to train with Milena and we also have the proper equipment that is required to perform this procedure. I will update this thread with more information as it becomes available.

[Davis91]

Good news from you and Shapiro.

 

To both: please please please be reasonable in the pricing. You will have the market to support it if you are. Remeber, this is TEMPORARY ink with technicians doing the work, not docs.

[scar5]

Anyone concerned about the scar and thinking this news changes the equation on the basis that they can cover the scar with SMP be warned.

 

That said, strip gives great results and Hasson and Wong are one of the best.

 

Congrats to Milena,Jotronic and Spex for stitching this up. It is quite a job and should give the 'others' a a slight kick in the buttocks.

[scar5]

 

To both: please please please be reasonable in the pricing.

 

Don't worry Mr. Davis. It has nothing to do with money.

[Blake Bloxham]

Joe,

 

Very cool! It's interesting to see SMP spread to some of our recommended clinics, and I'm very eager to review the upcoming results.

 

How long was the training process for the technicians? I've heard Milena runs a 4 day "SMP crash course," and I'm wondering what this rapid training entails.

[chrisdav]

Great news Joe.

[aaron1234]

Great news! I eagerly await the HD video and high quality pictures of SMP patients that H&W are known to present with their HT patients.

[Janna]

Pricing and options will be revealed at a later date.

 

 

 

We eagerly await your pricing...

[Raphael84]

Great news!

[Davis91]

Janna

 

Cheeky! Come on now, lets all be reasonable here. Let's try to prove cynics on this topic like me and Scar wrong and let's see these two clinics set a fair standard for SMP Temp. pricing.

[chrisdav]

I do think that how Hasson & Wong present their work should really become compulsory to most clinics, but I do understand that it is not very practical with the location of a clinics patients.

[Janna]

Cheeky.....it's been said to me once or twice or maybe a 1000 times. I guess that's just me having a little fun with Joe. It's not going to be a competition. There will be no pricing war. I'm confident both our clinics will come up with a reasonable fee structure.

[Jotronic]

Joe,

 

Very cool! It's interesting to see SMP spread to some of our recommended clinics, and I'm very eager to review the upcoming results.

 

How long was the training process for the technicians? I've heard Milena runs a 4 day "SMP crash course," and I'm wondering what this rapid training entails.

 

Blake,

 

I won't comment on the "crash course" because I do not know what other clinics are doing. Our techs were there for a week and even now, after they have returned, they are practicing every day on dummies (no, not me) so that when Milena arrives in early January for their practical exam and certification they will have close to six weeks of practice under their belts. They spent a lot of time on theory and they told me that they were surprised about how much there was to learn. This training does not allow for other types of SMP to be performed such as lips, eyebrows etc.

 

Scar,

 

Anyone concerned about the scar and thinking this news changes the equation on the basis that they can cover the scar with SMP be warned.

 

 

I don't want anyone thinking this changes anything. A scar is a scar regardless if it is a great example of a fine strip scar, a wide strip scar, punch scars or even FUE scars. It can help but it's not a miracle. Scar tissue is different from skin tissue so it doesn't even "take" in every patient. Milena told me this herself. This is an adjunct to help make things better for the right candidate, nothing less and nothing more.

 

And I agree with Janna. We are not going to get into a price war or pissing match about this. We'll just price ours about 5% less than Shapiro's clinic and let you guys make the decision on where to go:) Seriously though, this is an elective, non-surgical temporary procedure. No one HAS to have this. We want to be reasonable but we don't want to give away the farm either.

[Davis91]

Sigh...beautiful and cheeky. Shapiro lead medical techs must show all these qualities I guess at the time of interview.

 

Regardles of the inevitable overpricing that is going to occure here (I just hope a market correction occurs quickly), thanks to Joe and team and the Shapiro team for taking this on. Still 100% more trustworthy than existing providers.

[Janna]

Davis,

 

Thanks for the compliment but you forgot smart, compassionate, and most of all, humble......ha, ha . All kidding aside, as Joe said, this is not a game changer and we know it's temporary, but from what we've seen so far of Melina's technique, it really seems to eliminate all the risks that are associated with the permanent smp.

 

When I saw a patient who had permanent SMP with a shaved head looking blue from across the room, it made us stop in our tracks and look for better solutions. The temp smp definately fades altogether but I'm most excited about it NOT changing color. For those who are tired of putting toppiks and DermMatch on everyday, it's a great alternative. The "touch ups" are once a year but better than every day applications of toppiks. For the right kind of donor scars, it's a big help.

 

 

Joe,

Since your techs didn't use your head to practice, maybe we can borrow your head to practice till January. At least we'd have a good reason for having our price 5% higher than yours.

[aaron1234]

This SMG / H&W news is great for us patients. Hardest hit = GLI, HIS, etc. These companies utilizing permanent ink, meanwhile lacking any kind of transparency regarding their technique, should be put on notice.

 

This now has me wondering how long it will be until Dr. Rassman's SMP transitions from permanent to temporary.

[Davis91]

I applaud Dr. Rassman for coming on these boards discussing SMP. However, some of his clinic's SMP photos are not transparent/honest--you can clearly see the difference in lighting used from before and after photos.

[Davis91]

Janna,

 

Sorry, you are right, I need to be sure to include all complimentary Janna components prior to hitting the send button. I will do better next time

[Blake Bloxham]

Blake,

 

I won't comment on the "crash course" because I do not know what other clinics are doing. Our techs were there for a week and even now, after they have returned, they are practicing every day on dummies (no, not me) so that when Milena arrives in early January for their practical exam and certification they will have close to six weeks of practice under their belts. They spent a lot of time on theory and they told me that they were surprised about how much there was to learn. This training does not allow for other types of SMP to be performed such as lips, eyebrows etc.

 

Joe,

 

The bolded portion made me laugh!

 

Having said that, it sounds like your techs are going through excellent training, and I'm pleased to hear that Hasson & Wong is continuing to offer the best to their patients.

 

Additionally, it's interesting and encouraging to hear about the dummy practice and that Milena is returning to provide the final examination.

[Janna]

Aaron,

 

I think that clinics who are using perm SMP will look for ways to minimize the main risks. At least we hope it will. I believe Milena's technique is pushing other clinics to take notice and come with improvements a little faster than they probably would have.

 

Davis,

 

I can see we'd get along splendidly.

Edited December 11, 2012 by Janna

[scar5]

....how long it will be until Dr. Rassman's SMP transitions from permanent to temporary.

 

Mnnn...interesting debates there.

 

1) Permanent Black vs Temporary Brown (not smoking substances)

 

 

 

2) Organic Polymers vs Metal Oxides?

 

 

 

3) Hair Tech trained by (x) for a week vs Tattoo Artist with 10 years experience

 

One thing I'd say, is that certain permanent inks are engineered to be easily erased with laser, and surely they would be better than having a fade in which you cannot control? How long is a 2-year-tatt good for anyway? Optimally?

 

Everyone should read a poster who runs by the monicker of "Hating Hat's" (posts, unfortunately elsewhere) and you can really see what a person can dig up.

[M1A1]

So, I am curious will this tool be able towork in the part area of the hairline and still look natural in people with medium length hair? Look foreward to videos with outside pictures and future discussions.

[scar5]

So, I am curious will this tool be able towork in the part area of the hairline and still look natural in people with medium length hair? Look foreward to videos with outside pictures and future discussions.

 

Yes, it will still work, but not as good as it might first seem, I.e it will be too weak. Also color may be a little off and this may show particularly in digital photos (I.e. all pics these days).

 

 

From the perspective of the person choosing the ink tone, they r gonna consider...

 

a) skin tone vs hair color at the desired length at this point in time, at this particular light shade/room etc. ,

b) guess for fading,

c) guess for hair length changing

d) guess for hair changing color ie,

e) guess for the contingency that the customer wants to buzz one day

f) guess for customers likelihood to show their mismatch color sub-par work on forum pics!

 

and will probably err on the cautious side,

 

Result -

a) customer thinks it is too too weak on the part line when hair is grown out if the is still pigment in the hair.

B) customer asks for more ink and goes back repeatedly to match the hair.

C) customer loses more hair, hair loses its natural pigment, customer cuts hair short, laser off the ink pigment

Etc...

 

As for vids, they may reveal something but expect drastic changes with different light and angles etc.

Edited December 14, 2012 by scar5

[M1A1]

Hmmm-interesting. So have you had this procedure done or are you a tech?

[Bill - Seemiller]

Joe,

 

I'm interested to learn more about how you are incorporating SMP into your clinic. Who will be performing the procedure? Someone indicated that the technicians will be performing it rather than the doctor. But who is performing the procedure and how well trained are they in the technique and artistry in order to ensure naturalness?

 

Also, does Hasson and Wong ever plan on offering "permanent" SMP? I've put "permanent" in quotes as if I am correct, touch-ups will be necessary even with the permanent version of the procedure.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

 

Edit: I realize that some of these questions have already been answered. It is interesting to me however, that it only took a week or two for technicians to learn and "master" Milena's technique. But since SMP is a lot about artistry, not just the technique of learning how to use the right ink, I wonder how each technician's work will look as compared to Milena who appears to have been developing her artistic ability to produce the appearance of natural looking hair for years.