Seven Strip Scars Pass #3

[hairthere]

UPDATE####

This client first came to Ahead Ink six weeks ago for two days of temporary SMP. He had undergone seven strip surgeries leaving him with seven distinct scars stacked. He had a friend attempt to conceal the scarring using some form of permanent cosmetic micro pigmentation. The results were large splotches which he attempted to remove with laser. This removed some but not all of the pigment. We decided to work around the remaining ink. For the client's third pass we added more density and adjusted the hairline slightly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Spanker]

What was this situation with his HT? Didn't grow, susceptible donor planted? Looks like a disturbing lack of hair considering 7 strip scars.

[hairthere]

Hi Spanker,

There was very little transplant hair on top (only a handful of grafts) so I believe this client's donor hair was most likely susceptible to DHT. They probably took the first strip high, and as his balding progressed kept going lower and lower (hence the 7 scars). He had this done in the 90s and was obviously not a good candidate.

[MrGio-WHTCClinic]

Thanks for sharing. That's an improvement. Any future SMP in the plan moving forward?

[hairthere]

Thank you Mr. Gio. This client has had 3 sessions and won't need to return for at least 1-2 years to have a touch-up.

[Bill - Seemiller]

I too would like to know what his previous situation was considering it's an extremely old and outdated to harvest multiple strips and not remove the old scar with each procedure. Seeing a patient scalp with seven strip scars is very disturbing in 2016.

 

Best wishes,

[hairthere]

Hi Bill,

He actually had the strips removed in the 90s. I'm not certain where but I'm pretty sure it was all with the same doctor.

[BHilt]

His Hairline looks great. Nice and dense at the same time too. Wish I lived in ny.

[hairthere]

I'm actually traveling to Houston in September to work on some clients. Not sure if we have any spots open but if you want PM me or email me info@aheadink.com and I can let you know.

[Jackmouse]

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.

Edited October 15, 2016 by Jackmouse
added a sentence

[tonkadeisel]

Hey Jack,

I'm considering the SMP procedure with Matt Lulo at Scalp Micro Pigmentation USA in NY. I'm still a little on the fence so more feedback from someone like you will benefit my decision making along with my own study. How long have you had your SMP procedure? Any regrets? How is the SMP holding up?

 

Thanks.

[Jackmouse]

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!

[hairthere]

Hey Jackmouse,

Nice to see you on the forum and glad to hear the SMP is looking good!

 

Tonka, If you have any questions feel free to PM through the forum or via our web site and I'd be happy to set up a consult.

Edited October 17, 2016 by hairthere

[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. ----

[HairingIsCaring]

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Edited October 18, 2016 by HairingIsCaring

[ontop]

Yep HT doctor's was lethal back in tbe early 90s & I bet there is still a few left around.

It's not perfect today, but hell of a lot better techniques & tools used thankfully.

 

Pretty good smp done there, you made a bad situation a lot better for this FUT guy.

[HairingIsCaring]

Hey Jack,

I'm considering the SMP procedure with Matt Lulo at Scalp Micro Pigmentation USA in NY. I'm still a little on the fence so more feedback from someone like you will benefit my decision making along with my own study. How long have you had your SMP procedure? Any regrets? How is the SMP holding up?

Thanks.

 

I have a buddy who went to matt iulo, first when he was at HIS hair then at headstrong. My friend literally had to travel back 12 times b/c his treatment kept fading. Matt iulo told him it was because of the strength of his immune system that the fading was so severe.

 

But over the course of all these return trips for more treatments he says he met several other guys who were also experiencing extreme fading and who were also having to go back to Matt for additional treatments after already having 5 treatments. 3-5 treatments is what they were all originally told would be the sufficient max amount.

 

 

My buddy always said Matt was super nice and professional and wonderful to deal with but after his 12th treatment the smp still faded and was still barely visible so he just gave up on the whole thing after spending all that money on treatments and travel expenses.

Edited October 18, 2016 by HairingIsCaring

[tonkadeisel]

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 Jackmouse,

I've just read both of your replies. Thank you very much for such a detail information. I'm very sorry about the bad experiences you've went through. I've also experienced the bad transplant strip scar which led me to the SMP path to hopefully hide the scar. My original intention was not to cover the whole head with SMP but the results online seems great which altered my original intention. Although some of these SMP practioners claimed to perform many of these procedures and post some good results on their site, I'm still a bit sceptical about others who have had the procedure done with good or bad results and don't want to be online. That's why I'm here. Thank you again for sharing your experiences and knowledge. This truly helps me a lot.

[tonkadeisel]

I have a buddy who went to matt iulo, first when he was at HIS hair then at headstrong. My friend literally had to travel back 12 times b/c his treatment kept fading. Matt iulo told him it was because of the strength of his immune system that the fading was so severe.

 

But over the course of all these return trips for more treatments he says he met several other guys who were also experiencing extreme fading and who were also having to go back to Matt for additional treatments after already having 5 treatments. 3-5 treatments is what they were all originally told would be the sufficient max amount.

 

 

My buddy always said Matt was super nice and professional and wonderful to deal with but after his 12th treatment the smp still faded and was still barely visible so he just gave up on the whole thing after spending all that money on treatments and travel expenses.

 

Hi HairingIsCaring,

Thank you for sharing your buddy's experience with Matt. I really appreciate that. About how long ago did he have his last procedure done by Matt? Was it all done when Matt was still at HIS and Headstrong? I was told that 2 to 3 treatment should be enough. I'm a Norwood class 5.

[HairingIsCaring]

Hi HairingIsCaring,

Thank you for sharing your buddy's experience with Matt. I really appreciate that. About how long ago did he have his last procedure done by Matt? Was it all done when Matt was still at HIS and Headstrong? I was told that 2 to 3 treatment should be enough. I'm a Norwood class 5.

 

It's been about 2 years since he had his last treatment with Matt iulo if I remember correctly...I have not discussed his experience with him in a while but I believe he first began doing treatments with matt at HIS and then at the next company called Headstrong.

 

After all of the fading he just gave up on the idea of smp being a viable option. He had HTs in the past and i think the linear scar on the back of his head was what he wanted covered most of all....it didn't happen

[hairthere]

"i think the linear scar on the back of his head was what he wanted covered most of all....it didn't happen"

 

Scar tissue can be tricky to treat as we are not dealing with healthy tissue. There are various depths and the vascularity is compromised. Ideal scars for successful SMP treatment are flat and white. I often encourage clients to perform a test patch on a scar first and assess 10-15 days later. To date I have had one client where the pigment just did not last in his scar. I've offered to treat him again and to inject the pigment a bit deeper to see if that works. I would imagine scar tissue from a HT could present problems on the top of the scalp as well. This hasn't been an issue for me so far, but every person's physiology is different.