Having it tattooed on.
Scalp tattoos sound crazy, but they aren’t any more.
More and more pro athletes, stars, and working men are choosing hair tattoo as a more sure and safe alternative to hair transplant.
There’s a few reasons why I believe this upward trend is happening.
Downtime:
You need to treat your scalp like a newborn baby while is scars up, sheds all the donor hair, and (usually) regrows it. The process takes a couple months, and you need to be out of work for 2-5 days. You’ll probably be on anti inflammatory or antibiotic drugs to prevent infection.
And probably most inconvenient, you have to have actual surgery, but you won’t get actual hair growth for 3 months, and you won’t get good growth for 9-18 months.
You can get shock loss, which is where the transplant hairs kill the original hairs where they’ve been placed.
You are also at risk for folliculitis, which is hair follicle inflammation that eventually leads to hair loss.
Hair tattoo, a couple hours, 2-3 times to get best results. Redness for an hour or so after, don’t scrub your hair for 4 days.
You are are risk for infection like a traditional tattoo, but it carries little risk when held up next to a hair transplant.
There’s really no competition here.
Maintenance:
From my experience, hair transplant does not make clients significantly less self conscious. It gets worse before it gets better, and if the transplant isn’t really successful, you will have to go back to all of the things you did before to hide thinning, except now you will have wasted a lot of time and money.
With hair tattoo, you have to wait 10 days before cutting your hair. And then you go back to barbering as usual. Yep. That simple.
Money:
Hair transplants are expensive. There’s no way around it. Sometimes, they are flat out amazing. But, only sometimes do they contribute the thickness and new growth that clients were looking for.
In Hawaii, the average cost is going to be between $10,000 and $15,000, and that’s hefty price tag.
Transplant is the right solution for clients looking for actual hair.
Other good options would be platelet rich plasma therapy or dermarolling with topical minoxidil or finasteride to try to stimulate hair growth. There can be reactions to topicals, so ask your doctor before beginning.
The only solution that does not require surgery or consistency is hair tattoo. Scalp micropigmentation is not cheap, as it is labor intensive and takes skill and care, but for a growing number of active men, it’s the best solution for their lifestyle.