Hair Replication: A Shortsighted Hair Loss "Solution"

Hair Replication: A Hair Loss Solution that Isn't a Solution At All

Hair replication, or "transdermal micropigmentation" is a hair loss treatment with benefits that are so short-term that it isn't even close to being worth the permanent side effects that follow.

Regardless of whether one is a man or a woman, young or not so young, losing one's hair is a devastating experience to endure. Even with the increased incidence of males opting for the shaved head over the pattern baldness look, the hair loss treatment industry is larger today than ever before, having grown into a muti-billion dollar industry.

Whether or not this is due to increased incidence of hair loss conditions is anyone's guess. What we do know is that more desperate people are enduring hair loss treatments that burn, conceal, apply, laser, slice, cut, plug, glue and cover their heads and scalps, hoping to find a cure that doesn't yet exist.

These same desperate individuals continue to take Propecia, though there are strong indications that doing so can cause irreversible damage to men's sex drives. And just when we thought we'd seen it all, enter a new treatment, "hair replication". This method of gaining back one's hair sounds very scientific and high tech, like "hair multiplication" which refers to hair cloning research.

But hair replication is not scientific or high tech, but is rather a tricky, shortsighted marketing ploy that ineffectively but permanently tattoos short strands of hair to one's head in a hopeless and misguided effort to create a new hairline and hair density on a scalp that no longer has either. Important-sounding and pseudoscientific words like "micropigmentation", "transdermal" and "hybrid method" are generously sprinkled throughout these providers' web sites, promising special "pigments" (that is to say "ink") that do not fade.

In other words, it's a tattoo, pure and simple. Anyone who has ever been "inked" knows that tattoos fade and bleed over time. "Specially formulated" tattoo ink that doesn't fade in the sun and over time doesn't exist. We've all seen how tattoos look over the years; the Marine uncle with the Semper Fi tattoo that is scarcely visible any longer with faded and bleeding ink, the once sharp, thin black lines now thick, faded, discolored and, ultimately, a blotchy, unattractive mess.

Imagine that blotchy mess on your scalp. To be fair, there are a minute number of practitioners who can produce a decent illusion of extremely short hair as is prominently displayed on their before and after photos. But these images capture the newly applied tattoo. Every tattoo looks sharp and full of color and life when it is first applied. The photos don't capture what happens after a few hours in the sun or how the treatment it is going to look in two years or more. The hairlines are typically drawn as straight lines across the forehead and true hair loss treatment professionals know that hairlines are rarely straight lines.

It is safe to assume that the tattoo artists who practice hair replication require their clients to sign releases limiting the practitioner's liability for a botched procedure. The problem is, over time, they will all be botched procedures. The desperate consumer will readily sign a contract, never taking the time to think about how this so-called hair loss treatment is going to stand the tests of time. By the time the client realizes his mistake, these hair replication companies will have disappeared into fabric of our culture that has never stopped tolerating snake oil salesmen who take advantage of desperate people who want only to capture a bit of their lost natural appearance and to feel whole again.