M
mmac6804
Valued member
My journey is a long emotional one. I can sum up the early stages, because it can be very comparable to others. I was 18 years old, started showing signs of my hair thinning. It seemed as if it was thinning very quickly, as people I saw periodically, made comments and jokes. I recall one night, a student in our school, made a comment to my current girlfriend about dating a guy that was going to be bald, that statement made life miserable. It was shortly after, she broke up with me and my confidence regarding my appearance at 18/19 years old plummeted. Then welcome my security blanket, a baseball cap, with my cap I was my old-self, but couldn t go anywhere without it.
Then I moved on to college, I had my cap, but towards the end, I was convinced by a family friend barbershop, that I could wear a hair replacement system. I took the pros and cons and thought it might help and still look believable. The only problem, I couldn t do the things I loved, for fear of it falling off, or become noticeable, with all the jokes about toupees and such, that would have been tragic. I knew I couldn t stay local in the city I lived for fear people would see me and recognize a difference. The fear of the repercussions of being detected, I dropped out of college, and moved back home, and decided to change my degree, and go to a local school. I never finished school, but needed to find work, so I moved to the big city.
After trying to date women that I met in the city, the fear of them finding out I was wearing my hair, was too much, so I would end many relationships.
I finally met one person, and after both of us sharing major secrets, she didn t care. I ended up marrying her for several years. The part of being accepted went away, but the confidence of somebody finding out that I was wearing hair was crazy low. I feared so much, windy days, rainy days, getting to hot and sweaty. I constantly would try to find the newest hair replacement product on the market. I would find the real believable systems, but they were so much money. I even went out to Philadelphia; this company literally sewed the system, with medical thread to my scalp, it looked good, I could even go swimming, but it was near impossible to clean underneath, and after about a year, it wore itself in spots through my scalp, leaving me with 3 visible scars.
Out comes the newest hair replacement system, of completely bonding a system onto your head, with front hairlines that were undetectable. You see them now on TV, you can swim, sweat, style, and nobody will know, some are even named Hollywood hair . Now these systems aren t cheap, so you get into a yearly program, every month was like $350, but you got a new cut-in system every month. This went on for several years.
Thinking my problems were over, I always felt there was something that just wasn t believable, or feared someone would find out and make fun of me. I was still paranoid on my look, and took such a long time to get ready to go out. Then I would get it styled just right and used more hair spray than a 80s rock band did.
After calculating on how much money I had spent over a twenty year period, it was unbelievable, to the sum of nearly 65-72K. It made me angry, sad, discouraged, fearful, as I figured I could have had that money saved for a retirement, or something other than put onto my head, and I knew inside, I was not confident. Out comes a commercial I saw on TV, a local company stating get hair peace . It is a shaved head look that now is socially acceptable, the commercial was so convincing. A one- time fee and a look that was undetectable. It was adding permanent pigment to replicate hair follicles. I remember quickly writing the phone number, and website down. When I got home, I researched the website. I made a call and booked a consultation. The day of my consultation, I was treated like I really mattered, I spoke to a guy that was about my age, had a lot of similarities that I had growing up, he wore hair for several years too. So I was told what to do to prepare for my day as I booked my appointment. I had picked out a look I was interested in from a photobook they had.
June 22, 2012, my appointment day, I was freaking out, there was no going back, I shaved my head before going over to the Minneapolis area office. I procedure would take a full day. The tech started placing dots on my head, and it was supposed to be pain free, hell no, it hurt, and only after 10 minutes, I was breaking down inside. After about 8 hours they were done, my head hurt, like a sunburn, I looked into a mirror and felt, what have I just done , this did not look like the picture, this was not an unbelievable look. I was supposed to go to work in 3 days, I was immediately trying to think of ways to quit my job, how would I replace that income. I now had to go out in public, with a look that in my mind was worse than the hair systems. My first night back at work ¦..first comment out of someone s mouth, hahaha, looks like a bad tattoo. Over the course of 2 months, I heard every comment possible, and I became a joker about it, the comments slowly quieted down, but the worst was yet to come.
The pigment was supposed to calm down the tint, sort of fade, it never did, it actually started to show more of a blue hue. I would have to apply make-up to my head to get that to not show so bad. This would take about 2 hours to apply correctly and look good enough to be in public. I could not find a new job, so I had to continue this process for several months.
I had sunk into the worst imaginable place emotionally, this affected everything about me, it affected who I hung out with, I would not go-to anyplace I couldn t wear a hat except my work. I became so angry, sad, fearful, and scared. I later found out I was a test subject on a new pigment, I contacted several attorneys, but no-one would help me, no-one was familiar enough with SMP. I had one last true effort to do, I would write a letter to Hair Transplants doctors and see if there is anything they could do to help.
After several letters sent, only one doctor responded to see me for a consultation. It was Dr. Ron Shapiro. Immediately, when I saw him, I felt, Dr. Ron saw the pain I was in, I know one appointment I did everything in my powers to not breakdown and cry right there. Dr. Ron knew I would need to get the pigment out, so I contacted the SMP company in Edina that destroyed me; I made an appointment to talk to them. I went in to make them feel my pain and correct what they did. For the record, many of the dots, pooled together so I was very blotchy looking. Their first thing was, what do you want us to do, you knew it was a permanent procedure . After I threatened to sue them and go public, they choose to refund my $4000. They agreed to send me to go have laser tattoo removal done. My procedure for that was the worst pain I have every felt, because of the pigment being do dark and concentrated, it felt like a major shock every second on my head. My first session I lasted 5 minutes, and teared up, it hurt so bad, my second through 10[suP]th[/suP] appointment I needed to have lanacaine applied to help numb the areas. It barely made a difference. Now the SMP company sent me a letter and would only cover 7 appointments, thinking that would be enough, after that, I would have to pay the $100 of laser treatments. Dr. Ron Shapiro advised he could help, but getting the pigment out as much as possible was crucial. After my 13[suP]th[/suP] laser treatment, Dr. Ron did the FUE procedure, and my recovery process began. When I entered Shapiro Medical Group, I was treated with so much respect, and professionalism.
I met with their consultation expert, Matt; he explained and educated a lot on what FUEs will do. I also met with SMP expert Nicole Large; she was going to assist in my recovery process, by adding SMP along with the FUEs to enhance a look that would have texture and density.
Dr. Ron was so focused and determined to have this corrected and obtain a natural overall look. 1 year after my first FUE, he introduced Dr. Joe into the correctional phase and Dr. Joe would be doing my second FUE procedure. Nicole was amazing and incredibly supportive, she educated me all the time and kept me up to speed on what to expect. Every few months, I would return to Shapiro Medical Group so Dr. Ron could asses the 2 FUE procedures. Nicole added SMP in between my procedures to be subtle and carefully done.
I am going to have one more FUE pass in February 2016 to tie it all together and blend the FUE and SMP procedures. I have been through a period of my life that I feel was the worst imaginable. Shapiro Medical Group, Dr. Ron, Nicole, and Dr. Joe, are so amazing and professional to correct the nightmare I was living every day, so that I can focus on a much more positive future. I am a firm believer that the combination of SMP and FUE is the best natural look of a buzzed look. I am so looking forward to 2016, as I should be done, and thanks to Dr. Ron, Nicole, and Dr. Joe.
Then I moved on to college, I had my cap, but towards the end, I was convinced by a family friend barbershop, that I could wear a hair replacement system. I took the pros and cons and thought it might help and still look believable. The only problem, I couldn t do the things I loved, for fear of it falling off, or become noticeable, with all the jokes about toupees and such, that would have been tragic. I knew I couldn t stay local in the city I lived for fear people would see me and recognize a difference. The fear of the repercussions of being detected, I dropped out of college, and moved back home, and decided to change my degree, and go to a local school. I never finished school, but needed to find work, so I moved to the big city.
After trying to date women that I met in the city, the fear of them finding out I was wearing my hair, was too much, so I would end many relationships.
I finally met one person, and after both of us sharing major secrets, she didn t care. I ended up marrying her for several years. The part of being accepted went away, but the confidence of somebody finding out that I was wearing hair was crazy low. I feared so much, windy days, rainy days, getting to hot and sweaty. I constantly would try to find the newest hair replacement product on the market. I would find the real believable systems, but they were so much money. I even went out to Philadelphia; this company literally sewed the system, with medical thread to my scalp, it looked good, I could even go swimming, but it was near impossible to clean underneath, and after about a year, it wore itself in spots through my scalp, leaving me with 3 visible scars.
Out comes the newest hair replacement system, of completely bonding a system onto your head, with front hairlines that were undetectable. You see them now on TV, you can swim, sweat, style, and nobody will know, some are even named Hollywood hair . Now these systems aren t cheap, so you get into a yearly program, every month was like $350, but you got a new cut-in system every month. This went on for several years.
Thinking my problems were over, I always felt there was something that just wasn t believable, or feared someone would find out and make fun of me. I was still paranoid on my look, and took such a long time to get ready to go out. Then I would get it styled just right and used more hair spray than a 80s rock band did.
After calculating on how much money I had spent over a twenty year period, it was unbelievable, to the sum of nearly 65-72K. It made me angry, sad, discouraged, fearful, as I figured I could have had that money saved for a retirement, or something other than put onto my head, and I knew inside, I was not confident. Out comes a commercial I saw on TV, a local company stating get hair peace . It is a shaved head look that now is socially acceptable, the commercial was so convincing. A one- time fee and a look that was undetectable. It was adding permanent pigment to replicate hair follicles. I remember quickly writing the phone number, and website down. When I got home, I researched the website. I made a call and booked a consultation. The day of my consultation, I was treated like I really mattered, I spoke to a guy that was about my age, had a lot of similarities that I had growing up, he wore hair for several years too. So I was told what to do to prepare for my day as I booked my appointment. I had picked out a look I was interested in from a photobook they had.
June 22, 2012, my appointment day, I was freaking out, there was no going back, I shaved my head before going over to the Minneapolis area office. I procedure would take a full day. The tech started placing dots on my head, and it was supposed to be pain free, hell no, it hurt, and only after 10 minutes, I was breaking down inside. After about 8 hours they were done, my head hurt, like a sunburn, I looked into a mirror and felt, what have I just done , this did not look like the picture, this was not an unbelievable look. I was supposed to go to work in 3 days, I was immediately trying to think of ways to quit my job, how would I replace that income. I now had to go out in public, with a look that in my mind was worse than the hair systems. My first night back at work ¦..first comment out of someone s mouth, hahaha, looks like a bad tattoo. Over the course of 2 months, I heard every comment possible, and I became a joker about it, the comments slowly quieted down, but the worst was yet to come.
The pigment was supposed to calm down the tint, sort of fade, it never did, it actually started to show more of a blue hue. I would have to apply make-up to my head to get that to not show so bad. This would take about 2 hours to apply correctly and look good enough to be in public. I could not find a new job, so I had to continue this process for several months.
I had sunk into the worst imaginable place emotionally, this affected everything about me, it affected who I hung out with, I would not go-to anyplace I couldn t wear a hat except my work. I became so angry, sad, fearful, and scared. I later found out I was a test subject on a new pigment, I contacted several attorneys, but no-one would help me, no-one was familiar enough with SMP. I had one last true effort to do, I would write a letter to Hair Transplants doctors and see if there is anything they could do to help.
After several letters sent, only one doctor responded to see me for a consultation. It was Dr. Ron Shapiro. Immediately, when I saw him, I felt, Dr. Ron saw the pain I was in, I know one appointment I did everything in my powers to not breakdown and cry right there. Dr. Ron knew I would need to get the pigment out, so I contacted the SMP company in Edina that destroyed me; I made an appointment to talk to them. I went in to make them feel my pain and correct what they did. For the record, many of the dots, pooled together so I was very blotchy looking. Their first thing was, what do you want us to do, you knew it was a permanent procedure . After I threatened to sue them and go public, they choose to refund my $4000. They agreed to send me to go have laser tattoo removal done. My procedure for that was the worst pain I have every felt, because of the pigment being do dark and concentrated, it felt like a major shock every second on my head. My first session I lasted 5 minutes, and teared up, it hurt so bad, my second through 10[suP]th[/suP] appointment I needed to have lanacaine applied to help numb the areas. It barely made a difference. Now the SMP company sent me a letter and would only cover 7 appointments, thinking that would be enough, after that, I would have to pay the $100 of laser treatments. Dr. Ron Shapiro advised he could help, but getting the pigment out as much as possible was crucial. After my 13[suP]th[/suP] laser treatment, Dr. Ron did the FUE procedure, and my recovery process began. When I entered Shapiro Medical Group, I was treated with so much respect, and professionalism.
I met with their consultation expert, Matt; he explained and educated a lot on what FUEs will do. I also met with SMP expert Nicole Large; she was going to assist in my recovery process, by adding SMP along with the FUEs to enhance a look that would have texture and density.
Dr. Ron was so focused and determined to have this corrected and obtain a natural overall look. 1 year after my first FUE, he introduced Dr. Joe into the correctional phase and Dr. Joe would be doing my second FUE procedure. Nicole was amazing and incredibly supportive, she educated me all the time and kept me up to speed on what to expect. Every few months, I would return to Shapiro Medical Group so Dr. Ron could asses the 2 FUE procedures. Nicole added SMP in between my procedures to be subtle and carefully done.
I am going to have one more FUE pass in February 2016 to tie it all together and blend the FUE and SMP procedures. I have been through a period of my life that I feel was the worst imaginable. Shapiro Medical Group, Dr. Ron, Nicole, and Dr. Joe, are so amazing and professional to correct the nightmare I was living every day, so that I can focus on a much more positive future. I am a firm believer that the combination of SMP and FUE is the best natural look of a buzzed look. I am so looking forward to 2016, as I should be done, and thanks to Dr. Ron, Nicole, and Dr. Joe.
