SMP Over the Years?

How does SMP look like after 5 years? 10 years or 20 years down the road. I’ve seen some really bad SMP jobs on YouTube where the color looks smeared all over the scalp. Maybe these SMP jobs were done by novices or bad tattoo artists but if only a handful of Dr’s do it and do it well. How can there be a guarantee that a Dr with proficiency will be around in 20 years performing SMP when I need a touch up? I am interested in the procedure but worried that the color fades too easily or the dots expand to form a cloudy look. The bad SMP jobs on YouTube make the head look like there is a permanent giant bruise on the entire head. Looks like some sort of disfigurement.

Has any of your SMP patients been unhappy with the results after so many years?

We have been performing Scalp Micropigmentation (SMP) now for two years, so I can not address a longer time frame. I have seen one patient who had scalp tattoos done elsewhere about 9 years ago and he touched it up often (possibly too often). His scalp took on the appearance of smeared color. The black ink turned green and when it covered the entire scalp, the scalp appeared green. Certainly, it was not a good end result. He was experimented on, so his result probably reflected the many techniques that evolved and possibly many different pigments.

With regard to our practice, yes, we have had dissatisfied patients. In analyzing the reason for the dissatisfaction, we concluded that: (a) they really did not understand what they were getting, (b) they were expecting Toppik level concealers which produces better camouflage and are much darker, (c) they noticed irregularities in the ‘dots’ where some of them were larger than others, (d) the pigments faded irregularly, (e) they came from long distances and needed touch-ups that required them to make another trip to California and (f) the color changes in the black to a green or blue tint was more than they expected to see.

A few patients tried to push us to repeat the process more times than we wanted to do, and early in our experience we wanted to make them happy, so we were swayed by their desire far more than we should have been. Now, we stick to our guns and keep to what we believe is in the best long-term interest of the patient. Even though we still want to make the accommodations that will make the patients happy, we will not do anything that will lead to a complication or poor result.

We have addressed these complaints by spending a huge amount of time with each prospective patient, explaining every detail of the process and expectations. The patients seemed to be more satisfied with the end results.