SMP with Long Hair

I have long hair and am interested in SMP. Can I put pigment in my hair to make it look fuller?

Scalp MicroPigmentation (SMP) works best for those who want to shave their hair (keeping it clipped very short). Even hair as long as 1/2 cm may not look right with SMP. You must remember that this is a permanent pigment (tattoo) without a three-dimensional texture.

Let’s say you had a scar on your scalp from surgery. If you shave the hair around the scar, SMP can mimic the same look (thus disguising the scar). When the hair grows, there will be an uneven step-off look until your hair grows long enough to cover it. Another issue with SMP is the color matching. If you have brown hair, SMP may not match if the hair is kept long. SMP works for shaved brown hair, because the hair color almost looks grey when it’s that short. So if you match the color of a shaved hair, it will not match with the long hair (unless your hair color is black).

In a minority of cases we do use SMP in between the hair to make it look fuller. In effect, this is coloring your scalp to diminish the contrast between hair color and scalp color. If you do this, you will need to keep your hair longer (5cm+ or so) so that it would not look like you tattooed your scalp. This method is only recommended if you are never going to cut your hair short (for life), because if you shave or cut your hair short it will not look right.

In summary — SMP is not so simple. It’s a permanent procedure that works best for shaved hair where we use a shade of grey (not brown). If you keep your hair long and we use your dark brown pigment to give you fullness, cutting your hair short later will cause the different color to stand out. If you want some permanent color to your scalp while keeping your hair long, it’s doable, but not advised for everyone. I think temporary camouflaging products such as DermMatch and Toppik are the best for those situations.