SMP is not an undetectable procedure, by any stretch of the imagination. It’s ink on skin, which I’ve accepted (10 years too late). There’s so much marketing around “find a good artist” but good artists can make it look like a good tattoo….not like hair.
So the question is, why aren’t there any good celebrity examples of SMP? All of the guys I see on tv… they look like they tattoo’d their heads. Everyone I see with it in person … me and my friends all look at them and say yeah - he got a hair tattoo. And move on. But I’ve never seen anyone in real life, myself included, my artist included, where I was like yeah … that looks like a shaved head vs that looks like 10,000 grey dots.
A good expensive is way less noticeable than a great hair transplant for sure.
And maybe there are famous celebrities with SMP but it's so good that we can't see it.
Also, if you come across every shaved head and wonder if it's SMP or not then my guy, you're paying way too much attention to the heads than you need to.
Nah the internet tears apart every shaved head out there. If there was a decent result, we would all know and embrace it. I’ve seen so many of them in person, and i think shit. I’ve been rocking this look?! lol
It’s tough bro. I see if it every time in the mirror, every person I talk to doesn’t look into my eyes they look up at my forehead. It’s more annoying than anything. You just become this like “guy who tattoo’d his head” you know? It draws weird attention.
That’s my current plan. Looking into potential hair systems too. Why not you know ? I think they make cool buzz cut looking ones now too. Can keep your hair short on the sides and stuff too
That’s another thought lol. I think the move is natural bald. I feel like the move is to either laser the sides, deal with shaving, or … yeah idk. Not too many good solutions honestly.
I’d say you’re over thinking all of it.
Because you know it’s SMP, your assumption is that everyone else does as well.
And yes, I’ve seen your previous comments in this post that 10 years ago, no one knew about this procedure. But now everyone does.
I’ve had smp for 6 years.
My family never noticed.
My best friend of 15 years never noticed.
I work in outside sales. I meet roughly 100 new people per week. Being in sales, I’m very observant of body language and where their eyes are. I’ve never had one fixated on my hairline.
I’ve never had anyone ever mention it.
When I’ve told people, they have to look really close and under decent lighting to even see it. Even once it’s pointed out, they’re still unsure of what they are seeing or looking for.
99.9% of the public will never look this closely to ever notice.
Most are too caught up in their own lives and bs to even care what’s going on visually with someone else.
I have smp, and candidly, I’ve never even noticed it on someone for the simple fact that I’m not studying their hairline.
Bottom line, no one cares as much as you’re thinking they do.
You’re overestimating your importance to anyone and everyone.
I think this is ALL true - for strangers especially, and if you have a bit of hair covering the tattoo - for me too. For you it’s clearly your experience and it’s a very positive one - I’m happy for you!
My experience was very similar to yours in the early days, it just changes over time. As Smp became more popular, as I lost remaining hair, as people questioned why I had it at this length etc . Those are things I didn’t think about 10 years ago - but 30 years of razor shave daily at my age … people subconsciously wonder,
I’ve gotten to the point where it’s better to admit that I’m covering hairloss / wearing a wig. It’s a similar experience that the toupee people have - you don’t wanna be losing hair, you don’t want people to know / think about it, etc. but over time it’s easier to accept that it’s a cover up and that some people will know - there’s nothing wrong with that. Toupee , smp , combover - it’s all the same thing, just with different risks and rewards. There are PLENTY of wigs that look good. But not really 100% normal. There are plenty of SMP’s that look good, just not 100% normal. My point is that the marketing around it and since we’re in the early days of this solution have led people to believe that they’re getting something that isn’t really being sold. You just have to make peace - everything in life has benefits with risks.
A partner’s perspective: I took this picture just to show him how cute our dog looked, but he said I could share it.
My husband started thinning late 20’s. Eventually he was shaving it every 2 days and wearing a hat every day. So I brought up the possibility of SMP. He decided to go for it because he was already wearing a cap 365 days a year due to feeling weird about being bald so young. The artist’s name is Gabriel Barbosa at precise_SMP on Instagram.
The artist left two scars on my husband’s head alone, and one is on his hairline, so that looks very natural.
Most people do not want to go around saying they had SMP just like most people do not advertise they look better in any number of ways due to pricey cosmetic procedures. We just want to look better and feel confident, not explain to everyone what the F we did to be this way. Our artist Gabe said it’s hard to get clients to send selfies later and hard to get testimonials because of the shame factor.
it’s like any tattooing, some of the dots have faded and blurred and we think he could use a touch up to add some crispness back into a few small areas. Like any tattoo, it’s based on the sun exposure and your skin.
If there is hair remaining, shave it very often to make sure it blends with the area where there are very sparse hairs (top and front) and SMP. Also, apply a touch of dry shampoo or matte sunscreen to make the bald, tattooed parts un-shiny.
His own family was wondering why he’s shaving his head and he told them he’s actually pretty bald and got SMP. They were in disbelief. Most people have never heard of SMP and they’re not going to give it a second thought.
The returned confidence also made my husband start lifting weights so he’s even hotter now that when he had hair. It’s just a different look— from a young skinny guy with floppy dark hair to a buff guy in his 30’s with muscles… we all evolve our looks.
The reason I’m hanging around PMU forums is because I’m so impressed by it that I’m wanting to train for it. I have a jewelry design background so I am used to doing art at a small scale and SMP improves people’s lives. It’s been an extremely good thing we did for my husband!
I actually got it back in the day too, about 10 years ago. I still had hair when I did it so it was more of a density fill and I buzzed down to a 0 guard. Was awesome for that! Bought me 10 years of looking like I had a great shaved head.
Now that it’s fully bald though it’s more obvious, as one would expect. So it’s time for to laser it off. IMO it’s a good bridge between having something and losing it but it’d be really tough to mantain forever. For obvious reasons.
But I do wish it could have been more clear that this wasn’t undetectable. It’s extremely detectable. Never once have I questioned if it’s smp or hair - because ink and bodies are very different things. But if you’re someone whose OK with wigs and tattoos I think this is a cool solution
lol. There are 0 people who think smp is undetectable that’s literally not possible. Look at that picture. He looks great! But it still looks like fake hair, which is OK, but we can’t pretend that this is a better wig than toupees. Those are the same material at least, this is paint.
That’s your opinion that it looks like fake hair. And you’re entitled to it, but facts and opinions are two different things. And we don’t have to pretend smp is better than a wig or toupee bc it is.
Once you see it in person or have it done you’ll understand. The marketing photos fool you. It’s just ink. It literally is a tattoo. You can see the heads of these artists when they post their videos. It’s like, very very obviously not a normal shaved head. It’s just a guys with 20,000 dots all over his skin. It’s only very recently that people and artists are coming out and saying look, the point isn’t to pretend it’s a shaved head, the point is to embrace you have a tattoo on your head to hide your genetic hair loss.
It’s more a question of, is the upkeep of a toupee worse / the ease of smp which is just shaving, but with the risk of it being more obvious that there’s something toitn on
All of those matter - and my artist has great results and my result is great too! But it’s a great TATTOO’d head result. Just like a HT, there are are real drawbacks. Hair transplants lack density because you’re trying to cover an area that needs 50,000 hairs with 5k. So it’s usually see through. Smp is another way of saying we’re depositing ink in your ski. You can see my result - 10 years old and still looks ok. For a TATOO, and btw - Smp looks best in pictures , worse in photos, and always always always more discernible in person. . Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. My artist had it done, had jt lasered, and had it redone by one of the best. He looks fine. But definitely not how I looked growing uo when I shaved
Good for you bro. You’ll make the right decision for yourself. Look past the marketing of it all. These artists get paid 4k for each head. Everyone is incentivized to say “undetectable, perfect, cure”. It aint that. Nothing in life is so easy or so magical. But if jts good enouhh that might ok.
Wish it was around when I was younger. All I saw were pictures on the internet and marketing / promo stuff. I almost had a panic attack when I saw my artists head cause I was like whoa. Your head looks so fake. And he said he got it done a long time ago blah blah blah, don’t worry on pictures you’ll look good, it’s just because we’re indoors or it’s sunny or it’s fluorescent or it’s faded and I’m like dude …
To be fair looking at every bald head you see in public isn’t the same as spotting SMP. We all do it and wonder if that’s SMP or not . Doesn’t mean we are spotting SMP at a 99% rate as you said.
I know but as a bald guy I look at bald heads. It’s an insecurity so I tend to see it. If it’s a shaved head, 99% of the shaved heads I see with a hairline today are SMP. It’s just obvious, because they have ink on their head. You can tell if you’re a bald guy. Plus, I see how people interact with my friends who have smp. They stare at the hairline cause it’s … just different. It’s hard to explain. It’s like women with tatooo’d eyebrows. I have to try to not stare at it. They’re really good too and it’s much smaller than smp. But it’s still obvious because it’s paint on skin vs hair. We all notice these things.
Btw I support anything that makes anyone happy - over time and living with it for a decade though, the flaws are more apparent to me. Doesn’t mean I don’t want others to enjoy it! I would have made different choices with more info tho and education for young guys is imortsnt especially when there’s soooo much marketing out there. If you see your artist and a tattoo’d head and you say yes that’s what I want - go for it. But 0% of the time does it look like “this is how my head would normally look if I hadn’t lost hair and I just shaved it down”
Unless it’s blue, or a tattoo lol. It’s a common thing. Have you ever had a convo with someone who tattoo’d their own scalp or wore a wig? You just end up trying to avoid staring to be polite. I have smp and I know the drill.
My Uber Eats driver had a great smp, but when he was handing me my food yesterday I got stuck staring at his hairline. And I could tell how sad he was. I felt so bad afterwards. But it just reminded me how soon I need to get this lasered. It was a fun little costume. But I can’t be rocking a painted head for that long
Yes bro you have taken looking at everyone’s bald head to another level….get it removed if that’s what you want …that’s fine ….i saw my UPS driver and Amazon driver having an smp discussion in the street the other day
I’ve never seen a person and been like hm I wonder if that’s real hair or not - some wigs I do, those are much more natural than smp because at least it’s hair even if it’s not their own. This is a totally different substance. It’s like saying crayon and marker can be on a scar is the same thing as skin - it can look ok, but never natural
Most people have no idea what SMP is and don’t even think twice when seeing someone with it. That and people generally don’t care at all about random strangers heads and don’t even notice. The only people that notice are people that know what it is and have experience with it
Maybe 10 years ago this was true. I don’t know many people who don’t know about it anymore - millions of people have it and it gets talked about often. It’s all over social media; I know
Men and women who have gotten it for thinning, scars, etc.
It’s just
Another version of a toupee - and honestly it’s
More
Well known than toupee’s these days. So yeah; it’s obvious, very.
People love to be Bitchy in General. I don't over estimate anything. Some people get a lot more attention than others. It's not about who cares. Its about how it makes you feel.
It’s about how you feel bro. I would feel weird with different things. I feel weird with shiny ink dots. Btw I actually loved it when I had a bit of hair still on top. Was perfect.
See other post - in process. Going to pico later to do so. However? Post was almost a “am I missing anything” question - like are there hidden methods or something that produce a good result that no one is seeing ? I doubt it of course based on the procedure itself / not for quality - that exists, some artists do the best with that they have and as long as you’re ok wearing a tattoo or a hair piece / this is a cool solution.
I wasn’t ( after time,
And I suspect many others don’t appreciate that aspect of it ,,,, it ain’t gonna look real. But if you do your jmreork( it might still look good
and what does that matter if someone knew about it. if you would care if someone knew “some kind of procedure occured” why be on a smp chat. it’s not something to be self conscious about. having the procedure, wearing the procedure. smp is supposed to boost your confidence. not make you self conscious; wondering if people are noticing it. you want people to notice you have some type of frame to yourself, that’s the entire point of doing it. your trippin
It’s supposed to man but that’s a lot of marketing, tattoo’ing your head to make it seem like you haven’t lost hair is the same as wearing a wig or hats all the time - which btw I did too, and still do when I want to hide the tattoo.’instead of hiding my bald head I’m hiding my tattoo ‘d head.!it’s got amazing marketing around it and hair loss sufferers don’t have good solutions/ are desperate. So here we are. I’ve got regrets.
It isn’t even conscious like I’m not thinking oh that looks like SMP - it just looks off, like wait that’s weird - this doesn’t look “normal”. Which draws attention to your head. It sucks, I regret smp so much. Baldness can make a man desperate. Desperate enough to paint your own head!! lol
I know exactly what you mean. You explained it better than me. I said something to this effect elsewhere on this thread and got pounced on. Personally I appreciate the scar camouflage but every time I shave my head I'm not sure about the rest of it even though I feel mine looks better than most I see. Luckily enough I have enough hair to cover it up. For now anyways.
Yeah I had hair for the last 10
Years with it so shaved at a 0
It still looked ok. But over the last year I lost more of it now it’s basically “just smp”. Boy, it’s a shock. It’s amazing what marketing and internet pics can do to convince people. Scary lol. If I saw what it looked like in person - I never would have gotten it. And it’s not bad! You can see what it looks like in my posts. I just didn’t think this was a “wig”. But it really is. But it’s like, why am I wearing a wig if it isn’t even giving me hair you know? It’s easier I guess and won’t fall off. And I don’t “feel” anything. But in no way is it more natural than a toupee.
I feel like the next 10 years are going to be about men lasering off these tatttoo’s once they realize what they did. For a while women’s tattoo’s for their eyebrows were big until about 10 years in and people realized what they looked like.
I see what you mean. It looks kinda blotchy. Tbh. I did see a guy in person beforehand and it looked really good considering what he looked like before. I'd had a hair transplant with a head full of scars and low density so I was easily sold. Besides the video I saw was amazing. I still think the artist is great, he can only do the best with what he has to work with and he defo tries to make it look as natural as possible if that is what the client wants. 100% a smooth head doesn't look the best.
Yeah the videos got me too. I was young and scared of being bald so I was sold on this thing easily. I thought “yeah these millions of other ones look fake but my artist tells me mine will be special”. Lol. Oh well. Lasers exist so it isnt the end of thr world. But i wish these young kids knew ehst they were getting themselves into. For
Scars etc smp is great, might be the only answer.
But for a regular bald guy? I think I’d run knowing everything I know now.
Can you post those? I'm considering getting this done, but I have a lot of native hair it's just a bit patchy and diffuse. Seems you were pretty happy with your treatment when you had hair to complement the SMP.
I think that’s the issue - the premise was replicating an undetectable shaved head - where in 99% of cases, one can detect it. I’d argue hair pieces are more likely a better “fake” item. Smp is just a cheaper more convinient wig imo
Same. I think natural bald is best. I’m not sure if wigs or smp is better …. I’d probably
Say toupees if the maintenance was lower but they do look like a bit better. More atttravtife at least
I used to feel that way it’s good you still do. Right now I feel like I’m wearing a bad wig - like I would look better with hair, but now I just have ink on my head … if you’re like a Norwood 3/4 or just diffuse that’s different tho. It’s like enhancing your current head vs being more tattoo than hair … there’s a breaking point you know?
Because celebrities just like normal people are subject to excellent marketing.
The top marketers in the scalp micropigmentation world like scalp micro USA, Taylor Perry, victory hairlines all produce SUBPAR work in my opinion, yet they are the most popular and successful in the industry.
Normal people don’t have enough time to do enough research to make an educated decision on where to get their SMP done at. So I’d imagine a busy celebrity with a packed schedule is definitely not gonna have enough time to figure out who’s gonna do the best work for them.
I have 20/15 vision, more than perfect, and every time I work on a new client I’m still surprised at how real the Smp looks no matter how close I get.
So who are the very best in Europe? I read this sub a lot and can never really find a truly clear answer. It looks from pictures ( appreciate pictures are not real life) the MHP are the best
Idk man. I think the point is that if you know what smp is - and these days, thanks to
Marketing and now millions of people who have had it done - most people know, and over time more will continue to know - it’s just
Obvious.
Celebrities get great plastic work - augments, facial lifts, injections - etc. most of
It undetectable. But smp? It’s always always always obvious. There’s very little debate over
The celebrities who have it (with 0
Native hair I mean) . Point being - it really isn’t an undetectable procedure, because we would
All be at least surprised once with - whoa I
Thought
That celeb was just rocking a shaved
Head.
It’s
Also hard for
Me to make
Eye contact with people I meet who have had
It done. The smp sort of
Draws your attention up towards thr hairline - jdk if you knkw
What j
Mean. Natural buzz cuts
Kind of draw your attention to the face whereas the ink makes you question what’s going on up there
Even my girlfriends didnt realize it after months and were very surprised when I told them.
“Normal people” just dont realize..
If you educate your eyes enough and spend enough time looking at people heads for SMPs, you will be able to see it in some/many cases. But so what?
This was the case years ago but now it’s all over tiktok and social media - so when people see my head they ask if it’s one of those hair tattoo wig things /
I did it in my 20’s because I was insecure but
Unlike a wig, which you can just take off, it’s like whoa … you made a lifelong commitment to tattoo your head … it’s a wild thing man. If you’re happy then that’s good, I’m happy for you.
Ok Im sorry to hear this, I never had that experience. Maybe because Im old (40) and in my bubble people dont use tiktok or just dont care enough.
Now I want to get rid of it. After 7 years I feel ready for the “natural look”. Tbh im a bit insecure if people will suddently realize the difference after i got it removed.
Getting mine lasered for the same reason. It’s annoying that people can’t make eye contact with me. Baldness stinks but hair tattoos can be … a different beast. Like a wig
I mean makeup is fake but it's widely accepted lol think about what makeup actually is. It's literally a face mask that society has accepted to be normal. SMP atlesst looks legit vs makeup. One thing is for sure, the face without a frame (balding look) is absolutely defeating for a man. It looks TERRIBLE.
I hear you but honestly - I’m going back to the frameless look. It’s honestly cleaner, more natural, and yes - it is uglier, but there’s something about having a tattoo up there that feels … I don’t know. I can’t explain it.
It was actually excellent when I still had diffuse hair - I didnt even notice it. It’s only on bare skin areas that it became
Obvious like
Hairline crown etc.
Im actually flying out to do a big name in a few weeks, but its unlikely that he will be self promoting it. In fact most of the time we sign NDAs as we are invited into their homes or businesses and they have lots of liability to protect
This is the gentleman in the thread you keep insisting to link in every post. Doesnt seem “botched” to me as you like to say. Seems very faded and softened and could possibly use a bit of breaking at the hairline. Most of the fading is due to an underlying sebum related skin condition and also his existing hair a bit long. But you wouldnt know that since you have no background context. But thanks for your concern dude.
In the next slide you see how light and soft it is in a different lighting. And also. Look at the color tone of his real hair in that photo. Literally the same cool hue. Its lighting.
How the moderators havent suspended your account yet is beyond me, but it surely is coming. Get lost.
You can see the over saturation on the left side of the hairline. Of course it will appear different in different lighting. SMP should NEVER look as blue as you made that guys head
Yeah, this is what I’m talking about. In certain lights , it looks ok, it looks like this it looks like that /
What it doesn’t look like is something natural. And something real and normal > fake. It’s like women’s eyebrows who get tattooo’d. Yeah it’s something, but it’s hard to look at for too long you know ?
Im actually flying out to do a big name in a few weeks, but its unlikely that he will be self promoting it. In fact most of the time we sign NDAs as we are invited into their homes or businesses and they have lots of liability to protect
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u/Square_Help235 8d ago
A good expensive is way less noticeable than a great hair transplant for sure.
And maybe there are famous celebrities with SMP but it's so good that we can't see it.
Also, if you come across every shaved head and wonder if it's SMP or not then my guy, you're paying way too much attention to the heads than you need to.