Real Life Story: Meet Scott who opted for Scalp Micropigmentation...

Earlier in the month, I wrote about Scalp Micropigmentation as a potential solution for male pattern baldness and Alopecia Areata. With a little help from the Vinci Hair Clinic, we wrote about what it is, how it can be used and who can benefit and also promised to include a study to further illustrate the effectiveness.

Here, we share our interview with a lovely, charming gentleman called Scott. We asked him about his thoughts and feelings on hairloss, and also about Scalp Micropigmentation... Enjoy!

Tell us a bit about yourself...
My name is Scott and I was just 20 when I started losing my hair. It was difficult but Scalp Micropigmentation was so beneficial. I had to travel to London for the treatment and so, after seeing how life-changing it is, I approached the Vinci Hair Clinic and enquired about setting up a clinic North of the border in Scotland. I now run their clinics in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Obviously hairloss affected your confidence, but what was your biggest fear about going bald?
My biggest fear about going bald was my confidence evaporating. Growing up I played football, worked in the fashion industry and really felt looks played a major part in the success of your career in life.

Have you ever received comments about your hairloss?
I always wore hair fibres, basically a sort of "salt and pepper shaker", which hid the fact I was bald. I managed to hide it quite well, but I think I simply took the anxiety of being bald away and instead got anxious that people would notice I was wearing hair fibres.

Do you have 'before' and 'after' images of your treatment?

Scott thinning on top...

Scott after scalp micropigmentation

Brimming with confidence...

If you have any questions on Scalp Micropigmentation or for Scott, please let me know and we'll ask for you!

Victoria x

www.prettybald.co.uk Twitter: @PrettyBald

Gotta love statistics...

Since launching Pretty Bald, I've started following feeds which point me in the direction of all sorts of things hairloss, alopecia and baldness! Whilst much of it is useful and sparks ideas that get incorporated into the Pretty Bald blog, sometimes I come across a little gem which just has to be shared as a story in its own right!

One such story is a survey from People's Daily, which discusses the growing issue of baldness in men in China; apparently one in four (25%) of men in China are now going bald, but the gem of this story is the fact that...

If you combined these bald patches, they would equal 4,725 square kilometres, covering London three times over!

Don't get me wrong, I totally understand the survey looking into male hairloss in China, which is growing in correlation with increasing incomes and changing working habits. What I cannot fathom is the idea that it's someone's job to work out this bald pattern equation! Bonkers!

The only thing left to comment on this story is that if this question ever comes up in a pub quiz, you've nailed it! Other than that, it's probably a pretty useless piece of information.

Victoria x

www.prettybald.co.uk Twitter: @PrettyBald

WANTED: Are you the next Pretty Bald Blogger?

The Pretty Bald blog is growing and we're in need of some more bloggers, case studies and real-life stories; could you be the next guest poster, interviewee or regular columnist?

At the moment we have four bloggers (Myself, Jen, Kayleigh and Danielle) and we all happen to have Alopecia! We're now looking for individuals with other types of hairloss to tell us their stories or to become a regular columnist. We're also looking for Hairloss experts to write one-off blog posts.

Got what it takes? Please email us to tell us about yourself and apply...

Want to be a regular blogger? You will:

- have something interesting and unique to say

- suffer from a short or long-term Hairloss condition; at the moment, we're not looking for female alopecians (although we're of course happy to consider you) - our followers are asking for people with chemotherapy hairloss, trichotillomania, female pattern baldness, male alopecians, male pattern baldness and other forms of hairloss. We're getting emails asking for insights to support these conditions

- be able to commit to a minimum of one blog post per month, preferably more

If you don't have hairloss, but are an expert in a specific field, we'll also be happy to consider you!

Want to be a case study / real life story?

Please send us an email with some information about you... Some pictures would be great too and we'll email you back with any additional questions we need answering. We'll then write it up and post it out on the blog!

The reason?

We're working to make Pretty Bald a unique resource that offers support and advice through real-life experiences, not just expert opinion. Through this, we hope to support others, and also work to change perceptions within society, making it easier to thrive in spite of these conditions, not just hide and hope for a cure!

The reward?
Initially, we're working to raise as much money for charity as possible, so this is a voluntary opportunity; long-term however, our bloggers will benefit from free products to review and hopefully some other exciting things too!

If you do have anything else you want to contribute or of course want to see us write about,  please let us know! There's a lot of exciting things coming up and we hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoy writing it! 

Victoria x

Could an everyday thrush cream help cure #baldness or help grow #LusciousLocks?

You think I'm joking with this title? Think again! An emerging trend in America is seeing women use an over-the-counter cream for yeast infections like thrush to help thicken hair and potentially even reverse hairloss! So does it work? Apparently the answer is POSSIBLY!

Before we get totally overexcited and all rush out to buy a tube of canesten, it's probably worth looking at the 'science' behind these claims...

The active ingredient in all these ointments and creams is an anti fungal treatment called miconazole nitrate - or in America it is anyway! It is an FDA approved ingredient found in over the counter medicenes for yeast infections and is therefore considered low risk to use, but how, if indeed it does, can it help with hairloss? 

Well first, it depends on the type of hairloss! In male and female pattern baldness, a hormone called dihydrotestosterone is responsible for rendering the hair follicles inactive and killing off the hair. Miconazole and other anti-fungal treatments like ketoconazole have properties which help block the hormone dihydrotestosterone; in fact, according to an article in the Huffington Post, several studies have found that ketoconazole in particular is an 'anti-androgen' which specifically combats the hormone. It is believed that this similarity between miconazole and ketoconazole could make the over-the-counter thrush treatments partially successful in helping with female and male pattern baldness.

Now, before all our readers dash out and buy a tube of the otherwise embarrassing cream, it is important to note that these findings have not actually been verified and there are no scientific studies available which verify this link! What's more it hasn't actually been tested for use on the scalp and possible side-effects are unknown! I for one am probably going to give trying this one a miss, but if anyone does take a punt, please let us know how it pans out!

Victoria x 

www.prettybald.co.uk

Twitter: @PrettyBald