I’m a scalp tattooist – people come to me when other hair growth treatments fail, it gives the look of density
BALD spots, thinning hair, and botched procedures — one cosmetic and medical tattoo artist has seen it all.
The New York-area pro has dished the details on scalp micropigmentation, which gives the look of a fuller head of hair.
Debi Barton, 58, runs Scalp Ink CT, a scalp micropigmentation business.
Her services restore confidence to those suffering from various types of alopecia.
Some of her clients are simply seeking some added thickness, lost over time with age.
Barton is also armed with the experience to tackle even the worst botched tattoo jobs and wonky hair transplants.
WHAT IS SCALP MICROPIGMENTATION?
Scalp micropigmentation is both a cosmetic and medical procedure to create the appearance of fuller locks.
The treatment is a longer-lasting way to achieve the effects of powder and spray products used to mimic thicker hair.
“I’m the next level of these colored powders or sprays that people have been using,” Barton told The U.S. Sun.
She explained the process typically takes around three sessions to complete.
“I apply thousands and thousands of microdots in a tattoo form onto the scalp,” she said.
“It’s not done in one session, is typically done in three sessions or more, but typically it’s three.
“And just layering and layering and layering will give it that density.”
The tattooing technique gives the client the look of growing more hair.
“If you look at a person’s scalp and when the hair comes out of the scalp, the hair is the thickest And as the hair grows longer and longer, it gets thinner at the end.
“So it’s a natural occurrence that it looks like a dot on the scalp when your own hair comes out of your scalp.”
She explained that her method mimics natural hair growth.
“It looks as if maybe there’s a little growth.”
LADIES FIRST
While many men go for scalp micropigmentation, close to half of Barton’s clients are women.
Whereas men are typically looking for their hairline back, the ladies are after a different desire.
“Women will come in and have really beautiful hair, but too much scalp shining through,” she said of complaints she hears.
“Whether a hair transplant is not suited for them for whatever reason, or it’s out of their budget, or they want something that’s instant and immediate — they’ll have scalp micro pigmentation,” she said.
“When it comes to females, it’s for the thinning hair.”
Barton often sees women struggling with an issue called traction alopecia, or hair loss due to long-term pulling on the same hair follicles.
“I have clients that will come in in my studio with amazingly gorgeous hair, like just beautiful down mid back, but they’re thin right in front or they’re thin above their ears,” she said.
“I have a lot of people that come in because they have hairstyles that they’ve chosen for years where they put their hair in braids and then attach a wig or weave on that.
“And they’ve given themselves traction alopecia, so, I repair that.”
TRIED-AND-TRUE
Barton said she has recently sought scalp micropigmentation from a professional herself.
“Just recently, I have experienced a bout of alopecia due to stress, and I’m dealing with it,” she said, explaining that a colleague did scalp micropigmentation on her.
“You can’t see the whiteness of my scalp shining through my hair,” she said.
BOTCHED AND BALD
Barton has had her fair share of hair horror stories walk through her door.
“I have had people that have gone the gamut of hair transplant to PRP to even onion juice on their scalp,” she said.
While Barton acknowledges the efficacy of some treatments, she said it doesn’t give the anti-aging look that people seek micropigmentation for.
“There could be a hundred things on the market that will. Make your hair grow,” she said.
“Whether it’s transplant or onion juice — for you to find that one thing, if it helps it grow, that’s great, but you’ll never get the hair that you had, like when you were 18. That density.
“I have people in my chair that have gone to the best of the best all over the United States, as well as people who have flown to Turkey to go get their hair transplant.
“But yet they’re still in my chair. Why? They’re still looking for that density that they’ve wanted.”
She’s also had some run-ins with some jaw-droppingly botched procedures.
“I think that there are people out there that are very talented, extremely talented tattoo artists that work on the body,” she said.
Barton said that a tattoo artist isn’t just automatically a scalp micropigmentation professional.
“The same technique that is used on the body cannot be used on the scalp. Even the equipment that’s used for the body tattoo cannot be used on the scalp.
“The pigment, the needles technique, everything is different. However, body work is a tattoo and so is the scalp micropigmentation.
“But it’s an entirely different lane from equipment to pigment to technique to needles.”
“So I’ve seen some tattoo artists that work on the body, figuring, ‘it’s just dots. I can do that. I can do dots.’
“When body work tattoo equipment is used with body work pigment that are loaded with metals that should never be used on the scalp.
“It becomes a situation where you’ve actually put someone into a situation where they have a completely botched procedure.
“The emotional scarring that it does to someone who is already suffering from hair loss or thinning hair is devastating.
“I do have a lot of repair work that comes to me and, you know, there’s there’s certain criteria, where I can help them through their botched procedure.
“And once it goes past that criteria, and I tell them that I’m not able to help them, and what they would have to do is to have it, removed via a laser.”