When you live in Miami, Jupiter might as well be another planet instead of a 90-minute drive north on I-95. It’s just not a place we visit from the Magic City. Tucked away in the northernmost point of Palm Beach County, it’s not even on our radar.
But that is where Dr. Ricardo Mejia is based, one of the most respected hair restoration doctors in South Florida, a man who has been practicing hair restoration for 15 years. He has even been featured on CNN
Dr. Mejia has agreed to do a hair transplant on me this Monday in exchange of me documenting my progress on this blog. But considering it can take up to a year to see full results, I will also be writing about health, diet, exercise and dating.
As a 43-year-old single man with a receding hairline, it finally hit me that I am no longer the spring chicken that I once was, so I decided to take an active role in maintaining my health, looks and mental energy.
I recently shed 20 pounds after making some serious adjustments to my diet, mainly cutting out starchy carbs, especially breads and fried foods, and replacing them with nuts, vegetables and lean proteins.
And once I recover from the hair transplant, which can take anywhere from a week to a month, I plan to kick off a serious exercise regime, maybe even check out that crossfit rage.
But the most interesting aspect of this blog will be about dating. Four decades of my life have gone by and I’m just as clueless about the opposite sex as I was in high school. No, not really. I used to think women were flaky. Now I know women are flaky.
But they think men are flaky as well. And they’re right about that. But who wouldn’t be having to deal with all their flakiness?
However, despite all this flakiness, many of us still try our hardest to attract the opposite sex, which is why thousands of men each year allow doctors to cut into their scalps, slice out strands of hair follicles, only to replace them on the other side of their head.
Let’s face it. Not all of us can lose our hair and still be named People’s Sexiest Man Alive as Sean Connery was a few years back.
But even if Sean Connery did decide to get a hair transplant, who’s going to tell him he is less of a man? Or for that matter, who’s going to tell me I’m less of a man?
I’m sure many of you will, which is all right with me. If you know me from my nationally renowned Photography is Not a Crime blog, you will know that I welcome all comments, even the insulting ones.
One of my plans on this blog is to post short video interviews on men and women about lessons they’ve learned in life, especially about business and dealing with the opposite sex.
My goal would be to break down this communication barrier that seems to exist between the sexes. I’ve been a journalist for as long as Dr. Mejia has been restoring hair, so I know how to ask the hard questions.
And the women I’ve spoken to about this love the idea because they have much to say. We’ll see about that.
But in all seriousness, it was a very smart and creative woman who brainstormed and organized this project; my good friend, Blanca Mejia, who is Dr. Mejia’s sister.
Blanca is pictured above with me and another good friend, Alex De Carvalho, who recently lost about 50 pounds and inspired me to change my diet.
Blanca also persuaded Ford to lend us a Ford Escape for the 90-minute drive up to Jupiter.
And she organized a tweetup at the doctor’s office at 5 pm on Monday complete with beer, wine and food so our social media friends can gather round and take pictures of my scabby head while I try to refrain from downing my Lortab with beer.
Everybody is welcome to the tweetup but as I said, it’s in Jupiter. But maybe this will be where I begin to bridge the communication gap between Mars and Venus.
Portions of the operation will be live streamed.
Here’s the address for the tweetup:
2101 U.S. Highway One
(Driftwood Plaza)
Jupiter, FL 33477
