It’s been three months since Dr. Ricardo Mejia conducted my hair transplant, which means I am supposed to be seeing the first signs of hair growth.
And I am. But nothing very noticeable in a photo or even if you are standing across from me in a room.
But if you stand up close and stare at my hairline as my friends who haven’t seen me in a couple of weeks do, then it becomes noticeable.
It’s especially noticeable to me when I stand in front of the mirror and notice that some of the new hairs sprouting out are white, which goes to show you age will fuck you one way or the other, hair transplant or not.
But even then, I would rather have a salt-and-pepper head of hair than no hair at all.
To the random stranger who has no idea I had a transplant, I look as if I am losing hair rather than growing hair.
That is why I wasn’t surprised the other day when I was strolling through the shopping mall and was approached by a young lady working at one of those kiosks you see in the middle.
I usually just shake them off because I’ve had a bad experience buying a CD cleaner a few years ago that turned out to be worthless. When I tried returning it the following day, the guy pointed to a sign that said, “absolutely no refunds or returns.”
I chalked it up as a lesson learned. But only after I stuffed the CD cleaner into the guy’s mouth.
I kid. But I was very tempted to do so.
Fortunately, the young lady who approached me did not inspire such violent feelings.
Her name was Maria Andrea and she was very charming as she hawked a product that was supposed to make me less bald. I tried to wave her off, but she offered to give me a free sample, so I figured I had nothing to lose.
The product is called Revolution Hair Fibers and it’s similar to other products I’ve seen out there where you spray it on your bald spot and it creates fibers or “magnetic keratin” that mimic your hair. But this one comes in a brush that you rub across your bald spot for instant hair. The fibers come off in the shower, so you must reapply every day.
A few weeks earlier, I came across a similar product on the internet from a company called Caboki. I reached out to the company and asked them to send me a free sample that I could review on this blog, and they sent me back a link where I would have had to pay postage and handling for the sample.
Obviously, the guy who read my email missed the part where I was going to personally review their product on a site that is of interest to people losing their hair.
Besides, I have a personal rule of turning down “free” products that require me to give out my credit card number, so I never followed through with the deal. Especially considering I was only informed of the postage and handling requirement after I typed in my address and after I clicked from a page that promised “no hidden fees.”
But I figured I would go along with Maria Andrea until she asked me to pull out my credit card.
She was from Colombia and had lived in Miami only two years, so our conversation was entirely in Spanish as I tried to explain that I had gone through a hair transplant, so the bald spots should eventually be filled with real hair.
But she was tried her best to convince me that I needed to buy the product to use until the hair starts growing out.
I asked her to take a before-and-after photo with my iPhone, which she happily did and I was pretty impressed in the difference.
But not impressed enough to spend $74 on it.
However, Maria Andrea was quick to make me an offer, telling me she would knock $20 off the product. She even applied some of the fibers to my frontal hairline, but that hair is still too sparse for it to make a real difference.
She allowed me to snap a photo of her holding the product, which got her in trouble with her manager, who said, “no photos!”
I asked why and the manager said I could take all the photos I wanted if I made the purchase, so I told them both I would think about it as I walked around the mall making more purchases.
As I walked through the mall, I grazed my fingertips over the new hair and it felt as if I had applied hair spray on my hair as I used to do back in the 1980s when I had lots of hair and would attend glam metal concerts. Maybe I’ll dig up an old photo and post one day.
I decided the only reason I would buy the product was because I enjoyed conversing with Maria Andrea, which is a good reason not to spend my money on it, so I finished my purchases and walked outside into the sweltering Miami heat to my car.
By the time I got to my car, I was sweating profusely. And when I wiped the sweat off my forehead, I noticed some of the little black fibers in my hands.
The black fibers continued to fall off with my sweat when I started working out a couple of hours later as you can see in the picture below.
So no, I wouldn’t spend any money on this project. And I really wouldn’t recommend it unless you are certain that you will go through your day without breaking a sweat or getting caught in the rain because it will end up drawing more attention to your hair than your normal bald spot.
But, of course, none of the advertisements address the issues that might pop up because of rain or sweat, two common occurrences in Miami.
So you must be skeptical when considering these types of hair replacement products.
And you must be even more skeptical when considering a hair transplant doctor because many patients end up feeling mislead by unrealistic promises.
Here is Dr. Mejia explaining how some doctors use the term “graft hairs” instead of “hair grafts” when advertising their services, a huge difference that can affect the cost and result of a hair transplant.
