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Introduction
from the web master
Some people find they have sparse or absent hair growth in their
eyebrows due to alopecia, injury, or simply genetic inheritance.
Asian women in particular can have poorly defined eyebrows with
little hair growth. Such individuals may consider the option of
permanent cosmetics to improve eyebrow definition. This article
is primarily directed at such people although the information
is relevant to any permanent cosmetic procedure you may be considering.
The content of this web page was provided by Jeffery Lyle Segal
M.A., I.C.T. and posted here with his permission. Copyright remains
with Mr Segal. Neither I nor Mr Segal can be held responsible
for any decisions you make based on the information below. Please
read this web page in conjunction with Permanent
Cosmetics II and Permanent
Cosmetics III.
Introduction
from Jeffery Lyle Segal
In the years since 1991 during which I’ve been applying permanent
cosmetics in addition to working as a film and TV makeup artist,
my many happy clients have proven to me how permanent makeup can
improve the quality of life for people with alopecia. Correctly
applied permanent makeup is as soft, subtle and beautiful as good
conventional makeup application. With permanent makeup, a woman
will look younger, prettier, more alert, and polished at all times.
Permanent makeup benefits those with allergies to conventional cosmetics,
outdoors and athletic lifestyles, vision problems, arthritis and
other physical conditions which make it hard to apply their own
makeup, and women who want to save time in their daily makeup routine.
Of course, men have hair loss problems, too; and permanent makeup
can disguise those as well in many cases. In short, permanent makeup
is great for just about everybody!
But the one group of people which I’ve been able to help
the most is women with alopecia, and nothing I do gives me greater
pleasure. I first became involved with the alopecia community three
years ago when I went to speak to a meeting of the Chicago area
support group of the National Alopecia Areata Foundation. Since
then, I have created many beautiful, natural looking simulated brows
and lashline enhancements for alopecia patients locally. Alopecia
patients now come to me from all over the country because of the
quality of my work, and I am looking forward to traveling the country
in the future to bring my talents to other groups.
All my alopecia clients have told me that losing their brows was
even more traumatic than losing the rest of their hair. As part
of your face, the eyebrows frame your eyes, convey facial expression
and express your personality. Losing their brows made my clients
feel they had lost a large part of themselves. Many of those clients
also were not expert cosmetic users, and their poor makeup application
was made more evident by the lack of any natural brows to use as
a guideline. They lived in constant fear that their brows would
rub off on their hairpiece, a towel, or worse. As one of them told
me cheerfully after receiving permanent makeup, “Now my eyebrows
won’t rub of on my boyfriend anymore!”
The most moving moment I have had as a permanent cosmetic artist
came from working with my youngest client, who was only twelve when
she came to me. She had been a child model who lost her hair when
she was ten. Now, she had entered puberty, so the dating issue was
looming on the horizon. Also, she was very athletic, and played
on her school’s softball team. She was deeply concerned about
her penciled brows running down her face or being wiped off on the
field. The day she walked in, she had her wig pulled down over her
eyes like a bad hat. Her brows were penciled a thick, solid, heavy,
brown-black. Like so many women with alopecia, she overcompensated
when making up her brows to allow for them wearing off during the
day. But the result was hard, obtrusive and unnatural. The misery
of this kind of existence was deeply etched in her down turned mouth
and sad eyes. I could see in her mother’s eyes as well that
I was their last hope.
I applied permanent cosmetic brows to this young woman in natural
looking, simulated hair strokes and a soft, beautiful arch. When
I got done, and she looked in the mirror, the light seemed to shine
from her smiling face. As long as I live, I will remember her literally
dancing down the hallway as she left. A year later, she came back
for a normal touch up, and to make the brows a big larger, since
her face had grown. In addition, the hair on her head had all but
completely grown back in. She was a happy, healthy, well adjusted
young woman, and I was proud to have played an important part in
her development.
It would be wonderful if any hope of a cure for alopecia were
on the horizon. But to my knowledge, medical science has no solution
that is as esthetically pleasing, simple to apply and reasonable
in cost as properly applied and maintained permanent cosmetics.
So it is important to every woman with alopecia to know as much
about it as she can.
Choosing
a technician
Despite its many benefits, there is a one great potential downside
to permanent makeup: Choosing the wrong technician. The quality
of the outcome is entirely dependent on the skills of the individual
you choose to apply your permanent makeup, and all permanent cosmetic
technicians do not have equal skills. Going to the wrong person
to apply your permanent makeup can lead to misplaced pigment, odd
colors, bad shapes, excessive pain, injury, infection or disease.
Bad permanent makeup may be difficult or impossible to remove even
with today’s advanced tattoo removal techniques. How can you
learn to make the right choice when selecting a permanent cosmetic
technician?
The same people who do bad work generally give out bad or inadequate
information. Therefore, if you are considering permanent makeup,
you must become an informed consumer in advance to be sure that
you get the quality treatment you need. It isn’t any different
than educating yourself before you shop for a car, a repair person,
or a physician. What you need is someone to guide you through the
technical issues about which you wouldn’t necessarily know,
and help you formulate the right questions. That’s what this
article is intended to do.
When you ask your technician, “How long have you been doing
permanent makeup?” bear in mind that a useful answer will require
more than just a number. However, anyone who has been in business
less than a year or two is a beginner who probably doesn’t
have a lot of hands-on experience. You may not get what you are
promised.
The first thing to consider is the technician’s professional
training. This is difficult for you to evaluate. There is no national
standard for permanent makeup training. In some places, only doctors
can legally perform the procedure, although they may have less training
and experience than nonphysician practitioners. Elsewhere, anyone
can buy the equipment and set up business without any training or
licensing at all. Widespread permanent makeup training in this country
only dates back to the late 1980’s. Prior to that, the only
people who did permanent makeup were a handful of beauty conscious
regular tattooists and pioneering physicians. The permanent makeup
training that existed at that time was generally too short a course,
gave too little information, and offered almost no hands-on experience.
Many courses today have the same shortcomings.
People who came into the business at that time either worked dangerously
uninformed, or did what I did and sought out additional training
before setting up their practice. Today we have the benefit of professional
organizations for permanent cosmetics which offer continuing education
through workshops, conventions and news letters. The largest, independent
group is the Society of Permanent Cosmetic Professionals, which
is one of the best sources of information about current materials,
practices and issues. Many qualified technicians are members of
this group. Also, some equipment manufacturers, such as Mei Cha,
and several schools, offer their own periodic continuing education
events. The American Society of Esthetic Medicine is a good source
of current information. Finally, the new American Academy of Micropigmentation
also offers independent certification and an informative newsletter.
As with any other profession, you should expect that your technician
regularly attends continuing education opportunities, is a member
of leading industry professional societies, and has been independently
tested by an appropriate examining board. In addition to my certificate
from my basic training course, I can show my clients evidence that
I have done all of the above. Whatever technician you select should
be able to do the same thing.
Permanent makeup, which goes by many names including micropigmentation,
intradermal cosmetics, and permanent cosmetics, is a cosmetic tattooing
procedure. Some people avoid using the term “tattoo” with
new clients because they worry that it will scare away certain customers.
But it is untrue to say that permanent makeup is not tattooing.
Any time color is implanted in the skin it is technically a tattoo.
The machinery used for the procedure may be standard tattooing
equipment or machines designed exclusively for cosmetic procedures.
Both are capable of putting color into the skin, and the skill of
the operator is more important than the type of machine used, with
one important exception. Everyone knows the importance of using
new, sterile needles for each client to avoid infections, and the
transmission of blood borne diseases. But the needles which implant
the pigment travel through a tube or chamber which holds the pigment
used for the procedure. Many technicians, as well as prospective
clients, don’t know that “pen style” machines made
in Asia for the permanent cosmetic market until about two years
ago did not have separate, disposable pigment chambers, and would
cross contaminate new needles with residue from other procedures
the minute they were turned on. So one important question you can
ask of your prospective technician is, “What kind of machine
do you use; and if it is a pen style machine, does it have a disposable
pigment chamber?” If the technician doesn’t know what
you are talking about, or won’t give you a straight answer,
find another technician.
If the technician uses a conventional tattoo machine, the barrel
that holds the needle and pigment is either disposable plastic or
stainless steel, which can be ultrasonically cleaned and autoclave
sterilized between clients. Like most concerned practitioners today,
I use the disposable plastic barrels to avoid any risk of inadequate
sterilization of stainless steel ones, although the stainless ones
have been safely used for years. The machines designed specifically
for the medical community also have proper design for sterilizing,
but don’t offer any other particular advantage.
One other type of implantation device used is a manual implanter
for what is called the “hand method.” These devices are
disposed of after every procedure and never reused. Practitioners
who use this method claim it is as long lasting as machine method
applications, but that has not been my experience. You may want
to ask for names of other clients whose permanent cosmetics were
applied by the hand method a year or more earlier to ask them about
their results before committing.
Another equipment related question you could ask is, “What
size needle do you use?” Regular gauge tattooing needles are
called #12 sharps, which are larger in diameter with a shorter taper
than either the specially filed needles which I use, or the finer
entymology needles, which are used by the pen style machine. The
smaller needles or those with a longer taper cause less swelling
and have less chance of bruising when working on the face. Also,
if the technician draws individual brow hairs to create the most
realistic effect, as I do, the regular #12 sharp makes a line that
is too thick. That needle has other uses, but since alopecia patients
are most interested in natural looking brows, it is a red flag if
your technician doesn’t know the difference between needle
sizes. Many beginners don’t, and buy whatever they are sold
by the program that trained them.
Another good question to ask is: How many procedures do you do
a month? If the technician only does two or three people a year
(as is the case with many doctors who do this work “on the
side”), how good is that technician likely to be at what he
does? Of course, if you go to someone who is known to have a busy
practice, this question probably isn’t necessary.
Every technician should have a portfolio of photos of other clients
to show examples of his or her work. These photos should be taken
with a good camera, be close up, and show excellent detail. Fuzzy
Polaroids are not enough. There should also be follow up photos
taken after the procedure has healed. Photos taken right after the
procedure not only aren’t the most attractive, but don’t
show how well the pigment stayed, which reflects on how well it
was applied. If the technician’s other clients don’t look
good, don’t expect that you will. If you have any doubts, ask
to be put in contact with one or more of the technician’s other
clients.
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