The Pain of Hair Loss

With a whole series of cancellations this afternoon, it was the ideal opportunity to slip across the road for a quick haircut. I made the very difficult decision of abandoning the hairdresser I'd followed around for almost a decade a month back. She had, in that time, moved from Wisma Atria to Harbourfront and a few months ago to The Sail. I visited her once at the new premise, but I hated the drive there, even though it was much closer than Harbourfront. I had gotten so lost on a relatively quiet Saturday afternoon. By the time I'd driven around the CBD 5 times, I was a frazzled mess! And I was so traumatised by it that by the time I was desperate for another haircut a good six months or more later (the joys of a pony tail), I could no longer remember how to get there!

So I made the difficult decision to switch. I was very concerned as all the haircuts I'd had before finding her were awful. But as I'd gotten friendly with the folks at Perfect Style (our old UE Square neighbours), and I had seen the work of William, I decided to take the plunge & chopped my locks off a month back. And as with all shorter hairstyles, the inconvenience of regular trims surfaced. Hence I was glad to just be able to slip across for a tidy up.

William is the bggest gossip I know. He's certainly entertaining & knows everything about everyone! Today, he commented that I was lucky to have naturally straight & oily hair. It saved me a fortune in treatments! My response was I would love thicker, more luscious hair, but have been too busy to try out our new hair treatment. He asked what hair treatment, so I showed him our results from the Divine MedSpa website.

His jaws dropped!

Poor William has a small thinning patch in his crown. He'd seen his GP about it years ago, and was dismissed with normal male pattern balding. As a hair stylist, he was sometimes even embarassed by his clients for not having perfect hair. And it certainly stopped him from recommending tonics to prevent hair loss. Anyway, his interest was piqued when I told him of our experiences with the treatment, and he was almost ready to run across the road for his first treatment.

It as certainly an eye-opening conversation for me. Having been dealing primarily with skin anti-aging, acne & slimming for so many years now, I never really stopped to think of the impact of hair loss. I was just dubious of expensive treatments at Yun Nan and Beijing 101. All that ridiculous hair analysis for what??? Hair loss is hair loss when seen with the naked eye or magnified 100x. And results are only worth talking about when the growth can be seen with the naked eye. And our clients have certainly been happy with their own results, and have had many commenting on their luscious locks.

Anyway, I'm hoping William will slip across for his treatments soon! I think he'll have fabulous results!

Painless Bikini IPL Permanent Hair Removal?

Where smooth armpits have been "norm" for years, having no hair or a neater "bush" has only been in fashion very recently. Waxing and shaving have been the norm in this area, but the trend has been strongly moving towards permanent hair removal, be it by IPL or laser.

We've certainly been zapping quite a few groins, particularly after our move to Robertson Walk a year ago. The interest was mostly amongst the expat community intially, but the trend has caught on with local Singaporeans in the last couple of months.

And with that change in client profile, we've noticed that what is a slightly uncomfortable procedure in Caucasians can be extremely uncomfortable amongst Asians, especially if the skin is strongly pigmented. This isn't terribly surprising since the energy emitted is targeted at melanin in hair, but is also present in dark skin.

As I'm incredibly pain averse, I re-acquainted myself with my Entonox (laughing gas) cylinder during a recent fractional RF trial. I have 3 cylinders which have been sitting idle for the last few years, after we stopped mesotherapy.

I then realised that this would be an ideal way of controlling the discomfort of Bikini IPL Permanent Hair Removal treatments. So we contacted a few gas supply companies to enquire on the current re-filling rates. It has always been expensive, but I nearly fell off my chair at how much the refills now cost, plus the turnaround time was a good 6-8 weeks!

But how much to charge? At a knee-jerk $50/session, there would likely be few takers. We had to try to work out as close to the real cost of refill as possible, then re-assess once we started using the cylinders in practice.

Fortunately, one of the cylinders was labelled with the gas volume. And that's where the Anaesthetist in me emerged. Based on the average volume in one breath and number of breaths per minute, we were able to work out the refill cost per 10 minute use. And we came up with the figure of $20. So that works out to just an extra $100 for each 5 session package. Hopefully that will just about cover our cost. We will have to keep a close eye on the treatment time though, and charge in 10 minute blocks. Just in case we meet someone who forces us to pause after every 3 shots. Then a 10 minute treatment can drag on for half an hour.

I've also been asked about numbing cream as an option. Honestly, I don't know how effective that would be. But if anyone is keen on that as an alternative, we can supply it at $10/session.

So painless bikini IPL permanent hair reduction... is it possible? Maybe not painless, but certainly tolerable. And we offer these pain management options at a very nominal cost.

Visagel for $600/syringe

Our suppliers are currently running an offer on Visagel dermal fillers at the moment, which brings our base cost down significantly. Rather than pocket the difference, we have decided to pass the savings onto our clients. So until the promotional stocks run out, Visagel costs $600/syringe. Each syringe contains 1 ml of filler, which is often more than needed for one treatment. If there are any remnants, we will store it for you, and subsequent top-ups will just cost $50 each time.

We have been using Visagel for over 2 years now, and are very comfortable with the product, and happy with the results and safety profile. It's a German product and is CE certified.

The alternative filler option available is Juvederm, which costs $800/syringe and each syringe contains 0.8 ml of product.

We brought in 20 boxes of Visagel at promotional price (10 boxes each of 16 and 24), so anticipate this offer will not last long. Delivery was made yesterday, and the first box used this afternoon, with a couple more booked in for tomorrow. We do not know how much longer our suppliers will be running their promotion for.

Visagel 24 is used for nose augmentation and filling out the nasolabial folds. Visagel 16 is used for lip plumping and filling in hollow tear troughs. Once the promo stock runs out, the price will revert back to $800/syringe.

Thank God for Entonox!

I'm not at all ashamed to admit to having zero tolerance for discomfort. Vanity takes over, but I do everything to make my treatments comfortable.

This afternoon, I had the opportunity to try out E Matrix personally. Manufactured by Syneron, this device uses fractional RF to coagulate the skin and stimulate collagen production. The treatment can be used for rejuvenation, but it's primary indication is for acne scars and wrinkles.

The before/after photographs shown were AMAZING! It's a shame we're not allowed to put up such photos on Singapore medical websites now. All doubts about whether the treatment works or not were cleared when I saw them.

So I bravely volunteered my face again. The rep had tried the medium intensity program on himself with no pain relief, but that was a bit too ambitious for me. So I applied a thick layer of numbing cream and waited...

After my lips went quite numb, we started. Even with the cream on, it felt like hot pricks. He reduced the intensity from medium to low, but it was still too much for chicken shit me! So I jumped off the couch and dug out my old Entonox cylinder. Three puffs later, I was high as a kite and happy for him to continue.

We bought the Entonox equipment when we opened the clinic almost 4 years ago. It's pretty much just gathering dust these days, cos most people are much better with pain than me! But it really was such a relief to be able to use it for this procedure. Phew!

As for my face, it's a bit red & swollen. It was quite sore for the first couple of hours, but much better now. I can't wait to see the results!