Permanently Beautiful

Dove is chipping away at America’s idealistic views about beauty, doing its part to show that each of us is beautiful in our own way. Dove used the Super Bowl to tackle stereotypes about men’s grooming. Using the tag line “Be Comfortable in Your Own Skin,” Dove used buff athletic men to portray moisturizing and skin care as a healthy way for a man to nurture his body.

For centuries men took a bare bones approach to grooming. A shower and a shave was the male standard. In the 1800s, male grooming products were introduced at upscale barbershops and men’s clubs, but were sneered at by the Joe on the street. With the exception of hair pomades which faded in and out of style and were considered more of a necessity than a matter of vanity, male toiletries comprised an extremely thin market through the 1950s. The 1960s sexual revolution heralded a turning point in male grooming standards. By the 1960s men’s toiletries had become a fast growing market, although selection was still limited to basics like shaving cream, hair gel and aftershave.

It wasn’t until 2000 that male fragrances exploded onto the cosmetics market, opening the door to skin care and other grooming products designed specifically for men. Today most men take as much care in their appearance as women and many turn to permanent cosmetics to enhance their appearance, camouflage scars or correct flawed features. To find out more about male permanent cosmetics, visit our permanent makeup site for men.

Childhood accidents happen. A fall off a bike, a collision with a wildly thrown baseball, a skateboard trick gone wrong — as your mom will tell you, kids are an accident waiting to happen. Some accidents leave scars, little white lines or puckers on knees and chins, badges of a youth well spent. A defining scar on the chin of a handsome movie star may add to his on-screen allure, but many people consider those childhood scars unsightly blemishes that mar their appearance.

You may have to live with the memories of the accident that created a scar, but you no longer have to live with the scar. Permanent cosmetic micropigmentation can permanently camouflage scars and restore your confidence in your appearance. Scars and skin imperfections resulting from childhood (or adult) accidents, injuries, burns and surgery can be camouflaged using paramedical cosmetic tattooing. Artfully applied micropigmentation can break up scar tissue and color it to more perfectly match and blend with your natural skin tone, making the scar disappear from sight.

Nationally renowned permanent makeup artist and paramedical tattoo expert Melany Whitney regularly receives referrals from prominent plastic surgeons and physicians to assist their patients. Melany has perfected scar camouflage micropigmentation and paramedical tattooing techniques that allow patients to reclaim their natural beauty.

Hair transplants have come a long way since the old hair plug days when harvesting left male scalps cross-hatched with chicken-scratch Xs. Modern surgical hair restoration techniques now graft entire follicle units onto thinning sites creating a seamless and very natural appearance. Harvesting sites generally remain hidden for years, covered by still vital hair growth. But as in all things, nature eventually catches up, hair loss continues and once-hidden hair transplant harvest sites are exposed. Harvesting scars along the back of the skull often show up as ugly red lines and can give men a lobotomized look. Not exactly in tune with your suave, savvy, accomplished image!

Expert paramedical tattooing, a form of permanent makeup, can reduce transplant harvest scars to a nearly invisible line. Permanent makeup, known medically as micropigmentation, tattoos iron oxide cosmetic pigments into the dermal layer of the skin. The technique can be used to camouflage scar tissue, hide embarrassing hair loss from thinning hair, camouflage bare patches in beards and sideburns, reshape uneven or scarred lip lines, enhance eyelash loss and create thicker looking eyebrows.

To see how permanent makeup for men can hide transplant harvest scars, visit our website to see before and after pictures of actual patients. Don’t let embarrassing hair loss or transplant scars diminish your self-confidence in your appearance. Permanent makeup for men can give you back your competitive advantage.

Time to wear pink! October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and we’re happy to report that progress is being made. According to the American Cancer Society, since 1990 breast cancer deaths in the U.S. have been declining by about 2% a year. Even so, 192,370 U.S. women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and 40,170 will die from the disease. The good news is that survival rates are improving: 89% at five years after diagnosis, 82% after 10 years and 75% after 15 years. But survival often carries a high price tag. Women lose their hair, eyebrows and eyelashes to chemotherapy. They may lose a breast if they have to undergo a mastectomy. Cancer surgery can leave unsightly scars. Certainly, it seems a small price to pay for life; but the physical aftermath of battling cancer can continue to reopen emotional wounds as survivors try to move on with their lives.

If you are a cancer survivor, we want you to know that you are not alone. The caring staff at the Whitney Center for Permanent Cosmetics offers our support. Specialized paramedical tattooing techniques perfected by nationally-recognized technician Melany Whitney can help cancer survivors regain their beauty and self-confidence. Permanent makeup can recreate natural eyebrows and eyelashes lost during chemotherapy. Artistic paramedical tattooing can camouflage scars from tumor surgery. Melany’s unique three-dimensional nipple and areola restoration can make surgically reconstructed breasts look natural again. There is life after cancer. Permanent makeup can help a beautiful new you enjoy each new day.

Women who have had abdominal operations, such as a cesarean-section or tummy tuck (abdominoplasty) may still feel self-conscious about the scars, especially when they want to put on a bikini, wear low-rise pants or flaunt some flattering lingerie.

Recently, products have been made available to temporarily conceal the scars with something like a decorative adhesive strip. But the adhesive remains on the skin and must be removed, and may draw more attention to the area, rather than minimizing it.

Instead, women can have the scars permanently camouflaged with paramedical micropigmentation, also known as paramedical cosmetic tattooing.    

Micropigmentation’s ability to break up the scar tissue means it can be colored to better match your natural skin tone. The results are certain to build self-confidence. 

Melany Whitney is a Certified Advanced Paramedical Professional Health Care Provider. Her paramedical training in dermal camouflage has gained her the clinical competency and expertise necessary to perform dermal camouflage for all types of scars and burns, cleft palate corrections, and areola and nipple repigmentation. She routinely receives referrals from prominent plastic surgeons and physicians at prestigious hospitals, including the New York Presbyterian Hospital of Cornell University and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

And if they trust her, so can you.

In 2003, 15-year old Hannan was horribly burned in her home in Iraq when, according to her family, an American bomb landed near enough to her home to knock a lit oil lamp onto her bed. After the third-degree burns over 20 per cent of her body were treated by American Medics, it was believed her life was in danger, and she was forced to flee the country. Now she lives in Scotland, and at the age of 21 has undergone several operations to rebuild her ears, nose, lips and cheeks.

The owner of a permanent makeup company in London was so moved after hearing her story that she decided to offer Hannan free lifetime services–including using micropigmentation to enhance her eyebrows and lashes and define her lips, offering hope without facing the pain of undergoing another surgery.  

Melany Whitney offers the very same hope for anyone who struggles with scars from burns, injuries or surgeries. Paramedical cosmetic tattooing allows her to camouflage the area because micropigmentation breaks up scar tissue and colors it to better match the skin’s natural tone. Because of her expertise in this area, Melany routinely receives referrals from prominent plastic surgeons and physicians who understand the lasting effects of scar tissue and want to offer their patients the best possible care.

Time waits for no man they say. That’s certainly true when it comes to hair loss. Hair transplants can stave off the inevitable for some years, but eventually, our hair follicles fail us. Fortunately, the “bullet head” is back. Popularized by Hollywood action stars like Bruce Willis, Vin Diesel and Samuel Jackson, bald is beautiful.

Check out late night entertainment icons. Letterman’s band leader Paul Shaffer sports a smooth dome, as does Leno’s funky guitarist Kevin Eubanks. Game show host Howie Mandel has turned his bald pate into a winning signature look. Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins turned bald edgy and hip. Chicago Bulls basketball legend Michael Jackson made it elegant. Hollywood’s Ving Rhames made it sexy.

For many men ready to embrace their baldness, earlier hair transplants can present a problem. Harvesting often leaves an unsightly scar around the back of the skull that can be distracting. Paramedical tattoo artist Melany Whitney has the recognized expertise to camouflage harvest site scars to create a handsome, natural appearance. Remarkable coverage of the scar area can be achieved, giving you with that uniformly smooth, sexy look that women love. For more information and to view before and after photos, visit our website for men.

Stubble is in! Just tune in Leno or Letterman or Conan. You rarely see clean-shaven male movie stars anymore. Today, virile stubble is the height of male facial fashion. Most men look good with stubble, and women find the look uber sexy. That bit of coarse hair around the chin and up the cheeks adds machismo swagger to your personal statement. Stubble adds depth and drama to the face. It strengths the chin and calls attention to the eyes. Stubble adds maturity to a baby face and subtracts years from a middle-aged face. Well-groomed stubble enhances your personal mystique.

Unfortunately, facial scars can make stubble growth appear uneven or unattractive. A childhood fall, a motorcycle wipeout, a shrapnel scar during service — any number of life’s mishaps and misfortunes can mar a man’s appearance. Hair follicles destroyed during injury and scarring can result in an unsightly and distracting bald spot in the beard area that detracts from an otherwise well-groomed appearance.

Master paramedical tattoo artist Melany Whitney uses micropigmentation to artfully camouflage scar tissue. She can apply a permanent 5′oclock shadow to scarred areas so they blend with your natural stubble as in the before (left) and after (right) pictures above. For complete information, visit The Whitney Center for Permanent Cosmetics site for men.

The man was elegantly attired. His tuxedo crisp, his bowtie perfectly knotted, his studs beautiful cultured pearls. But what I saw as I descended the stairs at this glittering affair was not the powerful corporate leader, but the ugly scars left by hair transplant surgery. The scarring negated the man’s effort to appear younger and more virile. Instead, the scarring evoked distaste and pity.

Hair loss can demean a man’s sense of self-esteem. With the loss of every strand of hair, a man feels his youth falling away. Even the most powerful men feel the next generation nipping at their heels when their hair starts to thin. Many men turn to hair transplant surgery to mitigate hair loss and retain their competitive edge. Unfortunately, surgery at the harvest site can leave an unsightly scar that circles the back of the skull. Visible through the hair, it can destroy the desired effect or create an uneven appearance.

A skilled permanent cosmetics technician can employ paramedical tattooing techniques to artistically camouflage harvest site scarring. Paramedical tattooing for men can make the ugly scars of transplant surgery practically invisible, turning them into a nearly imperceptible thin line that no longer attracts attention. To view before and after pictures of scar camouflage results using permanent cosmetics, visit The Whitney Center for Permanent Cosmetics site for men.

The Cleveland Clinic has pioneered the first face transplant in the U.S. You may have read about the radical procedure last month in which Dr. Maria Siemionow and a team of specialists replaced 80% of a woman’s face with that of a female cadaver in a complex operation that took 23 hours. It was only the fourth face transplant attempted in the world. While the thought of undergoing such drastic surgery may seem horrific, the procedure offers new hope for burn victims and others who have been horribly disfigured. Dr. Siemionow’s research and efforts were funded in part by a $42 million U.S. military grant designed to restore severely disfigured veterans. The military is collaborating with the Cleveland Clinic to treat service members injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.  

That the medical community has developed the capacity to perform a face transplant points out the extreme duress people experience when their face is disfigured or scarred by an accident, injury or surgical procedure. Our face is our window on the world. A pleasant face invites people to connect. Knowing we look good boosts our self confidence. Paramedical tattooing can camouflage scars and hide the imperfections that make us uncomfortable or embarrassed about our appearance. Visit our website for detailed information on paramedical tattooing.