
Our reporter shows before and after photos that are quite impressive!
Picture it: you’re in your late thirties or early forties, and you roll out of bed to brush your teeth in the morning. As you glance up in the mirror, you’re struck with horror. “Is that a bald spot forming on the back of my head?!” You reach around to gingerly touch it. Maybe it’s your imagination, but your hair feels thinner there. Forgetting your frothing toothbrush, you push back your bangs. Somehow, your hairline looks farther back than it used to be.
This is a horror story dreaded by many men and even some women. No one wants to see a receding hairline, a reduction of luscious locks, or a growing empty spot on the top of the head. That’s why there are so many studies on what can prevent and treat baldness, and why the wig industry flourished in the pandemic. Luckily enough, there are solutions out there that actually work!
In fact, our Japanese-language reporter Go Hatori was afraid of what male pattern baldness would do to his hair, and so for Christmas in 2019 he gifted himself medical treatments to restore it to its former glory. Go’s hair had been steadily thinning and his hairline receding, so he went to Shonan Beauty Clinic in Shinjuku and paid a little under 100,000 yen (US$874.56) to receive topical and oral treatments to see if it would help his hair look and feel better. After six months, he noticed a remarkable improvement!
▼ Progression over six months
The specialists at Shonan Beauty Clinic recommend continuing treatment for two years, so Go has been diligently taking the medication and using this spray all this time. How has his hair changed over these last two years? Let’s take a look.
Here’s a view from the front, with December 2019 on the left and December 2021 on the left. At first glance, it doesn’t look like much changed, and perhaps it’s harder to tell the difference in the hairline with the hair down in the front. But looking closely, it does look as if his hair is thicker than before. There’s also a major difference between his eyebrows; after two years, they look fuller. (Note that in the original 2019 photo, Go did have his hair tied back, so it looks thinner than it probably was.)
▼ For all the following images, the photo on the left is from before treatment in December 2019, and photos from December 2021 after two years of treatment.
Now let’s take a look with his hair pushed back by a hairband. The difference in volume is evident here, particularly on the top of his head. The hairline also looks a bit lower. The hair on the sides of his head, the baby hairs that frame his face, look much thicker and more densely grown in.
That’s clear when viewed from the sides too. The M-shape of his hairline has softened out a bit, and his sideburns are much longer and thicker than before.
A view of the top of the head shows a better look at the hairline. His widow’s peak appears far less prominent than it did two years ago.
All in all, his hair looks much thicker and the hairline has filled in nicely! Go also reports that the hair on his head is not the only hair that has seen a marked improvement. The hair on his body, his eyebrows, his eyelashes, and even the invisible peach fuzz throughout his body has grown much thicker than before, so he almost feels like he’s a completely different person.
▼ Progression every six months over the last two years
Go does have concerns that his hairline is receding a bit again, especially on the forehead, compared to six months or a year after starting treatments. However, his doctors haven’t remarked about it at all, so it might be his imagination. But even so, Go is immensely pleased with the improvement and plans to continue taking the treatments for at least another six months. Let’s hope he’s as satisfied with the results of his treatments as Seiji was with the results of his hair transplant surgery!
Images © SoraNews24
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