Fixing bad SMP: what can be corrected.

SMP that has healed grey or blue, sits too low or too straight, or looks too dark can almost always be corrected to look like hair. Most corrections use pigment over the existing work, though some need lightening as well. Those are the cases we see most often in the studio, and the plan starts with how the work looks now.

The three ways SMP goes wrong

The first and most common is colour. A healed impression is semi-transparent, and your skin shows through it. Plain black pigment on a scalp with a cool undertone settles grey and then blue over months, and on a warm undertone it drifts toward green. The pigment itself hasn’t changed colour; the mix didn’t account for the skin beneath it. This is the single most common reason people come in for correction, and the mechanism is explained on the colour theory page and, in full, in why SMP turns blue.

The second is depth and density. An impression placed too deep spreads under the skin into a smudge, and too many placed too close together in one sitting merge into a shadow instead of individual follicles. Both look like a tattoo, which is exactly what SMP is meant not to look like.

The third is a hairline that doesn’t suit the face because it sits too low, runs too straight, has overly sharp corners or belongs on a younger man. A hairline that ignores the face, the age and the head shape gives the work away even when the colour and density are right.

What a correction actually involves

Correction is not removal. Laser removal has a place for a small number of cases, but most corrective work is done with pigment, over the existing work, across the same minimum of three sessions, including the final refinement, that any result takes.

The colour is corrected before anything else. The existing pigment has drifted toward one hue, so the corrective mix has to cancel it, which means a blue-grey field takes a warm corrective and a green cast takes its opposite. The corrected impressions are placed over and between the old ones so the healed field settles into one neutral tone, the colour of a shaved follicle on your skin. The old work stops being visible because it stops being a different colour.

The line comes after the colour. A hairline that sits too low cannot be moved up by adding pigment, so the low edge is softened and broken until it no longer registers as an edge, and the density behind it is rebuilt so the eye settles on the right line. A hairline that is too straight is broken on purpose, because a ruler edge is what gives SMP away.

Density comes last. Where old work went in too dark, the surrounding area is brought up to meet it and the whole field is balanced so nothing stands out. Where it went in too sparse, layering builds the structure the first attempt skipped.

What it takes

Correction is scoped and quoted after a consultation, because no two cases start from the same place. It is built the same way every result is built, a minimum of three sessions, including the final refinement, ten to fourteen days apart, so each pass heals before the next is layered over it. Corrective cases can need more, and the consultation says so plainly.

The single most useful thing you can bring is a photograph of the work in ordinary light, and, if you have them, photographs from when it was fresh. The difference between the two tells us most of what we need to know before you sit down. A client last spring brought the same-day photo from his phone, and comparing it with his scalp showed us how the work had changed.

What can’t be fully fixed

Some work cannot be fully corrected with pigment alone, usually because the original was placed too deep or too heavily. In those cases the plan combines lightening with corrective placement, and we are clear at the consultation about what the end result can and cannot be. That conversation is free, private and carries no obligation.

If you are reading this because you already have SMP and something about it bothers you every time you look in the mirror, that is exactly the case to bring in. You can ask for a free quote today, or first look at the healed results to see what the colour, the line and the density look like when all three are right, and the cost pages for Miami and New York explain what moves the number for a correction.

Can bad SMP be fixed?

Almost always. SMP that has healed grey or blue, sits too low or too straight, or looks too dark can be corrected to look like hair. Most corrections use pigment placed over and between the existing work; a small number of cases need lightening as well, and we say so at the consultation.

Can SMP be corrected without laser removal?

Usually, yes. Correction is not removal. Laser has a place for a small number of cases, but most corrective work is done with pigment over the existing impressions, across the same minimum of three sessions, including the final refinement, that any result takes, ten to fourteen days apart.

How do you fix SMP that turned blue?

With a corrective mix that cancels the drift. A healed impression is semi-transparent and the skin shows through it, so a blue-grey field takes a warm corrective and a green cast takes its opposite. The corrected impressions settle the whole field into one neutral tone, and the old work stops being a different colour.

Can an SMP hairline that is too low be raised?

Not by adding pigment, so the low edge is softened and broken until it no longer registers as an edge, and the density behind it is rebuilt so the eye settles on the right line. A hairline that runs too straight is broken on purpose, because a ruler edge is what gives SMP away.

How much does SMP correction cost?

It is scoped and quoted after a free consultation, because no two cases start from the same place. Bring a photograph of the work in ordinary light and, if you have them, photographs from when it was fresh; the difference between the two tells us most of what we need to know before you sit down.

Sources

• FDA, Tattoos & Permanent Makeup: Fact Sheet