CC: I’m joined by Susan Coombe and she’s a micropigmentation specialist. She joins me in the studio. This is from April, Susan.
Hi Charlie. In South Africa I had this process done but it was called permanent make up which is a little more user friendly. I had my brows done, eyeliner, lip liner, it was wonderfully successful and lasts for about 5 years before it needs touching up again. I was thrilled with the results and need to have it redone here but it seems to be in the realms of the wealthy, which I’m not. I’m looking out for someone in Portsmouth or surrounds.
So we can let people know where you are. They can have a look online but there is, I mean she’s mentioning there that it’s called, you want to make it the distinction between the fact that you do do the permanent help for people who have had surgery and that’s the difference really isn’t it.
SC: Yes, the technique is the same technique, the artwork is different and I do do permanent make up or semi permanent make up. I have to say semi permanent make up and permanent make up is exactly the same thing. The artwork is semi permanent so it will fade and change colour with time but we have to legally call it permanent make up because it could always leave a haze of colour in the skin so there may always be something there which would be permanent but if we say it’s permanent then people wouldn’t understand that it does fade actually with time.
CC: Yes, devil if you do or you don’t really.
SC: Yes, so I’m always sort of saying, explaining to my clients the difference and so I do do the permanent make up as well but also it’s the sort of work that I’ve recently been promoting is the medical work.
CC: Yes, which is fantastic. We’ve got a caller on the line. Could you put your headphones on that are just there.
SC: Sure.
CC: And we’ve got Anthea on the line. Hello Anthea.
Anthea: Hello Charlie.
CC: I know we have bullied you into coming on because you will be asking the question that lots of people are. What was it you wanted to ask?
Anthea: Well, bit of background, I had alopecia universallis for about 35 years and when I was 60 I promised myself I would have my eyebrows tattooed and I chickened out, I had nightmares of them being in the wrong place or badly done or dreadful so I chickened out. I’m still very interested in eyebrows and eyeliner. I’ve also heard that South Africa is a good place to go to get it done on the cheap but I’m just curious as to the price.
SC: Well if you take into consideration the cost of the flight as well then we’re not quite there. You were saying you were nervous about it, I like to book for an eyebrow procedure a 2 hour slot and that’s just to give enough time to choose a correct colour and to draw the brow on before we begin. So what happens is we would sit down, discuss the sort of look that you were after. If you’ve got pictures of yourself when you had a brow then we would have a look at that, and if not you would perhaps bring in some pictures of peoples brows that you like and then between that we measure your face, it’s quite mathematical and scientific actually, we don’t just guess them. Then we draw the brows on very precisely and when you’re absolutely and exactly happy with the colour that we’ve chosen and the artwork that we’ve drawn on your face, then I say are you ready to go ahead and that’s when we put it on permanently. I’m not one to force people on a table and force pigment into them at any point people can have discussions and talk about it.
CC: That’s worth knowing isn’t it Anthea, because I think that’s a realistic thing because as bizarre as it might sound, you’ve kind of got used to the way you look and it’s going to be different isn’t it.
Anthea: I’ve drawn my face on every morning – eyeliner and eyebrows. By the evening I tend to look a bit like a panda cos my eyeliner has all run down my face and it constantly needs touching up and re-doing and if I sneeze, you know, it always ends up on the bottom lid. I’ve tried false eyelashes and they just ping off because I’ve nothing to hold them.
CC: What sort of price are we talking to give a ball park?
SC: Ball park for eyebrows is about £350 – £450. For an eyeliner you’re talking from £300 upwards depending on each individual case and the look they’re after.
CC: Anthea, was that sort of in the region you were thinking anyway?
Anthea: It was cos when I first enquired it was donkeys years ago and it was about £200 then.
CC: That makes it about right. OK well we’ll give out the details later on and we wish you luck Anthea, that you so much for your call.
It is a worrying thing but I think that’s because people do think of the tattoo that went horribly wrong, this is so different the, you know, the sort of training that you’ve had is quite medically based isn’t it.
SC: Yes, my background was, well, I’m married to a GP so that helps just over hearing and having him around for advice and my background was sort of pharmaceutical, I sold various products within hospitals so I was very used to being in a medical environment and the training I received, I trained with a company called Natural Enhancement in London, a fabulous, very amazing, inspirational woman, Tracy Simpson. She’s so precise in her training and you can imagine the first time that you have got your pen and you’re going to put some ink in someone’s face for the very first time it is quite nerve wracking and it’s a responsibility that I take very seriously.
CC: Well you can tell from you’re book and from everything you’ve said and for things like replacing something, people would say a very basic part but it’s such a part of being a woman to re-add a nipple after a breast reconstruction and one of the things we were talking about during that is the fact that if you think there’s been some sort of, if you don’t have the procedure done privately you think you can reclaim for that form of…
SC: If you’ve had you’re breast reconstruction done privately, if you speak to your consultant, they may know someone or they may have a nurse that’s normally on the NHS that you can get that or they may well be able to refer you to me, or you could contact me and we could work backwards and get a referral from your consultant and claim so it is recognised as an important part of the reconstructive process on the breast now.
CC: There is a fabulous picture of you on the back of this looking all scrubbed up and ready to go. Is there a website people could look at?
SC: Yes my website is www.enhancementclinic.com and that is my company The Enhancement Clinic and we’re just about to open a clinic which is specifically for medical tattooing and that’s going to be at the Sarum Road Hospital with BMI Healthcare, so shortly BMI Healthcare should have a web page as well.
CC: Brilliant, that’s fantastic. I wish you the best of luck, I think it’s fascinating and I think you really are making a huge difference to women’s lives.
SC: Thank you.
CC: Thank you so much for coming in. That’s Susan Coombe.
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