Medical technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the past few decades. The development of stem cell therapies has slashed recovery times and provided cures for once terminal diseases. However, one common condition has avoided an easy or affordable solution until now, hair loss. Famed Lahaina inventor Ano Lee says the days of just living with your thinning hair are over. Along with his partners at Reparre Biologic, Lee has made a printable hair breakthrough that promises to put locks instead of lotion on millions of bald heads across the country.
“It was one of those happy accident things,” says Lee. According to the Lahaina native, his breakthrough wasn’t intended to address hair loss at all. “We were working on bringing our cosplay to a whole new level and accidentally came up with a hair restoration revolution.”
“One of the most important parts of any costume is the hair. Unfortunately, video game designers and comic book artists rarely consider how hard it is to reproduce some of their looks. There’s no doubt that giant red hair spikes on your cosmic ogre look terrifying, but it’s almost impossible to recreate in the real world without costly and cumbersome wigs. I thought a lot about it during my long recovery from an illness last year. During my treatments, I was talking to one of Reparre’s R&D specialists about the problem and we came up with a way to print your favorite cosplay hair with a level of authenticity never possible before. When the company suggested we focus on “normal” hair as well for people going bald, I thought ‘why not?’
All a person needs is a hi-res picture of themselves and the hair in question, the stem cell materials from Reparre, and a 3D printer. The hair strips adhere themselves to the area once prepared and last for as long as 30 days before they need a touch-up. Soon it won’t just be movie stars and comic book heroes with great hair. Our solution is just as good as high-end salon treatments for a fraction of the price.”
Despite Lee’s enthusiasm, not everyone is sold. Yvonne Masters of the Kokua Wellness Center says, “Unfortunately for Mr. Lee and the poor people who have ruined their look with his sticky hair strips, you get what you pay for.” Masters cautions that hair is nothing to play with.
“Since the dawn of civilization hair has been a symbol of power and beauty. We pay respect to the power of hair at Kokua and only use proven Newuskin technology for our follicle transformations. I can only hope that the inartful placing and lack of holistic styling involved in this cheap and short-sighted practice don’t lead to irregular hair growth, social stigmatism, and tragically split ends.”
Masters may have a point. Despite a promising start to Lee’s pilot program in Lahaina, there have been a handful of issues. Shelby Pio, a resident of the exclusive Tanager Lane neighborhood, has been one of the unlucky few to experience problems with the hair treatment. Pio may not be who you envision when you think about hair restoration solutions, but much to her dismay her kids experimented with the system at a friend’s house with some serious consequences.
“We haven’t had the best luck with beauty treatments in the Pio home and I forbid my husband to bring any of that stuff in the house. I told him I didn’t care if he was as bald as an egg. The Pio house was not going to be part of any more experimental procedures. I didn’t want any trouble, but trouble found me anyway.
Our oldest was playing at a friend’s house whose father is undergoing the treatments. The kids started talking about it and my son decided he wanted to look older, so they tried to print some hair for his chest. I guess they did something wrong along the way and didn’t prep the area properly. Next thing I know the cat comes running through the dining room like she saw the devil himself and in shuffles my son crying and covered in hair. My mouth and heart dropped when he walked into the kitchen. I don’t think I said anything for a few minutes. He looked like a sobbing werewolf. There was dark hair all over his arms, up his neck, and all across his torso. I nearly tore my hair out.
We tried shaving it off but it keeps coming back. The Reparre people say it might be another week or two before it stops growing. Even then, they say he might have abnormal hair growth permanently. I get up 30 minutes early to help brush him out before school, but he’s still leaving hairballs all over the classroom. As if having a son that looks like mopey bigfoot wasn’t bad enough, our HOA president fined us for having an unauthorized pet. She wants us to produce a doctor’s note certifying that Eric is still human before she’ll void the infraction. Our life is a tangled mess thanks to this printable hair nightmare.”
