Hair loss and male-pattern baldness are pretty common, and thousands of men opt for hair transplants each year in an attempt to cover up that balding patch. Hair transplant procedures can be pretty darn expensive and burn a hole right through your pocket. But now, there’s an innovative, cheaper and permanent alternative – hair tattoos. Just a few hours of pain, and you’re set for life.

Hair tattoos are the brainchild of Ian Watson. When Watson was in his mid-twenties, he lost his brother and developed alopecia due to the resulting stress. Worried about his hair loss and desperate to do something about it, he asked his brother’s widow, Ranbir Rai-Watson to draw dots on his scalp using a fine pen. He hoped that the dots would produce the effect of a cropped haircut. When she was finished, the duo knew their silly idea was actually worth something.

Photo via HIS Hair Clinic

Ian is now 42 years old and Ranbir, 41. After several years of intense research, training and working with make-up artists and hair loss experts, they perfected their skill of camouflaging baldness with ink. The treatment is called the MHT (Micro Hair Technique) Scalp Pigmentation. As a part of the treatment, different shades of pigment are applied to the scalp so that the size, density and shape of short hairs are replicated.

BEFORE (Photo via HIS Hair Clinic)

Ian and Ranbir went on to become the founders of HIS Hair Clinics (Hair-Ink-Skin) in the UK and US, where MHT is provided. Their latest clinic was opened in Manchester by celebrity hairdresser Adee Phelan, who has had the procedure done himself. He says that he started losing hair when he was 24, but baldness doesn’t really bother him a lot. He got MHT done because he knew it looked good. According to Phelan, the treatment is great because not everyone can afford about £25,000 ($40,000) on hair transplants. At £2,000 ($3,000) MHT is definitely more affordable.

AFTER (Photo via HIS Hair Clinic)

The scalp being as sensitive as it is, having a needle pierce several dots on it must really hurt. But the end result looks a lot like a ‘buzzed’ hairstyle and certainly seems worth the pain.