Monday, December 14, 2009

Electronic Hair Records!


Roy has Electronic Medical Records on his mind lately and if you'd like to hear him, oh, he'd love to tell you his thoughts. Or read his last post here. I'm still not sure how I feel about Electronic Records-- I worry about confidentiality and the propagation of incorrect information.

So why are medical records oh so important? What about making other important things into Electronic Records so that information can be shared and referred to? Never mind Electronic Medical Records, what I need are Electronic Hair Records!

Hair, you ask? Hair! Let me tell you about my hair. I am a user of hair chemicals and it's no picnic when I'm away and need an emergency procedure. What could electronic hair records do?
Well there was the two year period where I saw a very nice hair dresser and somehow my hair was always too light. I had her switch chemical brands, but to no avail. Finally, I switched salons, and my hair is darker. There was the time that I wanted to have a chemical procedure done with a gift certificate at another salon and was told that if I'd had a certain process done previously, my hair might break off or fall out. If there was an EHairR, my hair dresser could have checked this-- instead we had to call my home salon and determined that it wasn't safe....my hair, indeed, could have fallen out. Oh, and because of all the processes, I must use a sulphate-free shampoo. No EHairR: I have to be the one to remind the shampoo person of this issue each and every time. No one even asks.

So what could an Electronic Hair Record do?

  • Keep track of all chemical processes, brand names, colors, and dates of application.
  • Coordinate dates of chemical processes to prevent interactions.
  • Include panoramic photos of all haircuts so that patron could walk in and say, I liked the way it looked after the last cut and that cut could be reviewed.
  • Include standardization of lengths: bangs to a half inch above the eyebrows would be precise.
  • For those with thinning hair or balding, track hair loss.
  • Include computer generated growth photos to help schedule haircuts with important life events.
  • Download onto a iPhone app so the patron could, at last, own their own EHairR!
  • Compare costs and ratings for different salons and hairdressers.
I think I'm on to something here.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, how does it feel to hit blog rock-bottom?

Remember love, it can only get better from here!

Sunny CA said...

What you would have when all of that was installed would be hair care that costs as much as health care. Most stylists are barely qualified to chemically treat hair. If they were computer savvy, they might well not be doing hair. The brand of chemical may be important, but also important s the length of lunch break your stylist takes while the goop is on your hair. Sulphate-free shampoo!! OMG! I did not even know about that. I will have to check my shampoo bottles.

Unlike anonymous, I liked your post. I thought it was a clever analogy to medical records. My hair in many way is more complicated than my medical status. Right now I have great color and can't get a cut done the way I ask for it even when armed with photos. Meanwhile, medically everything is hunky dory.

Anonymous said...

Hmm. Considering that my forehead keeps getting higher and is currently at the top of my skull and accelerating down the back side, maybe I should look into electronic scalp freckle records.

Sarebear said...

Hah! I'd like one of these, too!

Unlike others, medically right now I'm a mess, with new diagnoses sprouting like weeds. GERD, possible fibromyalgia, and these on top of heading into the first of two total knee replacement surgeries spaced a week apart, starting this coming Tuesday (eeeeeeeeeeeep!!!).

I need a total health makeover. Or, ok, how about a new body? That'd do me. I've trying not to stress to much as we prep the place for possible walker navigation post-second surgery, but oh am I mentally and physically weary.

Anyway, I liked your post, and I sympathize on the hair dilemma too (got mine cut with only a breath of style today, my mind was too weary to worry much about that, I just need it shorter to be easier to care for when the rest of me is going to be becoming much harder to care for for awhile).

Hugs to you guys, I likely won't be around for a while. Here's hoping I can handle it without too many meltdowns (crying is fine, and understandable given the levels of pain etc. I may be going through; throwing a fit because I've got hard, painful work to do is something else entirely, and not who I want to be)

See you on the other side, sometime. . . . . . Oh, boy.

Dinah said...

Sarebear---

Wishing you well for your upcoming surgeries! New knees are a good thing and they seem to greatly improve the quality of life people have. I've seen many people get new knees, the recovery often goes very smoothly, and people are usually very glad they did it.

Let us know how it goes and we'll be wishing you the best.
Dinah

Sarebear said...

Thank you!

Sara