Fake 206

A chance encounter with a hairdresser today led to me learning about a new-to-me class of fake: tattooing the bald patches on your head to make them look like fairly recently shaved hair.

Bing turned up the necessary on the clue 'tattoos cover scalp bald patches', with reference 2 in the lead, from where the snap above is taken. It all looks rather expensive, maybe injecting dye at the level of the individual hair follicle. I did not get a quote, but it looks as if you can spend quite a bit, depending, of course, on how big your head is, the size of the patches to be attended to and other matters. Say £1,000 to give an idea.

And while I am on, I think I may have caught the Guardian faking it. Their Monday edition includes a centrefold glamour shot, seemingly from the 'World Aquatics Junior Artistic Swimming Championships 2026 ladies somersault', presently going on in Budapest. A Russian, a zoomed in, jazzed up version of the snap from reference 3 above. 

I asked Gemini what he knew about the lady in question but the answer was not much: the sport is quite protective in that way. But he did add that junior ladies would be between 15 and 19, for various reasons (which he went into), peaking slightly later than land based art gymnasts. And in response to a further supplementary, he explained that the Guardian picture had probably been posed at some other time and place. 

Curious that the Guardian, which can get very hot under the collar about child pornography and other matters of that sort, chooses to make such a splash of this image. OK, so a volunteer who is not a child, or at least, only just, but still and all.

PS 1: I remember a time, perhaps twenty years ago now, when London pubs used to feature this sort of thing on their televisions in the afternoons, between the two shifts of proper drinkers. Perhaps from Sky Sports, the people who brought us the Sun Page 3 girls? Now, I think, retired.

PS 2: I have often wondered whether such girls were ever bothered by seeing themselves skulling about in a gutter, on a wet winter's evening, having served to wrap up fish and chips. All part of a performer's life, I suppose.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/07/fake-205.html.

Reference 2: https://scalpamplifiedstudios.com/how-hair-tattoos-can-hide-your-bald-patches/.

Reference 3: https://www.worldaquatics.com/competitions/5246/world-aquatics-junior-artistic-swimming-championships-2026/. It seems that the Russians and the Chinese are both good at this. I think my Canadian aunt knew all about it too: once called synchronised swimming, a sport with big teams, so lots of people get to have a go.

Group search key: fakesk.

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