Dr. Meena Singh describes her career path as having fallen into her lap. The KC native set out to fill a hole for those in need of specialized care that was otherwise hard to come by. Now, she has found her calling in the field of dermatology—changing lives in the treatment of hair loss as a specialist in hair restoration.
“In school, I did a lecture that mentioned less than two percent—at the time—of dermatologists were Black,” Singh says. “When I did my residency, there was a study that came out stating people of color were in need of dermatological care, mainly for hair loss. I figured I better learn how to fix that.”
With the debut of the new TLC show Bad Hair Day, the lives Singh has positively transformed go beyond those in the local community. The show premiered on August 24 and shows the emotional experience of patients with hair-related issues as they seek the help of three hair restoration experts.
We talked to Singh about her experience on the show and her return to Kansas City.
Since its premiere, how has the show been received by the viewers? The show has been received amazingly well. People have reached out and stated that they are so happy that these kinds of medical conditions are being featured on television. Not only is the show educational, but people have said it also gives them hope that there is something they can do about medical conditions people don’t really talk about.
People are really suffering from hair loss, so I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback. It is super heartwarming when patients are successfully treated. It has been a very gratifying experience.
What about Kansas City has kept you and your practice here? I grew up in Kansas City—born and raised here. I’m actually a fourth-generation Kansan. Most of my family lives here. I left after high school to do all my schooling and training, but I came back. I always wanted to live close to family, and my mom is a prominent fixture of the community. A lot of people know my mom; she is an amazing doctor.
I feel like people who have trained at places like Harvard stay out there. They don’t come back to places like Kansas, but we need people to come back home to the community. That was always my plan, and I actually live on the same street as my parents and sister. We are a very close family.
Are there any projects on the horizon for you? Building upon the success of the show, one of my colleagues and I started a hair loss resource. It is called docs4hair.com, and it’s a website that helps you find other doctors that specialize in hair loss. We are currently reorganizing everything, so it is still in the works right now, but basically, it helps find doctors that specialize in hair loss. We’ll have products and educational information there so that it will be a one-stop shop for combating hair loss.
