There has been a lot of speculation in the media about whether the Coldplay singer Chris Martin has had a hair transplant.
Pictures do indicate that the 42-year-old star may well have had a hair transplant.
Check out the before and after pictures of Chris below.
It does appear that he has had the balding areas around his temple filled out so that he has an almost completely straight hairline.
If Chris has had a transplant, he is to be congratulated on its success.
A lot of the clients who come to Crown Clinic’s consultant hair transplant surgeon Asim Shahmalak are balding around the temples.
With 1,500 grafts (around 3,000 hairs) Dr Shahmalak can fill in these balding areas and leave the patient looking years younger.
Around 40% of men the same age of Chris will have experienced some form of hair loss.
This is likely to be far more severe if baldness runs in the family.
Family history is by far the most common reason for hair loss – it can run on both your mother and father’s sides of the family.
Men with similar male pattern baldness to Chris Martin have three options:
1 Start taking clinically proven medication such as Finasteride (also known as Propecia). This won’t help you to grow any new hair but it should stop or slow down
any further hair loss. Dr Shahmalak at Crown Clinic often recommends taking Finasteride in addition to a hair transplant.
The drug works well for men in the early stages of male pattern baldness who may not be ready for a full transplant.
Around 2% of patients taking Finasteride suffer after-effects such as loss of libido but this soon goes away if you stop taking the drug.
2 FUE (follicular unit extraction) hair transplant. This is by far the most common form of treatment at Crown Clinic, with around 80% of patients choosing FUE.
Grafts are removed individually from the back and sides of the scalp and then replanted in the balding areas. The advantage of FUE is that the scarring is minimal.
It is particularly suitable for men who like to wear their hair short or shaved because of the absence of noticeable scarring.
Celebrity hair transplant patients at Crown Clinic who opted for FUE include Coronation Street star Jack P Shepherd, who plays David Platt, Homes Under the Hammmer star Martin Roberts
and the former footballer Didi Hamann.
3 FUT (follicular unit transplantation) procedure. This is the more traditional method of hair transplantation, still chosen by around 20% of patients at Crown Clinic.
A strip of skin is surgically removed from the back or sides of the scalp and then donor grafts are removed by technicians under a microscope. They are then replanted in the balding
areas by the surgeon in the same way as FUE. Because it is less labour intensive than FUE it is slightly cheaper.
The TV doctor Christian Jessen has had two FUT transplants with Dr Shahmalak.
Chris Martin has never looked in better fettle.
His hair is noticeably fuller than it was 10 years ago and he is a great example of a man who looks years younger by addressing issues with his hair.