David Beckham Hair Transplant – Latest Progress
There were some fresh pictures of David Beckham in the media this week with a full head of greying hair which he had brushed backed into almost a quiff.
The former England captain looked terrific and it is clear his hair has undergone a pretty dramatic transformation since he was pictured in Miami showing what looked like the aftermath of a hair transplant last year.
So what exactly has been going on with 43-year-old Beckham’s hair?
Crown Clinic hair transplant surgeon Asim Shahmalak has been quoted extensively in the media giving his analysis of what is going on.
Beckham’s father Ted is heavily bald and there is a strong likelihood that his only son has inherited that same baldness gene.
By far the most popular cause of male pattern baldness is a man’s family history – you only have to look at the royals and the strong baldness gene which has been passed down from Prince Philip to Prince Charles and on to Prince William to see how this is true.
David Beckham was pictured in the summer showing dramatically thinning hair right across his scalp.
Then he was pictured in September showing the tell-tale signs of a hair transplant at the front of his scalp.
If you look carefully at the pictures of Beckham relaxing at a pool in Miami you can see that the hair on his shaved head looks denser at the front of his scalp.
This was almost certainly because of the follicles which had been transplanted to the front of his hairline so he could disguise the male pattern baldness that was prevalent towards the front of his scalp and around his temples.
When a patient has a hair transplant, the transplanted hair falls out in the first couple of weeks.
This is perfectly normal. What is important is the roots of the follicles of the transplanted hair bed into their new home.
In time – anywhere between four months and a year – this transplanted hair will start to grow back.
Most patients see a dramatic difference in their hair after around six months but they don’t get to see the full beneficial effects of a transplant until up to a year after the operation.
It is around six months since Beckham’s likely transplant, so it is no surprise that his hair is looking so much better.
The transplanted hair does appear to be growing back nicely. We do suspect that Beckham has once again borrowed a trick from another former England football captain in Wayne Rooney and is using thickener in his hair to disguise his baldness while more of the transplanted hair grows back. Rooney used to apply thickener before big games so that his hair looked good on TV.
There should be a further improvement to the hair at the front of Beckham’s scalp over the next six months as the transplanted hair beds in further.
Beckham may need no further work on his hair, particularly if he takes the clinically proven hair loss drug Finasteride, also known as Propecia. This won’t help him to grow any new hair but it should stop him from losing more of his natural hair.
Lots of Dr Shahmalak’s patients combine a hair transplant with a course of Finasteride so that they can tackle their hair loss surgically and through the use of medication.
It is worth remembering that hair loss is a continual process. So while Beckham’s transplanted hair should last him for the rest of his life, he could still lose more of his natural hair. That is why taking Finasteride is a sensible precaution.
Beckham is one of a number of leading male celebrities to seek help with their hair.
Our surgeon Dr Shahmalak has treated lots of celebrities including the model Calum Best, Homes Under The Hammer presenter Martin Roberts and former footballer Didi Hamann who all had FUE (follicular unit extraction) transplants at Crown Clinic.
Dr Shahmalak has also treated the TV doctor Christian Jessen, who opted for the more traditional FUT (follicular unit transplantation) method, where a strip of skin is removed from the back or side of the scalp to obtain the donor hair.