Wayne Rooney is probably the UK’s most famous hair transplant patient.
When he had his first procedure nine years ago, it caused a sensation.
He was the hottest young footballer on the planet and Wayne was only 25 at the time – incredibly young for a hair transplant procedure.
But he was unlucky in inheriting an aggressive baldness gene from his father – who is almost completely bald – and the former England captain had started to lose his hair in his late teens.
If Wayne had not taken the drastic action that he did at such a young age, he would almost certainly be as bald as his dad by now.
But look at Wayne in these two recent pictures below.
The 34-year-old has a great covering of hair and should be very proud of how he has restored his locks.
Wayne is known to have had at least two FUE (follicular unit extraction) procedures. This is where the donor grafts are removed individually from the back and sides of the scalp and then replanted in the balding areas.
It is likely that Wayne may have had more than two procedures because he has maintained a good covering of hair despite that extremely aggressive baldness gene.
Wayne has also used other clever techniques to disguise his hair loss.
Take a look at the picture on the left below – taken recently when Wayne was playing for Derby County.
His hair looks great but it is much darker than in the picture on the right. Wayne likes to dye his hair darker before big televised games.
The effect of the darker dye makes his hair look a little thicker than it really is. Wayne also dyes his beard as you can see from the picture on the left, too.
I suspect the real colour of his beard is a little greyer, too.
Wayne uses other clever tricks to disguise his baldness.
He has previously used thickener before big England games to make his hair appear thicker than it really is.
This thickener is easily washed out and only provides temporary relief but nevertheless it is useful when you have sponsors to keep happy and image rights worth millions.
Wayne inspired thousands of other young men to have hair transplants just like him.
We were the beneficiaries of this trend at Crown Clinic. Bookings shot up with our consultant surgeon Asim Shahmalak as increasing numbers of young men realised that they didn’t have to wait till their 30s or 40s to have a hair transplant.
Dr Shahmalak has operated on lots of high profile celebrities like Wayne including the Coronation Street star Jack P Shepherd, model Calum Best and Homes Under The Hammer presenter Martin Roberts who all had FUE procedures at Crown Clinic.
The TV doctor Christian Jessen opted for the more traditional hair transplant technique, FUT (follicular unit transplantation), where the donor hairs are extracted by surgically removing a strip of skin, when he twice visited Dr Shahmalak for help with his hair.
Like everyone working in the hair transplantation industry, we owe a debt of gratitude to Wayne Rooney at Crown Clinic.
He paved the way for so many young men to get help with their hair.