Andros Townsend Hair Transplant Transformation
The former England star and Crystal Palace forward Andros Townsend is to be congratulated on his remarkable hair transformation.
If you look at the pictures of the 27-year-old below you can see a big difference in his hair.
In the before picture taken a few years ago, he has appreciable hair loss at the front of his scalp with heavy recession around the temples and noticeable thinning going back almost as far as the crown.
Now check out the picture alongside it from this season where Townsend is sporting a magnificent head of hair and his hair line is completely restored.
So what has been going on here?
We have previously written about Townsend on this blog and speculated about whether he has benefitted from Scalp Micropigmentation (SMP), a new service being offered at Crown Clinic.
This is where hair is tattooed on to the scalp to give the impression that the patient has a full head of hair. It is particularly effective for patients who like to wear their hair very short or shaved.
It was thought Townsend may have opted for SMP because of the way he wore his hair – for years it was always shaved across the top and it was evident that the star had added density to his hairline.
However, these new pictures of Townsend cast doubt on this theory.
There is no way the star’s new head of hair, with thick curly locks right at the front of his scalp, could have been achieved through SMP.
It is far more likely that the player has benefitted from a hair transplant.
Most footballers opt for the FUE (follicular unit extraction) method of hair transplantation – this is where the grafts are removed individually from the back and side of the scalp and then replanted in the balding areas.
Wayne Rooney has had at least two FUE procedures along with Crown Clinic’s celebrity hair transplant patients such as the former Liverpool and Man City player Didi Hamann, model Calum Best, Gogglebox star Chris Butland-Steeed and Homes Under The Hammer presenter Martin Roberts who were all treated by our esteemed consultant hair transplant surgeon Asim Shahmalak.
The advantage of FUE is that the scarring is minimal. Most patients are left with a series of red pinpricks where the donor’s hair has been extracted and replanted but these tend to go away after a couple of weeks.
FUE is particularly suitable for patients who like to wear their hair short or shaved.
Given that Townsend often wears his hair like this, he would be a natural candidate for FUE.
Some patients still prefer the more traditional method of hair transplantation known as FUT (follicular unit transplantation), also known as strip surgery.
This is where the donor’s hair is obtained by surgically removing a strip of skin from the back or side of the scalp. Technicians then remove the grafts from this strip under a microscope before they are replanted in the balding areas by Dr Shahmalak.
The disadvantage of this method is that it does leave a permanent linear scar on the scalp where the strip is cut out.
This is not really visible if you like to wear your hair relatively long but you would be able to see it if your hair is short or shaved.
The TV doctor Christian Jessen has had two FUT transplants with Dr Shahmalak at Crown Clinic.