At Crown Clinic, our consultant hair transplant surgeon Asim Shahmalak treats lots of celebrity clients.
Some of these go public such as the Coronation Street star Jack P Shepherd and the model Calum Best and are happy to talk about their transformations.
Other celebrities would rather keep their treatment private and make no public comment about the fantastic improvement in their hair and overall looks.
All our celebrity clients feel the pressure to maintain their looks and youthful appearance to ensure career success.
The stars of the pop band Take That have spoken about those pressures in a recent interview.
Howard Donald went as far as to say that he feared he might have been sacked by the band if he had developed a bald spot.
Howard said: “I’ve been fearing going bald since I was 18, seriously I have.
“We would have had a new member if I’d have got a bald patch.”
Howard is 51 this week and the oldest member of the band. Around half the men of his age have experienced some form of male pattern baldness.
Howard has been lucky and kept hold of almost all his natural hair.
He is not in need of a hair transplant at this stage but he should monitor any hair loss very closely.
If you are in the early stages of hair loss, you can keep hold of more of your natural hair by taking a clinically proven hair loss drug such as Finasteride (also known as Propecia) which is prescribed to some patients at Crown Clinic by Dr Shahmalak. This won’t grow any new hair but it would stop Howard from losing any more of his natural hair.
Dr Shahmalak sometimes combines surgical and medicinal treatments for baldness. So the patient will have a hair transplant – either a FUE (follicular unit extraction) or a FUT (follicular unit transplantation) procedure to cover up their bald patch. Then they will take Finasteride to limit further hair loss after the procedure. The transplanted hair is permanent and should last the patient for the rest of their life but hair loss is a continual process and there is no guarantee that a patient won’t carry on losing their natural hair after a transplant. You only have to look at a high profile hair transplant patient such as Wayne Rooney to see how this can happen.
Another of Howard’s former Take That bandmates, Robbie Williams, has undergone a hair transplant to bolster his hairline.
Robbie almost certainy had a FUE transplant, favoured by most celebrities, where individual follicles are removed from the back and sides of the scalp and replanted in the balding areas – in Robbie’s case, right at the front of his hairline. Around 80% of the patients at Crown Clinic opt for FUE, though FUT remains popular because it is slightly cheaper than FUE.
Robbie took the brave decision to talk publically about the benefits of a transplant on TV. Robbie is no fool: he knows that his good looks (and strong hairline) are a vital part of his appeal. It is why he was paid millions by Simon Cowell to be a judge on X Factor.
We will keep a close eye on the other Take That boys. And if any of them need help with their hairlines, they just need to come down to Crown Clinic where Dr Shahmalak can sort things out for them.