It was great to see Tiger Woods back to somewhere near his best at the Ryder Cup over the weekend.
The 14-time major winner was on the losing side against the triumphant European team but he showed that he is once again one of the world’s great golfers
after a torrid few years.
But while life is looking up for Tiger on the golf course, the same cannot be said of his hair.
He has experienced fairly rapid male pattern baldness since winning his first major in the 1997 Masters when he was just 21.
Woods, 42, as our picture shows, has thinned appreciably right across the top of his crown and would benefit from a hair transplant.
The favoured method for most sports stars is the FUE (follicular unit extraction) method, where individual grafts are removed from the back and sides of the scalp and replanted in the balding areas.
This is the procedure chosen by 80% of the patients treated by Crown Clinic’s consultant surgeon Asim Shahmalak. Well known Crown Clinic celebrity hair transplant patients, soccer legend Didi Hamann, model Calum Best, Homes Under The Hammer presenter Martin Roberts and Gogglebox star Chris Butland-Steed all opted for FUE transplants with Dr Shahmalak.
Has Tiger Woods Had a Hair Transplant?
Woods has so far resisted the temptation to go under the knife but he has spoken openly about his hair loss.
Asked about growing older, he said: “I’m comfortable with it – my hairline’s not!
“I have a nice skylight (at home) and, if I don’t wear a hat, I can feel the heat.”
Woods covers up his hair loss during tournaments by always wearing a cap.
So far he has resisted the temptation to shave his head to disguise his baldness – a tactic used by stars such as Hollywood hardman Jason Statham.
Woods admitted he was keen to keep hold of more of his natural hair.
He said: “I’m fighting it hard. It’s a no-win fight but I’m hanging in there.”
There are measures Woods can take now to keep more of his natural hair.
He could start by taking clinically proven medications such as Finasteride or Minoxidil.
They won’t grow any new hair for Tiger but they will slow down or halt his male pattern baldness.
However, the only long-term solution to his hair difficulties is a hair transplant.
As well as FUE, our surgeon Dr Shahmalak also performs FUT (follicular unit transplantation), the more traditional form of hair transplantation, also known as strip surgery.
This is where a strip of skin is surgically removed from the scalp to obtain the donor hair which is then replanted in the balding areas in the same way as FUE by Dr Shahmalak.
The TV doctor Christian Jessen has had two FUT transplants with Dr Shahmalak.
Whatever Tiger decides to do, he needs to hurry up. If you lose too much of your natural hair, eventually hair transplants no longer become effective because patients are never going to have enough donor hair to fill in all the bald spots.