There has never been a better time to have a hair transplant.
Working from home makes it much easier for patients to enjoy a degree of anonymity once the procedure has been completed.
A hair transplant is a significant medical procedure.
Patients need up to two weeks to fully recover and for the surgical scars to heal.
At Crown Clinic, we are aware that there is a certain stigma attached to men in particular seeking help with their hair.
Some are worried that they will be considered vain and are embarrassed by the idea of returning to work soon after having a procedure.
Attitudes are changing fast and most people admire those who seek to improve their hair. The response to celebrities such as Jack P Shepherd or Jimmy Carr having a hair transplant is overwhelmingly positive.
The pandemic – and the increased tendency for people to work from home – has enabled lots more patients to ‘fly under the radar’ folllowing a procedure.
They can be treated by our consultant transplant surgeon Dr Asim Shahmalak and then make a quiet return to work at home while they recover.
Lots of patients like this quieter approach – any procedure, certainly in the early stages, is harder to detect on a Zoom call than in a face-to-face meeting.
For these reasons, some hair transplant clinics are reporting bookings up by as much 40% in the last six months.
We are very busy at the Covid-secure Crown Clinic and the holiday period is a great time for bookings.
Patients can have a procedure at the start of a two-week break and then lie low away from work relaxing on holiday while they recover.
At Crown Clinic, we offer two types of procedure.
Around 80% of our patients opt for the more modern technique known as FUE (follicular unit extraction).
This is where individual hair grafts are extracted from the back and sides of the scalp and then replanted in the balding areas.
Because the grafts are removed individually, scarring is minimal – patients are left with red pin pricks in the donor and transplant areas for around a week before healing.
Celebrity patients who have had FUE procedures with Dr Shahmalak at Crown Clinic include the Coronation Street star Jack P Shepherd, Homes Under the Hammer presenter Martin Roberts and the model Calum Best.
FUE is more labour intensive than the more traditional form of hair transplantation, FUT (follicular unit transplantation). With FUT, Dr Shahmalak surgicially removes a strip of skin from the back of the scalp to obtain the donor hair.
The donor grafts are removed from the strip by technicians under a microscope before being replanted by Dr Shahmalak in the balding areas in the same way as FUE.
The TV doctor Christian Jessen has had two FUT procedures with Dr Shahmalak.
Scarring is more noticeable with FUT, so it is not recommended for men who like to wear their hair short or shaved.
It is quicker to obtain the donor hairs with FUT so the procedure is cheaper than FUE.