David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Andrew Garfield, Matt Damon, Gordon Ramsay. What do they have in common? They’re among the long list of A-list men who’ve reportedly had hair transplants to combat a receding hairline or baldness.
Approximately 6.5million men in the UK are currently affected by hair loss, while the most common cause (androgenic alopecia aka male pattern baldness) affects 85% of men by the age of 50.
Consequently, men are forking out thousands — sometimes tens of thousands — on potential remedies, from surgical procedures to LED therapies and specialist shampoos.
In today’s climate, it’s typical for men to be mercilessly mocked for going bald, with neither Prince Harry nor boyband heartthrob Harry Styles safe from the wrath of social media once a photo surfaces of their scalp from an exposing angle.
But what about the men who are more than content just as they are?
Meet Schuggie, who refuses to allow online pressure to knock his confidence. While hair loss can and does cause very valid emotional distress for many, for Schuggie, it’s entirely the opposite.
A 51-year-old cèilidh caller (whose real name is Dougie MacInnes), he’s been bald for over two decades, having first noticed hair loss in his mid-twenties.
‘It didn’t really hit me until my early thirties,’ Schuggie explains. ‘Those were the days before caffeine shampoo, so the only way I found to fight it was medical shampoo at £40 a bottle. I couldn’t keep that up financially.’
Schuggie found it tough being bald, with terms like ‘slaphead’ thrown at him in a derogatory manner.
‘Years back, I went to a wedding, and during one of the dances, someone did actually slap my head,’ he recalls.
‘I remember at the time thinking, just smile, don’t lose the plot, keep going… but it really stuck with me.’
In time, Schuggie become more comfortable in his own skin. The name-calling has died down and he even finds himself laughing at old videos.
And Schuggie, from Inverness, says he has no desire to book himself into a hair loss clinic, despite the number of patients on the rise.
‘It’s not something I’ve ever considered, and I definitely still wouldn’t,’ he declares frankly. ‘From what I’ve seen on Instagram, the process looks rather painful, and there’s a lengthy recovery involved. It’s not for me.’
So while Schuggie’s hairstyling options are limited, and as he admits to being ‘jealous’ of his elderly friends who still boast impressively thick locks, he’s making the best of what he has, growing a beard and wearing funky hats to inject personality into his image.
But hair loss doesn’t just hit men in their forties and fifties, as 25-year-old Rupert Cole will attest to.
A PR professional from North Yorkshire, Rupert became aware he was losing hair at just 16.
Convinced he could stop his hair from disappearing, Rupert fought it with whatever he could get his hands on, with solutions including sprays and the medications minoxidil and finasteride.
‘I was prepared that it might happen at some point, because a lot of my family members are bald, but I didn’t expect it to happen while I was in school,’ he says. ‘It’s a tough thing for a teenager to go through.’
He eventually realised that seeking treatment in the form of cans and bottles was simply ‘delaying the inevitable’ and keeping him in the ‘awkward balding stage’. It was this that created momentum for Rupert to shave his head at 20.
‘For the first few days of being bald, I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but when I grew out my beard more, I quickly realised that I actually preferred the way I looked without hair.’
He adds that simply accepting how he looks makes him feel ‘more confident’, citing Jason Statham and Patrick Stewart as positive bald role models and declaring: ‘I wouldn’t go back, even if I could.’
‘I feel more attractive,’ he says proudly, desperate for society to catch up and stop deeming baldness as an inherently bad thing.
‘There’s a preconception that baldness is a failure of masculinity in young men because they don’t have a healthy head of hair, while bald men are often supportive towards one another.
‘I was the first of my friends to start balding, but I’m definitely not the only one now, and all of us wish we’d shaved it earlier and not been so worried.
‘At the end of the day, it’s going to go one way or another, and you’ll feel more confident if you embrace it, rather than letting it take over you slowly.’
Hair transplants are a big business. In Istanbul alone, baldness tourism is huge — up to 500 procedures are performed each week, and an estimated £1.5billion was spent on hair transplants in Turkey last year.
On why 400,000 men (making up 90% of these international patients) are undergoing the extensive treatment in the name of hair regrowth, aesthetician Ed Robinson weighs in.
The NHS doctor, who has his own Harley Street clinic, explains that a full head of hair is typically linked with success and confidence, with social media becoming a breeding ground for appearance-related insecurities.
‘Hair loss can affect people quite deeply,’ he begins. ‘My patients frequently admit to declining social invitations, avoiding having photos taken, and getting their hair wet out of fear of exposing its thinness or being ridiculed.’
Dr Ed has performed treatments for both high-profile patients and everyday folk but doesn’t believe a transplant is essential for rebuilding your self-esteem when balding.
What causes hair loss in men?
‘The vast majority of males with hair loss experience androgenetic alopecia, which is called male pattern hair loss,’ says Dr Ed. ‘This is typically when testosterone gets turned into DHT as part of its metabolism.
‘DHT (dihydrotestosterone) is a hormone responsible for you growing all the hair on your body that you probably don’t want as you get older (eyebrows, ear hair, nose hair) and is also responsible for you losing the hair you do want (on your scalp).
‘It forms the classic receding hairline, starting with the widow’s peak, then an M-shaped hairline that goes further and further back.
‘Some people are genetically predisposed to this happening earlier in their lives, but most men will experience it gradually over time.’
‘Ultimately, self-acceptance of how you look is always the safest way in aesthetics. It doesn’t involve you having to have any medications, injections, or non-surgical or surgical procedures.’
Something that’s helped with this, no doubt, is high-profile figures embracing their own baldness and setting a positive example, whether it be Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Stanley Tucci, or Prince William, the latter of whom was crowned the world’s sexiest bald man.
Take Pitbull as another example, whose fans actually buy bald caps and don black shades to recreate his look while attending his concerts in their thousands.
However, it’s important to remember that hair loss is a personal experience, something stressed by Brian Gross, who states that ‘every person has to tackle it however is best for them’.
Brian began losing his hair right after his first year of college. Hair loss is ‘ridiculously common’ in his family, meaning it wasn’t a shock, so Brian has been on a self-acceptance train for a long time.
‘I actually had a mullet in high school, but we all knew I was going to lose it, and my friends and I always made fun of each other,’ shares the 49-year-old. ‘When it started to happen, it wasn’t such a big deal to me.’
Brian, a publicist from California, first reached for the clippers in his early twenties and has been shaving ever since: ‘I’m fortunate enough to have a nice, clean-shaped head!’
The thought of a hair transplant isn’t something he’d entertain, especially after visiting Istanbul and witnessing men across the Grand Bazaar market walk around post-surgery, bandaged up. ‘It’s totally the norm there.’
‘I just had to accept that it was going to be this way,’ Brian declares. ‘Being bald has zero effect on my personal life now, and I wouldn’t want anyone, including women I date, to have issues with it either.’
As far as romance is concerned, Brian makes it clear from the off what people are getting, as he ‘always shows up to dates with a shaven head’ and ‘rarely’ posts photos of himself wearing hats.
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‘I try my best not to hide it, and I make sure the other person knows that. I hear horror stories of men arriving at dates looking nothing like their photos, which is wild to me. What you see is what you get.’
In fact, shaving his head has become a hobby for Brian, who says one of his favourite activities when travelling is visiting barbershops around the world.
‘I love getting my beard trimmed, I use a Pitbull razor a couple of times a week, which feels great on my scalp… If people want to say mean things, I would question them, not myself.
‘Honestly, my life is amazing.’
The truth behind a hair transplant from someone’s who's had one
Metro‘s very own James Besanvalle underwent a transplant in December 2024, taking matters into his own hands in his early thirties after balding and receding.
How much did it cost?
The standard price for the procedure is £5,000, including a year of aftercare and hair loss drugs.
What did the procedure entail?
James was given local anaesthetic and, over a two-hour session, he manoeuvred his head and neck while doctors extracted 2,100 grafts of hair from the back of his head. These are small pieces of tissue containing hair follicles that are transplanted to another part of the scalp.
Bandaged up, James returned the next day for a four-hour sitting in which tiny incisions were made at the front of his head and on his crown to insert the individual grafts.
How painful was it?
On a scale of one to 10, James describes the sharp scratch of the injection as a four. The second day, he was more aware of what to expect. He also endured some pain in his neck and head throughout the op.
What’s the recovery process like?
Recovering from a hair transplant isn’t smooth sailing. James says sleeping was the most difficult part, as he was unable to get comfortable at night without touching the transplanted area.
His face also began swelling when the anaesthetic made its way down from the scalp, and he had to repeatedly wipe excess yellow serum from his forehead. After enduring the itching, James was able to gently wash his hair on day five and scrub off any scabs.
He now takes finasteride pills to stop any future hair loss and will undertake two platelet-rich plasma (PRP) treatments within six months of the procedure to encourage circulation and regrowth.
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Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk.
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