Celebrity Hair Transplant: Challenges

Today we discuss how celebrities have helped share the destiny of hair transplant and the good fortune of hair trasplant surgeons the world over.

We will also discuss how celebrities are difficult patients!

Ahair transplant is a powerful art form that brings out your inner beauty by enhancing self-image and therefore overall confidence.

The procedure of hair transplant  is widely accepted today. Unless you are marooned on a small island in the center of the Pacific for the past one decade, every person has a friend or colleague who has benefited from a hair transplant.

And celebrity hair transplants have been greatly instrumental in making hair transplant an accepted house-hold term in India as well as in all other corners of the world.. 

Ever since McLean of the Back Street Boys fame, the teenage sensation of the 90s waxed lyrically eloquent  about his restored hairline on social media and then the famous British footballer and many others gave a standing ovation to the miracle of surgical hair restoration, there has been no looking back for the industry which has grown exponentially in the past just one decade.

Back home, when Bollywood’s now old guard, Salman Khan after experimenting with various ways to hide his baldness over the years, got  a hair transplant around 10 years ago- it completely enhanced his macho look. He has been a harbinger of good news for the Indian industry. We cannot but thank him enough!

There is zero shame in getting a procedure  that makes you feel good and enhances your confidence and image. A full head of hair does help a man to look young and virile. 

Of all cosmetic surgery procedures, a hair transplant is sought after by a majority of men making it the most common cosmetic surgery procedure today.

If ISHRS is to be believed, 35 million men and 21 million women suffer from hair loss and balding. Over 650,000 of these undergo surgical hair restoration annually. And I feel 10 times this number are contemplating it on any given sunny day.

Just like celebrities who are mortal like us, the common man also desires to feel comfortable and confident in his own skin. And with increasing competition in the field, with improvements in knowledge, technique and skills hair transplant availability, safety and affordability has seen a revolution just in the last decade. It is a main stream procedure today and not only celebrities, even the middle class can easily afford a good procedure.

Men today feel it is no easy feat to live with your flaws and accept yourself as you are. And when the type of work you do holds a high premium for a youthful timeless look, you are driven to a hair transplant like bees to a jar of honey.

Both celebrities and non-celebrities simply don’t want to perpetuate the stigma of shame that was associated with  aesthetic procedures in the past. They see no point in keeping it a secret either. 

Today even celebrities are quite open about the fact that they have had a hair transplant done. Look at these endorsements only at my clinic. (put testimonials)

In fact celebrities tend to celebrate their new look. Of all the celebrity clients that come to me, 2/10 have no qualms in giving a video testimonial. 

But a hair transplant for celebrities is not without problems for the surgeon.

there exist many problems in doing a celebrity hair transplant. 

When you are from tinsel town, you are seldom well researched. You go by hearsay and often believe in advertisements in glossy magazines. This is because celebrities do not have the time for researching the procedure, the doctor or the clinic. They believe in Big Brands even for a hair transplant not knowing that surgical procedures do not come branded by Louis Vuitton or ….. Gucci! If they do, there may be a problem since it may be an assembly line clinic.

Their other problem is time! They just cannot find that perfect window off from work during which to submit to the procedure. And since hair transplants have a down time before you can look presentable again, this is so hard for them to assimilate.

They are doctor-shoppers. A celebrity would have taken the opinion of over 10 other doctors before he will sign up. And after the hair transplants he will call many more and sometimes even your competition! This adds to the stress of undertaking celebrity hair transplants.

The other important issue is confidentiality. In today’s day and age with social media just a click away, it may be so very difficult to maintain confidentiality. We have a clinic which is in the suburb just for this reason. There is no compromised staff to leak information, no paparazzi no glare of the common public in who comes and goes. 

Celebrities prefer us due to the confidentiality we assure. Giving their video testimonials on their own accord is a different matter. Though some offer a video testimonial on their own accord, others baulk at the idea. The clinic is legally obligated to maintain confidentiality.

But of all the problems in dealing with the celebrity hair transplant client is his misplaced expectations. He will more often than not, want an extreme hairline. A hairline that is irrational and at times out of sync with reality. They’re used to getting just about anything they desire and often do not understand that this is a surgical procedure with anatomical, physiological limitations. They will not settle for anything other than a lower hairline and a restoration to normal look they were earlier accustomed to. 

But they do not like listening to scientific reasoning.

So counseling can go on for weeks often for months.