Derry Matthews, former British and Commonwealth Lightweight boxing champion has recently made headlines as he admitted that he has undergone a hair transplant. His reasoning was simply that he was getting too many comments and jokes made about his receding hairline from his friends, yet is delighted with the results.
Matthews appears to be a victim of male pattern baldness, currently aged 33 he spoke about how he initially began to lose his hair when he was just 25 years old. His particular transplant involved having five thousand hair follicles grafted from the back of his head onto the top and to form a new, more defined hairline. The procedure took almost fourteen hours and although it was only performed in April, Matthews says he is already seeing results and has even been for a haircut.
Hair transplants appear to be increasing in popularity amongst sportsmen over the last few years; however this could be down to the pressure of being in the public eye.
What is a hair transplant?
A hair transplant is a surgical procedure in which hair follicles are grafted from a donor site, usually the back of the patients head and used to fill in bald or balding parts of the scalp. The hair that is taken from the donor site is more resistant to changes in hormone levels and are unlikely to ever fall out.
The two types of hair transplants
There are two types of methods where the hair can be grafted;
- Follicular Unit Transplant (FUT)
With this method, a strip of multiple hair follicles are cut from the back of the head from which donor hair follicles are extracted. - Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE)
This method requires individual follicles being grafted from the scalp one by one, a tiny specialised tool is used for precise results. Although the process can be tedious, it is painless as the scalp is numbed beforehand.
The FUT method allows surgeons to cover larger bald patches in fewer sessions and there is much less likelihood that hair follicles get damaged in the grafting process. The FUE method on the other hand leaves patients with no scars as there are no cuts or stitches on the scalp, this means the recovery time is also a lot faster and most daily activities can be resumed the next day.
