Author David Thomas is chronicling his gender transition in the British press. He has described his journey to hair transplant surgery as frightening. Definitely worth a closer look.
David Thomas
David is not a typical candidate for gender transition, even if there is such a thing. The football team he supports hail from the gritty East End of London and he is a 60-year-old father-of-three with a “fabulously blokey” record collection. But when David reached his fifties he took the decision to go through with gender transition to become a woman. He also decided to share his story, and the details of his journey through the transition, with readers from the UK paper, The Telegraph.
Journey To Hair Transplant
David tells his readers that he never expected to go bald. His father still has all his at 85 and his father before him died with all his. Until the age of 34, he had thick, floppy dark hair. At that point, a relative told him quite casually that he had a bald spot on his crown. David simply didn’t believe her and it would be another 2 years before he would see it for himself.
By his late thirties, David had grown to hate his bald patch. He describes the turmoil of still being in denial about his sexuality but realizing a bald patch would be a block to any plans to alter his gender and make a convincing woman. He was commissioned by a magazine to research his options for a cure. During the course of that project he spoke a range of providers from across the hair loss industry, including he tells us “purveyors of brown spray-paint.” At the private practice of the man would become his transplant surgeon, David discovered the availability of minoxidil and finasteride, which he credits with staving off the progression of his balding for several years.
Ultimately, he decided the decision to make the gender reassignment would mean, in his case, a trip to the hair transplant surgeon. A prospect he found terrifying. Nevertheless, he booked himself in and paid his deposit. Only to cancel in the run up to the appointment. Fears about the surgery itself, his father had nearly died during a routine operation, and more about “terrible visions of a head covered in random tufts” were enough for him to write off the £500 deposit.
Treatment
So it would be another two years before David would summon the courage to book again. Finally, going through with the surgery and on to the next terrifying stage, the lengthy, almost glacial recovery. The shock of seeing the newly transplanted hairs fall out, despite having been warned this was a normal part of the process, was a challenge. As was the frustration with the slow nature of waiting to see the results of pretty much any hair loss treatment… with Scalp Micropigmentation a notable exception.
HIS Hair Clinic
David’s story is fascinating and well-told. The unique challenges of gender transition are laid out and the hair loss aspect is one not many of us would spend too much time thinking about. But short of committing to a life of wigs or hair systems, there would seem to be little alternative to the transplant for a newly reassigned woman wanting to hide a bald patch.
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