He may only be 32, but Coronation Street‘s Jack P Shephard, who plays David Platt on the soap, has recently revealed that he had to undergo a second hair transplant, less than a year after the first procedure.
Jack underwent his first hair transplant procedure in January last year, and was very open with both his fans and the media at the time about his reasons for doing so:
“I decided to get one as my hair was falling out and it was affecting my mental health to the point where I considered giving up acting and not being in the public eye.”
It has taken him a little longer to talk about the second operation, but he told the Liverpool Echo:
“I have been suffering from quite rapid hair loss similar to Wayne Rooney and I knew the only way I was going to get it sorted was with another operation.”
Why did he need two hair transplants?
Hair transplant surgery is a very effective method of dealing with hair loss – quite literally transplanting live hair follicles to areas where the follicles have closed. However, it is really best suited to those in the later stages of male-pattern hair loss.
The issue is that whilst a hair transplant does in a manner of speaking reverse hair loss that has already occurred, what it can’t do is prevent further thinning from occurring.
So when a young man – whose hairline is just starting to recede – has a hair transplant, it will still be effective, but the hair will probably continue to recede behind the line of transplanted follicles.
This was almost certainly the case for both Jack and Wayne Rooney, who is reported to have undergone up to three hair transplants – although he has only gone public about two.
So why have the transplant in the first place?
That’s a difficult question to answer, and as a general rule most surgeons would discourage younger men from seeking a hair transplant as the first course of action unless their hair loss was really severe.
However, for men who are in the public eye, visible hair loss can be even more detrimental to their emotional wellbeing than it is for the rest of us. When the whole world can see your receding hairline, with journalists even commenting upon it publicly, it’s not hard to see why you might reach for a more immediate solution than is offered by most hair loss treatments.
What other options are there?
One fantastic hair loss treatment that really does offer immediate results is scalp micropigmentation, or SMP. The procedure involves microinjections of pigment all over the scalp, to replicate hair follicles, and can be worn either with longer hair, to mask any thinning areas, or with a shaven head, to give the appearance of a buzzcut.
Maybe if Jack’s second hair transplant doesn’t last as long as he’s hoping, he should consider giving SMP a try.
