Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Embarrassing Bodies star Dr Christian Jessen has had a second hair transplant

The presenter of Channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies, Dr Christian Jessen, appears to be battling his own embarrassing problem after the 36-year-old revealed he has undergone a second hair transplant procedure.

He first went under the knife to restore his blonde locks in 2009, and only made the news public a year later. Following this, it led to other celebrities such as footballer Wayne Rooney and celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey also having hair transplants of their own. In addition, Medical Specialists Pharmacy have since witnessed a huge surge in requests for hair loss treatments such as Propecia, Regaine and Regaine for Women as the problem of hair loss begins to shed the embarrassing stigma attached to it and both men and women start to embrace the number of options that are available to them.

Jessen’s thinning hair is what obviously prompted his first hair transplant four years ago; however his follicles were left more severely weakened after suffering with a debilitating bout of pneumonia in 2012. He commented: “Most of my hair grew back after the pneumonia but there was just a bit less. Any serious illness can result in hair loss. The same thing can happen to women after they give birth.”

As Jessen began losing more hair after his illness, the doctor became a target on the social networking website Twitter, as users began leaving him disgraceful comments such as: “great body, pity about the hair” and other more nastier insulting remarks.

Dr Jessen described the torment he was subjected to on the internet: “Your name crops up on blogs, chat rooms and forums like Twitter. They are not talking about your medical skills or your bedside manner – they just comment on your looks.”

Motivated by a wish for thicker hair once again, and tired of cruel jibes from Twitter trolls, Jessen paid £5,500 for a second hair transplant procedure with top celebrity surgeon; Dr Asim Shahmalak, at his Crown Cosma Clinic in Manchester. The transplant involved Dr Shahmalak grafting 3,000 individual hairs from the back of Jessen’s scalp and planting them into the front around the hairline. The procedure is known as ‘Follicular Unit Transportation’.

Besides the massive cost of the treatment – Wayne Rooney’s hair transplant is believed to have cost about £30,000 – it can take up to a year for transplanted hair to grow back and can frustratingly fall out or thin again in the future, leaving the patient not much better off than previously.

“I hadn’t realised that there was an option for a second hair transplant. When I was told it was possible, I thought it would be good to make my hair thicker at the front. There were also a few gaps which need filling. The techniques have improved a lot in the four years since I had the first one”, he said.

With more hair back on his head, Dr Jessen has now regained his confidence and says: “I am very pleased that I had it done – it has been very empowering for me. I thought to myself, “Why am I always telling people how to change things about their bodies that they dislike if I can’t do the same thing for myself?” We view cosmetic surgery for men and women so differently. Having a boob job for a woman is seen as such an everyday thing these days, but for a man to have a hair transplant is seen as a far bigger step. There are so many men out there who want to have this done but don’t dare. I just hope by talking about it openly that I will remove some of the stigma attached to men having cosmetic procedures. It’s great that other celebrities with transplants like Wayne Rooney and James Nesbitt have gone public as well. It may mean that more do not suffer in silence. When a transplant is done well, it can really transform your life.”

Setting patients back thousands of pounds for just one procedure of a potential few, hair transplants can only be afforded by a small minority of the millions of men around the world suffering with male pattern baldness.  In times of a crippling recession and austerity in Britain and many other countries, these expensive procedures are simply not a viable option for most.

For both men and women suffering from hair loss, Medical Specialists Pharmacy have a huge range of effective and much cheaper treatment options such as the prescription medication Propecia to combat male pattern baldness, in addition to Regaine, Alpecin caffeine shampoo. For women we have a number of treatments such as Florisene and the prescription medication Dianette – the latter can also be used for acne, hirsutism and contraceptive purposes. Visit the Men’s Health or Women’s Health area of the Medical Specialists website to find out more information on how to obtain these hair loss treatments.

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