Taking Back Control: men Confront Hair Loss with Prostheses and transplants
The pressure to maintain a perfect appearance is driving a growing number of men to seek solutions for hair loss, ranging from surgical transplants to non-surgical capillary prostheses. For some, the decision is rooted in a desire to reclaim confidence and chance.
Luke Shepherd, a 34-year-old primary school teacher, reached a turning point on Christmas Eve. Reflecting on his appearance, he admitted, “I was with my hair all hairstyle, very flat, sprayed with almost half can of spray to retouch roots and fibers.I didn’t like what I saw.” He’d been battling hair loss since age 16,a struggle he describes as having “taken control of my life.” In January, Shepherd opted for a capillary prosthesis, a decision he says “changed her life completely.” He explained, “I felt a lot of pressure to look perfect… I saw so many people with different hairstyle styles on Instagram and I thought ‘I would like to do that’, but I couldn’t.” He felt limited by his thinning hair, stating, “I watched television programs and everyone had perfect hair… my hair was braking me. I simply could not continue like this because I was depressing me, The lack of hair made me feel bad about myself so I took measures to solve this.”
Others, like former Rugby Professional Xavier Rush, waited until later in life to address thier hair loss. Rush chose to undergo a capillary transplant after retiring from the sport, fearing “abuse” from opposing players had he done so earlier. He has since opened a capillary transplant business after being inundated with inquiries about his own procedure. “We are in the Instagram era, people make calls by Zoom.Many people call me and tell me ‘My God, I see my head in the camera every day and I don’t like it,” Rush observed. He noted a decreasing stigma surrounding transplants, but confessed to initial anxieties: “Would it look natural? Would it always seem that I had made a capillary transplant?”
Sharon Thomas, a specialist in non-surgical capillary replacement, has been creating prostheses for men and women since 1996. She’s seen a significant shift in her clientele. “When I started, capillary prostheses were much thicker and took much longer to get,” she said. “Now, about 70% of our clients are men.”
Thomas highlights the key differences between the two popular solutions. “Capillary transplants take longer, while this is an instant solution, volume is achieved and is cheaper. There is a big difference. Even when customers come and do the test for the first time, they are seen smiling.”
By Lola Mayor and Ben Price
