Welcome to the world of hair restoration

​​I’m bald and that bothered me for a long time. ​​

It bothered me that I was being disturbed. But if you swipe down on my Instagram feed, you’ll see that I’m not the only man worried about his hair.

I’m greeted with videos and posts offering hair transplants, regrowth tablets, thickening sprays, gap-filling powders, and hair systems (formerly known as wigs or toupees).

These products promise to restore my “lost confidence” and prevent my lack of hair from “slowing down” my life.

But does the abundance of treatment options on offer mean attitudes to hair loss have changed? Is what we once had to put up with now seen as reversible, albeit at a cost?

According to the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS), hair transplants are becoming more common around the world – and the people having them are getting younger.

This global collective of surgeons, doctors and experts found that 95% of its members’ patients between the ages of 20 and 35 sought hair restoration surgery – and that’s mirrored in the UK, too, according to hair loss surgeon Dr. Nilofer Farjo confirmed.

When my hair first started receding in my early 20s, I tried my best to cover it up by tactically styling and positioning it in a way that would hide the new spots on the scalp that I hadn’t seen before.

Then, while I was on my way to my brother’s stag do at a nightclub in Liverpool, something happened that I haven’t been able to forget since.

I had suggested that we wear white t-shirts and carry permanent markers with us so that people we meet can leave funny messages on our t-shirts.

“Best man? Best comb,” one woman wrote.

I laughed about it at the time, but inside I was devastated. It was clear that my hair loss was now noticeable to other people too. And from then on, I became more and more self-conscious about my thinning hair.

When I was younger, bald men were often the butt of jokes – but taking steps to regain lost hair seemed to be viewed as effeminate and vain. Still, I began to wonder if a hair transplant was my only option. Was this an opportunity for someone like me? In my opinion they were only for rich people and celebrities like Elton John.

Ten years later, social media and dating apps have made us all more conscious of how we look, says Dr. Farjo, and the fact that celebrities and influencers are more open about hair transplants has normalized the procedure.

She says more and more young men are now choosing to treat their hair loss, and what was once considered “vanity” is now considered “routine self-care.”

When I first started thinking about a hair transplant, I had just graduated college, had little money, and had no real idea how much the procedure would actually cost.

I began researching and discovered a nearby transplant clinic that offered free consultations and monthly payment plans.

“You’re still quite young,” I remember the hair transplant consultant telling me as he traced my scalp with a felting needle. “After this transplant, your hair may recede even further. But you can just come in and have the hair topped up.”

Despite the payment plan, I realized I couldn’t afford a hair transplant – especially if I had to get a top-up later in life.

Since my own consultation in Cardiff in 2014, I have heard of more and more men traveling to countries such as Turkey for hair transplants. Dr. Farjo says this is because the costs are “a fraction” of those in the UK.

While the price may be attractive, she says there are concerns about industry practices as there are limited regulations in place. Dr. Farjo also warns that cheap, unregulated procedures, not just in Turkey, can sometimes result in people needing “costly corrective surgeries” to deal with scarring and “poor hairline design.”

But hair transplants are still popular in Turkey and there are many happy customers – including content creator Ben Placito.

After funny comments from his hairdresser, Ben decided to consider a hair transplant. And after months of research, he discovered it would be cheaper to have the procedure done in Turkey than in the UK.

Some offers from Turkish clinics were “insanely cheap”, says Ben, offering operations for around £1,500. But the 31-year-old passed up the cheapest hair transplant on offer and instead opted for a “premium” option.

After speaking to other men who had been there and had good experiences, Ben felt reassured about the clinic he chose. Ben traveled to Turkey for the procedure in 2022 and shared his experience on his TikTok account.

“People have said to me, ‘This is the best thing you’ve ever done,'” Ben says. “I’m really glad I did it.”

About a year after I gave up on the idea of ​​surgery, I came across an ad for a clinic that offered non-surgical treatments such as finasteride tablets and minoxidil cream, which can stimulate hair growth.

Finasteride is one of the most common hair loss pills and is taken by tens of thousands of men in the UK. It is only available by private prescription.

It prevents testosterone from converting into another hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which can stop hair growth.

Minoxidil, originally a blood pressure medication, causes hair growth as a side effect and is commonly sold in the form of a day cream that is applied directly to the hair and scalp.

I paid several hundred pounds for a combination course of minoxidil and finasteride, but the treatment requires regular daily use and I have often forgotten to take it. At some point I realized that I couldn’t justify the cost – nor did I have the confidence to stick with it. Health concerns also weighed on me, as the clinic had made clear.

According to a 2024 report from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), finasteride is associated with psychiatric problems such as depression and suicidal ideation and may cause side effects that affect sexual function.

The MHRA recommends users monitor symptoms and stop taking the medicine if side effects occur.

My experience was a decade ago, but the market for hair loss medications has exploded since then. Superdrug’s private online doctor service says it has seen a 68% increase in the number of new patients seeking hair loss treatments in the last three months compared to the same period last year.

After going off medication, I relied on hats and carefully placed sunglasses that “hide” my receding hair. When I took a photo with family or friends, I positioned the camera so that it covered my head.

Then, in 2019, I started seeing advertisements for hair systems. These seamless-looking hairpieces are glued to a shaved scalp and blended with existing hair. Regular clinic visits are made for care. This seemed to be a side effect-free, immediate solution.

But I couldn’t shake the thought of suddenly showing up at work or at family gatherings with a full head of hair – everyone knew I was bald. I also questioned the legitimacy of the ads. Were the results real? Or simply the result of clever lighting and angles?

I had seen some people with systems that told their social media followers that they might start peeling off in the middle of the day – and that was what I was afraid of.

However, for 36-year-old Adam Lomax, who suffers from male pattern baldness and trichotillomania (a psychological disorder in which one cannot resist pulling out one’s hair), a hair system has been “life-changing.”

Adam had already tried finasteride, which left him feeling anxious, depressed and low libido.

“People have been really positive,” Adam says of the response to his new hair. “The discussion about hair loss in men has changed massively – but there are still the odd troll on TikTok.”

It’s clear that there are many options for men suffering from hair loss, but not every bald man sees hair loss as something that needs to be fixed or prevented.

“The narrative around hair loss needs to change, both socially and commercially,” says Tariq Kazemi, co-founder and CEO of skincare company Bld Bro, a brand founded as a support group for balding men.

Tariq remembers a colleague making fun of his bald spot during a shopping trip, describing it as “like an ice pick to my heart.”

Tariq later shaved his head and noticed that there were no more jokes about his hair loss. He decided against any form of hair restoration.

“These industries prey on young men’s fears and anxieties,” he says. “We have been told that it is our identity, our confidence and our attractiveness that will disappear with the hair on our head.”

In 2020, when the world went into lockdown due to the coronavirus, many people grew their hair or tried to cut it themselves.

At this point, the only remaining hair was at the back of my head and in a thin patch at the top of my forehead. I took the plunge and decided to shave my head. It was a freedom to jump to the final stage of the balding process and I have continued to shave my head ever since.

There’s so much talk about hair loss on social media, and there’s money to be made off of men’s concerns about it. But after speaking to various men about their experiences with hair loss, it’s clear that there’s no one right way to be happy with your appearance.

The fear I felt when I lost my hair has gradually subsided and I am becoming more accepting of my appearance. I have now come to terms with my baldness and would rather be bald than be bald.