For years, Alex Aitken’s receding hairline meant he was regularly mistaken for a man a decade older.
‘People used to think I was in my forties when I was only just turning thirty,’ he said.
‘It became something that really bothered me.’
The owner of Manchester-based project manager first noticed his hair thinning at the front of his head in his mid-20s – but wasn’t immediately fussed about it.
Over time, however, as his hair loss continued, and he felt he looked older and older for his age, Alex grew gradually more uncomfortable with the change in his looks.
‘None of my friends had hair loss like I did,’ he said. ‘I decided I had to do something about it.’
Today, aged 33, Alex’s appearance is transformed. He looks no older than his late 20s, and is regularly mistaken for such, he says.
The change? He now has a full head of healthy and natural looking hair, after undergoing a radical hair transplant three years ago.
‘The change has been huge for me,’ he explained.
‘I’m not the sort of person who looks in the mirror and thinks, ‘Oh my God, I look amazing,’ because I’m not that vain, but the best way I can describe it is that I feel like a different person, like the version of myself I always should have looked like.
‘Looking back now, the whole experience has been completely worth it. Now, after having it done, when people assume my age, they usually say late twenties, so it’s taken about six years off how I look.
‘And seeing my hair come back definitely made me feel younger too.’
Alex is hardly alone in his struggle. A shocking 40 per cent of British men will experience visible hair loss by age 35, rising to 60 per cent by age 65.
For more than half of these men, a new survey from the British Association of Hair Restoration Surgery revealed, thinning hair can cause a considerable knock to self-esteem, while just over one third worry that it will impact their confidence in their social life.
A further 34 per cent, meanwhile, like Alex, fear that their hair loss makes them look older than they are.
The causes of hair loss can vary.
The most common form, called male pattern baldness, is linked to genetics, meaning it runs in the family.
Some may develop alopecia areata, where the immune system mistakenly attacks the scalp tissue, making hair fall out in patches. Stress can also trigger the problem.
In the UK, millions of men take drugs, such finasteride and minoxidil, which are proven to slow down – or even reverse – hair loss.
But the drugs don’t work on everyone, and can have nasty side effects – including erectile dysfunction and low libido, depression, suicidal thoughts and even cardiovascular problems.
Hair transplants, as a result, have seen a boom in popularity in recent years – with demand increasing by 60 per cent in just the last five years.
Jude Law, Elon Musk, Gordon Ramsay and Wayne Rooney have all reportedly succumbed to the temptation of rejuvenating their thatch.
According to Harley Street Transplant Clinics, 30,000 men per year in the UK are getting one, while some 1.8million ‘medical tourists’ travelled to Turkey – a hot spot for cheap transplants – in 2023 alone.
The surgical procedure, which usually costs around £5,000, sees hair follicles from one part of the scalp removed and grafted into an area with less coverage.
The treatments are not always successful. And in some cases, where patients may have advanced hair loss, the procedure is unlikely to work.
So for Alex, the decision to get the surgery was not an easy one.
Unconvinced that existing medications for hair loss – such as finasteride or minoxidil – would be effective, and wary of side effects, Alex stuck to home remedies and over-the-counter solutions for the first few years after noticing his thinning locks.
He tried using Alpha Caffeine Shampoo – a product often recommended on social media that claims to fight thinning with a caffeine-infused formula – but found it made no difference.
Alex also began using hair fibres to hide thinning patches – cosmetic concealers that adhere to existing hair using static charge, creating a thicker, fuller appearance.
But as his hair grew thinner, the fibres grew less effective.
Eventually, on the cusp of his thirtieth birthday, Alex decided enough was enough.
‘I hadn’t considered surgery until that point, because I’d heard so many horror stories,’ he said. ‘But it got to the point where I needed to do something.’
Alex wanted to go somewhere he thought would make the procedure safe and comfortable – and that he’d easily be able to return if something did go wrong.
‘The only real worry I had before having the transplant was the things I’d heard from people I knew who’d gone abroad for a hair transplant to Turkey,’ he said.
‘They didn’t have very positive things to say about their outcomes. They talked about long-lasting pain, and outcomes that weren’t consistent. You could also see that it wasn’t natural, you could tell they had had a hair transplant.’
After doing some research, and visiting a couple of clinics in the UK, Alex decided upon the Farjo Hair Institute in London.
He went for an initial consultation – and signed up for the procedure on the spot.
‘I wanted to go somewhere safe, convenient and local, and the clinic was just that. I felt very comfortable immediately,’ he said.
On the day of the procedure, just weeks later, Alex arrived at 7am to have his head shaved, and given anaesthetic in his scalp.
This, he says, was the most painful part of the whole procedure. For the rest of the morning, as the hair follicles were removed from the back of his head in large swatches, and the afternoon, which saw the clinicians carefully reimplant the follicles in the top and front bald parts of his head, Alex sat comfortably watching a film.
‘That night, I felt like I was wearing a helmet – my head felt so numb and heavy from the anaesthetic,’ he explained.
‘But apart from a tiny bit of blood on the pillow, it was fine.’
Alex was back at work running his company, Woodside Design Joinery the following day.
For the next week or so, Alex says his scalp felt slightly itchy – easily soothed by a spray of salt water he was given by the clinic.
But any discomfort was instantly worth it just one month later, says Alex, when his hair began growing back – without any bald patches at all.
‘I was looking forward so much for my first hair cut after the transplant,’ he said.
‘Before, getting my hair cut involved keeping the front and side bits as long as possible so I could comb them over – if the wind blew, however, I looked bald.’
Today, Alex says he feels years younger – and looks it too.
‘I’m 33, but people often think I’m in my 20s,’ he said. ‘The whole experience was definitely worth it.
‘It exceeded what I expected, especially in terms of how natural it looks. You’d never look at me now and know that I’ve had anything done, which is exactly what I wanted.’
