Will Paxman Prove the Inspiration for Facial Hair Transplants?

16th August 2013

You’d need to have been living under a rock to escape the furore over the appearance of Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxman this week.

For once, it wasn’t his tough interviewing style that had him hitting the headlines. This week, Paxman debuted a new look – sporting a full beard that, he explains, he’d grown over his summer holidays, and liked so much he decided to keep it.

Facial hair is always an interesting topic and one that can really divide opinions. You’d only have to read some of the papers’ comments on Paxman’s whiskers to see that!

For me, the interest lies in the resultant conversations people have every day. Patchy, grey, ginger or wispy beards are often bemoaned by my patients, who want to be able to sport a full face of designer stubble.

I pioneered the world’s first facial hair reconstruction surgery way back in 1996, and have performed a steady stream of facial hair transplants since then.

They may not be as popular as traditional hair transplants, but men are increasingly learning about the other hair transplant options available to them.

For example, I’ve performed chest hair transplants, moustache transplants and eyebrow transplants – even pubic hair has gone under my knife! The science of hair transplantation is developing all the time, with more and more people turning to hair transplant surgeons for help every year.

In fact, hair transplant surgery is now the most popular form of cosmetic surgery for men carried out in the UK! More than 4,500 transplants were carried out in 2011 – a 13 per cent rise in 2010. This is over 300 per cent more than the number of rhinoplasties, or nose jobs, undergone by men in 2011.

It will be interesting to see whether Paxman’s facial fuzz sparks a new trend for full beards among men in the UK – and whether it has any impact on the numbers of transplant surgeries carried out.

Watch this space!