Cheer up Peter Reid...
...WELL HE HAS NOW THAT HE’S HAD A HAIR TRANSPLANT
FORMER Sunderland football club manager Peter Reid has revealed all about his hair transplant, saying he found the surgery “therapeutic”.
The popular ex-manager was famed for his thick curly locks during his playing career in the 1980s.
But the 62-year-old is now sporting a new look after admitting his thinning hairline was “playing on his mind”.
Reid said he found the whole transplant process to be “therapeutic”.
Talking about his operation at Manchester’s respected Farjo Hair Institute, he said: “I’ve had a lot of injuries and operations.
“I didn’t think it would be painful and it wasn’t painful, in fact I found it quite relaxing. I found it therapeutic, someone messing with your scalp.
“I know it sounds like it wasn’t a big deal, but to me it wasn’t – you can watch a movie or listen to music or talk football while it’s getting done.
“It was an altogether nice experience.”
Reid said his decision to go under the knife had nothing to do with vanity.
He said: “Was I really conscious of going bald? I’m not sure.
“It wasn’t something that I was thinking about all the time, it was just something that came about. I’m glad I’ve had it done.
“Is it vanity? I don’t think so. Was I losing confidence? No, not really.
“It was just something where I thought, ‘Yeah, it’s playing on my mind so I’ll do it.’”
The surgery costs £7,000 a time and Reid, who earned 13 England caps, went under the knife last year.
Surgeon Dr Bessam Farjo, who operated on Reid, said: “There are many factors driving the trend, but the increasing number of celebrities talking about their surgical hair restoration is certainly contributing to the popularity of hair transplants.
“And this transparency and honesty when it comes to talking about transplants is helping to diminish some of the stigma.” The process involves the extraction of individual follicular units – clusters of up to five hairs – from a donor site of the head. Microscopic slits are then made in the balding areas of a patient’s scalp, with the harvested grafts placed there.
A typical FUE treatment can involve extracting up to 2,000 grafts a day and take up to 10 hours. Larger cases may require more than one day in surgery. Other footballers to have done it include Wayne Rooney, Burnley striker Ashley Barnes, 28, former Sunderland defender and pundit Micky Gray, 44, Republic of Ireland international Jason McAteer, 47, and former England midfielder David Platt, 52. According to The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS), there were an estimated 635,000 surgical hair transplant procedures worldwide last year.