Jude Law was pictured last week showing significant male pattern baldness.
You can see the picture here. He has such significant hair loss deep into his temples so that he has been left with only a small island of hair at the front of his hairline.
Law is quite an unusual Hollywood star.
A hugely talented actor, he has built his career playing ‘heart-throb’ lead roles in movies such as The Talented Mr Ripley and Cold Mountain.
It is rare for a star of Law’s stature not to disguise his thinning hair in some way. Other stars, like action man Jason Statham, simply shave their heads to cover up hair loss.
House of Cards star Kevin Spacey often wears a hairpiece to cover up his baldness. You can seen Spacey in his hairpiece here:
Yet so far Law has been happy to let nature takes it course.
So what are the options for Law if he wanted to be proactive and boost his hairline?
As Jude wears his hair relatively long, he would be a suitable for a FUT (follicular unit transplantation) transplant. This is where the donor hair is harvested from the back and sides of the scalp by surgically removing a strip of skin. It is more suitable for men who wear their hair longer because the longer hair tends to cover up the scar in the scalp caused by the removal of the strip. Crown Clinic patient Dr Christian Jessen has had two FUT transplants under the care of our surgeon Asim Shahmalak.
Until around five years ago, around 80% of Crown Clinic patients still used the FUT method.
There has been a big change in the last five years when the more modern FUE (follicular unit extraction) method has gradually taken over. Now around 80% of Crown Clinic patients opt for FUE.
Why the change – particularly as FUE is more expensive and labour intensive?
A key factor has been the number of celebrities favouring FUE including Crown Clinic patients model Calum Best, Gogglebox star Chris Steed, football pundit Didi Hamann and Homes Under The Hammer presenter Martin Roberts.
The other key factor has been that there is less scarring under FUE – which means it is more suitable for men who wear their hair short like model Calum. Under FUE, the donor hair is harvested by removing grafts individually from the back and sides of the scalp. The only scarring that tends to happen is tiny red pin pricks which are visible for a few days after the operation and then disappear.
Both a FUT and FUE procedure would go a long way to restoring Jude’s lost hair.