I’ve being suffering from male pattern genetic baldness since I was 30; I’m now 48. During this time I managed to disguise this fact through the use of various hair thickeners and concealers, combined with various intricate combovers (think Donald Trump!) and could get away with it until fairly recently. But it got to the stage where I began to feel self-conscious about it, and increasingly anxious about being discovered due to harsh winds, rain or other unforeseen combover related calamities.

So in the end, I decided to get a hair transplant. I had thought about this option several years ago, but didn’t have the money available then, and wearing a hairpiece was something I didn’t consider, as that would have made me even more nervous in high winds, despite the very good glues and tapes I hear you can get to secure hairpieces.

Being based in the UK, I didn’t want to travel abroad for a hair transplant, and so did some research on UK doctors (mainly from reading the Hair Restoration Social Network’s forum) and saw that of the UK doctors, Dr Bessam Farjo was recommended above all, so I decided to go with him, and had a hair transplant in November 2011.

The most noticeable thing for me is the lack of confidence it has caused in me, especially with women.

The only hair treatments I’ve used are concealers, which are effective up until you lose too much hair for them to be useful.

Yes, I am. I only had my hair transplant in November last year (2011), and it’s now April, but already I can see an improvement in my appearance. It’s early days yet, of course, and more transplanted hair has yet to grow in. But I’m confident that within a year the full results will be clearly evident.

I think it’s up to the individual, really. But if they did choose to get a hair transplant, then I would encourage them to do so. It’s not as painful or as traumatic as it might initially sound, and it's far better than relying on concealers or hairpieces all you life, in my view.

As I mentioned before, I’m only five months into the growing phase, more hair has yet to grow and become thicker. I’m confident, though, that it will change my life, in that I will get my confidence back, and not have to avoid activities and weather conditions that might ruffle my hair—a big concern when I was using concealers.

Don’t let anyone put you off from sorting your baldness out.