Ryan Giggs Hair Loss Treatment

Laser treatment Giggs is believed to be having this controversial treatment at the Advanced Hair Studio

May 2010

Ryan Giggs was yesterday photographed leaving a hair clinic with a grin on his face and a "progress report" clutched in his hand.

Giggs's scalp is just the latest to be collected by the follicle-regenerating industry. Cricketers Graham Gooch, Michael Vaughan and Shane Warne have admitted putting their faith in "hair regeneration" regimes costing between £6,000 and £10,000, as has rugby player Austin Healey. Wayne Rooney is also thought to have undergone hair-replacement treatment – aged just 24.

Giggs's treatment of choice is, apparently, a weekly 40-minute laser therapy said to help regrow hair follicles, a special shampoo and a "liquid regrowth" formula rubbed into the scalp twice a day.

Vaughan opted for a more expensive option: a £10,000, "strand by strand" replacement of thinning hair with "farmed" Russian hair that is woven in over several treatments.

Such operations do not necessarily deliver all they promise. The Advanced Hair Studio (AHS) – salon of choice for the above-mentioned sports stars – has twice been censured by the Advertising Standards Authority. Last year, it banned an AHS advert that featured Warne and Gooch, ruling that the AHS had misleadingly implied their treatment could stop hair loss or cause hair to regrow.

Dr Andrew Messenger, a consultant dermatologist at Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, advises those suffering male-pattern baldness to beware of private clinics making extravagant claims. "Nothing can bring back hair on bald areas, and even the two medicines that are known to be effective in treating male-patten baldness – finasteride and minoxidil – can only bring about a 5-15% increase in hair density where growth is still occurring."

Instead, Messenger makes a plea for understanding. "I think the only way to stop those people who sail close to the legal wind with their claims for hair regeneration is to persuade society to look more kindly on male-pattern baldness.

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