After undergoing a complete fitness transformation, Mike Denman wanted to complete the last piece of the puzzle – and opted for the UK’s large hair transplant
After Mike Denman, father of two, embarked on an impressive physical transformation which saw him lose 50kg, he still felt like something was missing from his new picture – his hair! Cue him embarking on becoming the UK’s largest hair transplant patient.
“I wanted to line up what I saw in the mirror with how I felt,” says Mike on why he decided on the process. “I didn’t feel like that older dad anymore but I still looked like an older dad,” says the now 45-year-old.
“I honestly hadn’t thought about [hair transplants before losing the weight],” he explains. “I’d almost let my body go and it just wasn’t something that I was conscious of.”
“I tend to make quite quick decisions, and once I get my mind set on something I’m just like, ‘right, we’re doing that’. After I’d found [the doctor] and was confident that he could get a good result, I made that decision – so I wasn’t particularly nervous,” says Mike on embarking on the process.
Mike’s surgery
“We think it was the largest procedure that’s been done in the UK in terms of the number of grafts,” says Mike who had a total of 7848 hair grafts done by Dr Ted Milne.
“I had a combination of [Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) and Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT)], so it was a two day procedure,” Mike says. “He did almost 8000 individual incisions and then they put them in one by one with tweezers.”
“You have a team of three technicians working on your head, just putting them and making sure that they’re angled in the right way so it sits naturally – so it’s quite complicated!”
What happened afterwards?
After 10 days, Mike had a follow up appointment with his doctor. “They washed the scabs off and then the hair started to grow a little bit underneath,” he explains. “You get a kind of idea of what it’s going to look like – but then after about 2-3 weeks, all the new hair falls out because it’s basically in shock.”
For some people this part can be concerning, but Mike didn’t mind as he had been prepared for this process by his doctor. “After a few weeks you can wear a cap anyway – I used to wear caps all the time so it wasn’t hugely different for me.”
“My growth started quite early after (around three months) and by four months it was looking pretty good. After six months it was looking “really good,” reflects Mike who says he had his final result around a year or so later.
Are you happy with the results?
“I’m just completely positive!” the father of two says of the whole experience. “I think I look younger and I definitely feel younger overall.”
“[After the physical transformation] I felt younger because I was much more fit and healthy and had more energy – but then I’d catch myself in the mirror and I’d still look like an older guy because I was bald,” he recalls. “It’s definitely made me feel better.”
“There does still seem to be a slight stigma attached to it,” says Mike on the public view of hair transplants. “Some people have said it’s a vain thing to do, but I think there’s a difference between vanity and self-image.”
“If it’s something that bothers you and you’re going to get a positive mental effect from having the transplant, then definitely do it,” he says, while stressing that you must do your research and go to a reputable place. “People talk about getting bad results in Turkey, but there’s definitely bad places you can go in the UK to get an equally poor result!”
