Phil says he is now a new man with a reinvigorated dating life after following Rooney’s example
A man who had always hated his shrinking hairline got a transplant after seeing the results for Man Utd legend Wayne Rooney. Phil Rigby, from Stockport, started losing his hair in his twenties, and became self-conscious about it.
Phil, who works in recruitment, said: “I had been interested in hair transplants for a while. Then I saw how Wayne Rooney had had it done and was quite public about it. He was probably one of the first people that everyone was aware of having had it done.
“Back then, it was reported that he’d paid £50,000 to have it done, so to me it seemed completely unaffordable. Then I started hearing about people who had been out to Turkey and had a hair transplant out there, and that they had paid a lot less money to have it done.”
Phil, 42, was interested but nervous about whether he should do it himself. “It’s a lot of trust to put into a company in a foreign country, especially with the costs and the travel,” he said. “Then someone I knew had it done.
When I met him, I could actually see the results right in front of me. Knowing someone who had been through it and being able to see the results spurred me onto further research. I liked what I saw and decided to take the plunge.”
Phil opted to go for treatment with a company called Longevita. At first, he had a few phone consultations. He sent them photos from lots of different angles. He had in-depth discussions about what he wanted to achieve, and they gave him suggestions about what sort of work he could have done.
“With the first consultations with the surgeon, he counts the areas on your head where the grafts need to be,” Phil said. “So firstly, your head is numbed and then you get about 20 injections in your head.
“That’s the only bit where there is a bit of pain, but after that you don’t feel anything. “They then spend the next few hours removing the follicle grafts that they will graft somewhere else.
The next stage is spent making the small cavities for the grafts to go in.” On the first occasion, in the summer of 2023, he had around 4,000 little grafts, which took between seven and eight hours. The second time, around 18 months later, he only needed about 3,000 grafts, so that took less time – around five hours.
“After that, you’re all bandaged up,” Phil says. “You need to protect it, so you have to sleep at a 45 degree angle to keep your head as much off the pillow as you can.
“Next morning, they removed the bandages.” Because of the extent of his balding, Phil needed 7,000 grafts altogether.
“For the first ten days or so, it just looks little red cuts, and after that they form little scabs,” Phil adds. “Once they fall off, you see tiny little hairs under there, but in the next month or so they fall out, which is a bit worrying, but it’s actually just that the follicles are going into a shedding stage. “After a few months, they grow back again.
“You just have to trust the process. They say to allow up to 18 months for the hair to grow to its full thickness. “For me, after about five months, I was able to go for my first haircut. It hadn’t occurred to me that hairdressers would be more expensive than the last time I went! I’d quite happily say it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Phil is delighted with his new look, and says his new hair has given him more confidence in the dating department. “I’m one of those people who is a bit conscious about how I look,” he adds.
“I always want to look my best. And of course, I can put on fresh clothes and some nice jewellery but when you’re stuck with nothing to do with your hair and just the same look all the time, and you’re conscious of the fact you’ve got a bald spot at the back, it’s not great.
“But with this hair transplant, as a single man, interacting with women and being on the dating scene, it’s given me a new lease of life!”
