Gerry Anderson's Losing It

Gerry Anderson is one of the UK's 7.6 million men

who's losing his hair

and he'd like to know how to stop it.

Hair loss and dry scalps.

Oh, here we are, here we are, here we are!

Do you know stuff where you can...?

The stuff you spray on and hide a bald patch?

Do you do that kind of thing?

It's hair care.

What I want is hair creation!

-I need more than nourishment.

-OK.

-I need refurbishment!

-OK.

"Expert hair research, thicker, fuller in 30 seconds." That's quick!

But look at the price of these!

Here's one for 70 quid.

And you probably, don't notice it, but I've...

losing a little hair!

Many men find that when they reach a certain age

their hair begins to disappear.

This is something they generally don't like

and don't want to talk about.

-Do you feel less attractive with less hair?

-No!

Because I've got used to having a good head of hair, you see?

-All my life, for a very long, long time.

-Yeah.

And, you know, you kind of miss it. I mean, is part of it, but...

It has, I mean, it has, sort of, dramatically gone more now.

-Not dramatically!

-Well, since I've known you it's gone...

-In, well, it has a lot more.

-Well, OK, thanks.

-It's been a few years. We've known each other a while.

-I know.

Well, you see, these things are progressive.

You get to the present day and you get to the age that I am now,

which is over 40, and you look at these other people

who are getting stuff done, you know?

And you think back at a time when you couldn't get anything done.

Just look Elton John, wealthiest man in the world,

he tried everything but, you see, he couldn't get anything done

-that was worthwhile until about five years ago...

-Yeah.

..and, even then, people didn't believe it, but now it's absolutely,

there's no, kind of, reason why you can't do it.

You can get a hair transplant, you can!

And it's...

the only thing that keeps you back is what other people might think.

Would you be frightened if you went to have a wee bit put on,

that they would say you were being vain?

Probably, yeah. If I'm being honest, yeah, I probably would think that.

You know, if I could, if I could do something about it, I would.

Every morning for the past 20 odd years

Gerry's show has been on the air.

There is no rehearsal and no script.

BBC Radio Foyle, home of the stars!

It's much smaller than I thought it was going to be.

Well, it's only a local station, really, but it's nice. I love it.

You don't have a plaque thing for your name or anything, Gerry, look.

No, no, I asked for one!

-HE LAUGHS

-I thought it would say "Gerald Michael Anderson".

"Gerald Michael Anderson parked his car here until he died."

THEY LAUGH

"He went for a hair transplant and it killed him.

"The anaesthetic killed him!"

THEY LAUGH

Good morning, ladies!

-BOTH:

-Morning!

Those who work with him at Radio Foyle

know that once he is interested in a topic

it often becomes a discussion on the airwaves.

# Born free

# As free as the wind... #

-He's got hair on this picture!

-Good hair there, yes.

That's a while ago, surely?

# ..free as the grass grows... #

-It's a great picture.

-Aye.

That's Roma Downey.

Oh, my goodness, wow!

And who this is I don't know but look at the hair!

Look at the shoulder-length hair.

(I know.) Actually, God, he has a lot of hair in that one, doesn't he?

-Yes, you see? It's good hair.

-Doesn't he? He really does.

-Hm-hm.

So, tell me, what do you think of his nibs and his hair situation?

I'll be surprised if he gets it done,

but I think he should get it done.

No matter how often they are discouraged,

his regular listeners are always at hand to offer their advice.

-Hello, good morning!

-'Good morning, Gerry.'

-Yes, who's this?

-'This is Jimmy here

'and the best thing for your hair is cod liver oil

-'and mud mixed together.'

-My God.

-'And you drink it.'

-Right.

'I would definitely recommend it.'

-Hello, good morning.

-'Good morning, Gerry.

'I have heard of one, if you could get a goat -

'and there's probably plenty of them running around.

'That if you take their, er, goats pills or droppings

'and rub that over your head.'

-'Cow dung.'

-Ha-ha! Well, I heard that.

So, have you ever talked to anyone that that worked for?

-'Yes, and it works 100%.'

-Really?!

Residue of hedgehog?

'Residue of hedgehog.'

That's a new one, I've never heard that. That's fantastic.

Hello, good morning, sir.

-'Good morning, Gerry. I've been bald about ten years...'

-Have you?

'..and, to be honest, I have a wig on, you know?

'You know, I'm like, er, like Yul Brynner, do you know what I mean?

'I was in Miami and I paid 500 for a wig.'

Where did you get it?

'I got it in Miami.'

What, what is that? Diamry, what is that?

'Miami! Miami, Florida!'

HE LAUGHS

I've known Gerry for over ten years.

I was curious to know what he looked like when he was younger -

with more hair.

Well, that's 40 years ago, for God's sake! You can't stay the way you are.

And I'm...nearly 50 now, so...

No, I'm actually... I'm over 60.

It wasn't easy for me to say that.

I've never said that before, I always lie.

I'm going to tell you something now

which I probably never told you before.

When I was 25 years old I lived in Dublin.

There was one night I was playing with a band there,

and I looked and I noticed that there was a wee gap there.

That's the first time I noticed it. That was when I was 25!

So, I panicked, of course.

I might have thought I was going to lose my hair rapidly,

which would have meant that I'd have had to leave the band

because, you know, you can't be a rock 'n' roll baldy man!

And I went to a clinic,

and went there for ages and they kept putting stuff in my hair.

It cost me a fortune and it was absolutely useless.

Because I don't actually think that I'm losing my hair,

I don't think that.

Because when I look in the mirror I see this, you see?

And I'm not too bad. I don't see a bald man, I'm all right.

It's only, my problem is round the back - the skylight is open, you see?

-So, when I go...

-But you see it, when you see it in the mirror?

-You see the bald bit at the back?

-But you don't look in the mirror.

The difference is, now, when I get... No, hold on a minute.

When I get a haircut and the person says,

"Would you like to have a look at the back?" I say, "No, it's OK."

-Do you?

-Oh, I don't bother, because I'm in denial!

Gerry decided to look into the possibility

of having a hair transplant.

We arrange to go to Dublin,

to the clinic that famously transformed James Nesbitt's hair.

I wanted to know if he thought he could improve his appearance.

-You're stood beside your wife, who looks incredible.

-Yeah.

-She looks amazing for her age and she looks stunning.

-Yeah, yeah.

Do you ever feel you let the side down?

HE LAUGHS Thanks(!)

-What do you think I am, Quasimodo?!

-You're in the public eye...

-Yes.

-..and you could do more!

-No, but I don't think...

-What does it matter?

-No, no, I can do more,

but I can't really do more than I do do without doing something like this!

The state-of-the-art clinic in Dublin

was especially designed to allow patients the utmost privacy

so we arrive via an underground car park...

RINGING

-'Hello HRBR.'

-Hello, Gerry Anderson.

'Gerry, come on up to the second floor in the lift, there.'

Thank you. Thank you.

..and enter via a lift that takes us straight into the clinic itself.

Woo!

It's all very high-tech and, kind of, secret.

-Hey, how are you?

-Lovely. Oh, hello, how are you?

Once upstairs we are shown into a private room.

The clinic is especially designed

so that even the patients never meet each other.

Gerry has been asked to complete a questionnaire about his hair.

"It has affected my normal family social routines.

"Stressful life events - divorce, redundancy."

Well, I went through a stressful period, you know?

Do you mean all that Radio 4 stuff?

Well, you see there was a time when I was under terrible pressure.

Particularly in England, I was doing a Radio 4 programme every day

and it wasn't working out, and I was getting terrible publicity,

and they didn't like me, and all that stuff, you know?

But also, I was doing, I was travelling back and forward,

and I was doing a TV show on a Friday night,

and I was doing all this kind of stuff,

and, you know, it was really, I was wired the moon, you know?

And I didn't know it at the time, but now I realise that I was.

And I remember thinking my hair and look to healthy.

-I think, I think...

-Was it stressful, Gerry?

Yeah, it was stress, yeah.

Hi, Gerry, how are you?

-Good to see you, thank you very much indeed.

-Pleased to meet you.

-OK.

-You're very welcome.

Dr Maurice Collins has been named as one Britain's top surgeons

in a recent survey, and has a client list

that reads like Hello! magazine.

He is recognised globally for his pioneering work

in all areas of hair transplantation.

I feel a bit nervous about this for some strange reason.

I probably shouldn't.

You'd be surprised the amount of courage it takes for a lot of men

to actually lift the phone and make the appointment.

Do you get people from a wide section,

I mean, from all kinds of life?

-Every walk of life comes in here.

-Really?

-It's amazing.

I can have an ambassador, I can have a motorcycle courier,

I can have a priest -

we've operated on two priests this year, actually, and a nun!

-And a nun?

-Literally, every walk of life.

Do you know the fascinating thing? Hair loss affects them all the same.

-OK.

-When they walk in that door and sit down, there is no difference between anybody.

It's the most fantastic leveller I've come across.

I'm just going to have a wee look. If you turn around this way a bit.

Now, one little thing, Gerry, is, a lot of men will lose hair

and their temples will recede, whereas, in fact, you've retained

most of your hairline and that has given you the impression

of having more hair than there actually is on the top of the scalp.

The hair at the back of your scalp is immune to the balding process.

-You're never going to lose this hair here.

-Yeah.

We can actually remove a lot of that

and relocate it onto the top of the scalp.

You've fantastic eyebrows. They're brilliant.

-I worry about my eyebrows. I'm like a baboon.

-Yeah.

-If we transplant, we may be able to harvest some from there.

-Please do. Get rid of half of them.

And your scalp is in very good condition, Gerry.

I can't believe, after the life I've led

-that any part of me is...

-This is the life of clean living.

-God, no.

Obviously, you know different.

Gerry, just looking straight at the camera, please.

You are not going to like some of these photographs, because they are brutal.

-I know, I know.

-These are very, very bright lights.

-Oh, my God.

Oh, don't.

-The dome of the scalp has become visible here.

-Yes.

-And a lot of men don't like that appearance.

-It's not a great look.

You can also see the shape of the bald man beginning to appear here.

-See that?

-Yes.

-The little dome here.

And then the crown is thinning out at the back here.

-This is a bit of a shocker here, Gerry.

-Well, that's ugly.

That is the thing, I don't like watching that. I don't like looking at that.

-I think that looks particularly horrible.

-That area there?

-You can see how extensive the hair loss is.

-Not good.

The likelihood is that all of this hair that we are looking at here is going to disappear.

All of us this hair here. You're going to always keep this,

but if I were to tell you that all that hair is going to disappear...

..that would be quite frightening, really.

-That's... It's going to happen.

-Yeah, it is going to happen.

This is the most critical one of the whole lot.

This is what we call the donor area, all round the back and sides here.

-OK.

-Now, we can take approximately 50% of this hair out?

-Really?

-Without it being visible at the back,

and then relocate it onto the top of the scalp.

-We recreate the bridge that was here, so that gets rid of that dome effect at the top, OK?

-Yeah.

The principle of what we do is incredibly simple -

we take the roses out of the back garden

and we put them in front garden, right?

-The principle is incredibly simple.

-Go easy on the fertiliser!

-It's not a step you take lightly.

-No, it's not, no.

Doctor, thanks a million. I've really enjoyed it. Thank you for your hospitality.

-Pleasure.

-Thank you very much, indeed.

And so I'll just contact you and we'll see what happens?

Do your homework first and then if you feel this is the appropriate step for you, just give us a call.

Then, the next step will be the planning. That takes place about

a month to six weeks before the actual transplant procedure itself.

OK. Doctor, thank you very much.

-Once again, it's been a great pleasure, Gerry.

-OK, thank you.

I would be... I'd be quite encouraged.

I think I might have a crack at that, but I want to think about it.

Gerry had heard that James Nesbitt was home seeing his family.

Undecided on what to do with his hair, we went to ask Jimmy for his advice.

I'm originally from Broughshane.

The very notion of even doing an interview here, talking about the fact that I may have had

a bit of work done on my hair is kind of embarrassing. It's not the sort of thing you go into, really.

It's not that painful, to tell you the truth.

I got there very early in the morning, quite nervous.

But they give you this fantastic concoction of drugs.

It's worth doing it just for that.

It's a complicated procedure, but a very safe procedure.

And the end results are good.

They take a strip from there and they take it off

and they separate the fat from the follicles or whatever it is.

They separate them all - wash, clean, prepare them.

Now, what happens is, after three weeks, this hair, that all just falls out,

but the follicle is now implanted. But for about two or three weeks, you see yourself. It's class.

It would be easy for me to say I did it for my career.

I don't know if I did. In your career, you can wear wigs.

I just think I was, somehow, trying to hang onto the dying of the light.

And I think, as loath as I am to say it,

because there are a lot more important things happening in the world than this,

but it certainly changed my life... for the better.

It's a safe, happy-ending procedure. You should definitely do it.

-I'm all right, the way you look at me now, but round the back, I'm in trouble.

-Yeah, yeah.

You don't have to agree so readily!

-Stop looking at me. Get away from me.

-That is the whole point.

-Get away from me!

-All round there, he would just...

-He would, yeah.

And I tell you, it would make you feel a lot better.

I mean, you could do... It would go well.

I know, but you don't see that when you're sitting over there.

-We'll let you know if he ends up in the clinic or not.

-You should.

-See Five Minutes To Heaven? It was fantastic.

-Thank you.

Gerry was so encouraged by Jimmy's new hair,

before I knew it, we were back in Dublin for the pre-operation assessment.

-That's it.

-OK. Now, there you go. You can relax your arm.

The pre-op is a full medical check-up

and happens a few weeks before the transplant.

-Are you feeling stressed?

-No, I'm fine.

-I like having my arm squeezed!

-It's not the nicest feeling.

No, I don't mind it at all. I'm...a pervert.

-We are going to look at your donor hair now.

-So this is a density check?

-That's it, yeah.

It is the average in each square centimetre you have.

Maurice has suggested transplanting around 3,500 hair grafts, at approximately ten Euros a hair.

Your donor hair is good. Your density is good.

-It is definitely very good around here.

-Pop your head down there.

-There you go.

-All right, then.

They are all strong. And you have big groupings, too.

-So it's not as if I am a lost cause?

-No, you have good donor hair.

-Good.

So are you going to just, kind of, chart out what you may want to do with me?

No, we're going to chart out what YOU would like to achieve.

-Oh, so I've got a choice here?

-You do, yes.

-But supposing I make the wrong choice?

-You might say, "That's silly."

-We will. We will guide you.

Ideally, what I would like would be a thickening of the hair which is not immediately noticeable.

-Are you going to draw it and show it to me?

-No, we'll draw it on you.

-But how will I see it, then?

-We will show you in the mirror.

-I could have worked that out myself, couldn't I?

-So it's this whole area that you'd like thickened up, is that right?

-Yeah, yeah.

-And, kind of, like, there, you know?

-Yeah.

Usually, when you see the design, it makes a bit more sense.

Yeah, yeah.

-Yeah.

-It's good. OK, here you go.

Oh, my God, that's weird. I look like some kind of...Mohawk.

-So explain to me...

-Let me explain that to you.

-We'd start our hairline from here.

-Right.

-Can you see how I've marked where your crown used to be?

-Yes.

If we fill this in here, can you see how it makes the crown smaller?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If we get between 3,000 and 3,500 out, if we get the three and a half,

if you put 500 in here, it's a large area, but it will take the edge off

that baldness.

-I may possibly be able to obscure it mostly? Mostly obscure it?

-Yes.

That final decision of what you want to do with the crown, you can decide on the day.

That's great. That's very clear. Thank you very much.

Is it for me? But I tell you what, it's great.

If you don't want to book surgery, there is no obligation, just because you've been here today.

You can come back any amount of times you want to re-discuss that.

Are you quite surprised, Gerry?

No, I'm not surprised. I knew it was great.

But when you do actually see it with your own eyes,

you realise that it is good. It is good.

The clinic has given Gerry a DVD of the transplant operation,

so we can have a better idea of what to expect.

I'm only watching this video just to confirm what I think I already know -

that this is the best you can have and that this is going to work.

But I'm still worried that if people think I am terribly vain.

I am still worried about that. A wee bit worried.

Because that's not the reason I'm doing this. That's not the reason.

Well, when I say, "I am doing this," I am pre-empting myself, but I know I'm going to do it.

I'm supposed to be making up my mind, but I made up my mind as soon as I walked in there, really.

I'm not doing it because of vanity.

It's very difficult to explain.

It's just... Why not? Why not?

-You haven't seen the operation yet.

-I haven't seen the operation yet.

'..misleading and exhausting.

'At HRBR, we begin with a private consultation with a qualified consultant.'

I am not sure if I want to watch this or not.

-Are you squeamish?

-I am a bit squeamish.

Any time I get an injection, I have to look away.

'The donor strip is a long, narrow strip,

'taken from the area of permanent hair unaffected by baldness.'

Ah, they do take a strip of your skin. I didn't think they did.

I thought they took out the little hairs just, but they take a lump of your skin.

'Each hair follicle is individually prepared and precisely implanted.

'It's a highly specialised and labour-intensive procedure,

'during which thousands of individual grafts may be transplanted in a single day.'

It's like been filleted.

Dr Collins' DVD demonstrates just how successful the transplants are,

by showing how new hair grows over a year.

Gerry, however, has decided

that he isn't sure about the idea of going under the knife.

So he's asked me to help him look for other, non-surgical, alternatives.

But there is nothing else, really. In Britain, you haven't got that many options.

Maurice is here, you know that now.

Well, he's the specialist, yeah, you know, and he is great,

but, you know, what's the alternative?

-Have you ever looked for anything like this before?

-No.

-OK.

There was an article in the paper the other day about a man who had

been growing hair on mice and stuff, and it said something like,

"The cure for baldness is coming soon," type of thing.

But I don't know when. I'll put it in.

-Strap a mouse to your head.

-No, they put hair on the mice. They didn't strap it.

-OK.

-Here we go...

Cure for baldness - could be on sale within five years.

Dr George...Cotsarelis?

HE SPEED READS

A different approach.

If you do that, then, is there part of the process

of the transplant where they cut you and they...

You see, this is what you don't want. They're going to cut you, anyway. They have to cut you.

They have to cut bits out of your head and put it on another part of your head.

That immediately does not appeal.

To get a broader picture, we know we probably have to go to America.

-Yep.

-I would say so.

-Well, there isn't anything else here.

That's the option. There is nothing else here.

It's really hard to even find people here who will talk about hair loss.

-It's just so taboo.

-We have to go where the crazy people are.

MUSIC: "Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z, featuring Alicia Keys

So, Gerry and I hit the States and prepare to embrace hair loss on an entirely different level.

I wanted to see if Gerry was open to the possibility of a hairpiece...

..so I arranged to take him to see a man who made wigs to the stars,

Joseph Paris - the toupee king.

After 45 years in hair replacement,

Joseph's clients included Ol' Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra.

# You make me feel like spring has sprung. #

We were close friends since 1964.

And then I went on to be his hairdresser.

Went for transplants in early '60s and then he was using powders.

Then he said, "Joe, I'm going to be going on tour. Would you be kind enough to make me a hairpiece?

Now almost priceless, Joseph keeps a collection of Frank's wigs in a special glass case.

-So Frank actually wore these?

-Oh, yeah. He wouldn't answer a doorbell without it.

The darker shades are early Sinatra and, as the years went by, he got greyer and greyer.

You don't want to tell anybody you're wearing a hairpiece.

I tell you what, Gerry, I'm wearing one. Let me show you.

METALLIC CLICKING

-I still have hair, so I put a few clips in it.

-Right.

Normally, with a hair replacement, it's either tape...or clips.

But you're not too bad, for God's sake.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It takes me seconds to put it on, because all I do is this...

One, two...and three.

-I slip it on. I go one...

-METALLIC CLICK

Yeah, yeah, I'm looking at it.

That's great. I thought there was a second part that clips into.

It actually just clips to the hair.

I if had it, I wouldn't be taking it off in front of the cameras. You're not self-conscious about it.

This is my business. I'm not self-conscious about...

If you lost your teeth, you'd replace them. Why not your hair?

His wigs are hand-stitched on site

using human hair, and start from around 2,500.

There's no doubt Joseph's hairpieces are top of the range.

He had prepared one that he thought would be perfect for Gerry.

I would feel weird about that.

Gerry, first of all, it has to be thin enough

-that you can almost read a newspaper through it.

-OK.

And we have to recreate a natural hairline.

Seeing you do that, it looks like a werewolf! Look! Look at his hand!

He looks like a werewolf there!

If you look you can part this anywhere and have it look like

it's growing right out of your scalp,

and that's my hand underneath.

We would put this right behind your own hairline

and you would comb your own hair right into it, similar to what I do.

I wouldn't wear that.

I hope you don't mind saying, but I just don't...

You have to want to, don't you? You have to want to.

There's nobody on this planet Earth

-gonna comb your hair better than you do.

-I know.

So, if it's lightweight,

and it takes a matter of seconds to put it on...

-No, I can't see myself doing that.

-Why not?

-No! No!

-I tell you what, if I even put one of mine on you...

-No!

No, I don't want! I don't want to put one on!

I think he's quite shy about it, Joseph,

-so I'm going to leave the room...

-GERRY CACKLES

-He's quite shy about it.

-I don't want one, do you know what I mean?

That's different.

As Joseph tried to persuade him, I left the room.

Gerry couldn't get out of the wig place quick enough.

I caught up with him in Times Square to see what was on his mind.

When you held that wig and that, did it repulse you?

No, it didn't repulse me. The last thing I wanted was to put it on.

I felt like an extra out of One Million Years BC.

No, I just didn't feel any affinity towards it.

It wasn't a thing that I wanted.

And it's very difficult to say that.

I wouldn't feel natural, I wouldn't feel normal.

I would feel as if I have, kind of, something wrong with me

and I'd feel as if...

I wouldn't be comfortable at all.

I know there's all kinds of ways where he can say that it's OK

to have it on, you're not aware of it, but I would be.

I mean, you've got a thing on top of your head, for God's sake.

You know, there's no way you can avoid that.

What I didn't particularly like were the clips. The snap of the clips.

I didn't like the idea that the glue,

and I didn't like the idea of the thing being stuck...

No, it's all wrong!

It's all wrong.

For me.

Our trip hadn't got off to a very good start.

I felt that Gerry was upset with me

because I tried to make him wear a wig.

Let's hope tomorrow works out better.

Our next appointment was in Cleveland,

and Gerry was prepared for the long trip.

I'm going to be sick.

The best thing about America are Lifesavers. Hard Candy.

Hawaiian fruits. I've an addictive personality.

I just bought those five minutes ago, they're nearly all gone.

Six minutes up the road I'll have these eaten and I will feel sick.

You put that one in already? You haven't even finished the last one!

You're not quick enough for me.

-Let's have one.

-No! No! Stop eating them!

-Is this about...?

-Go away! They are mine! They are mine!

It's a disgrace!

There may not be another place I can buy these for another five minutes.

I saw you looking at the unsweetened sweets in there,

-the sugar-free sweets.

-Mmm.

-I regard that as heresy.

-Do you think they understand you over here?

They don't understand me, no, they think I'm crazy.

Nearly everywhere I go they look at me as if I'm...

The thing about America is I always ask them questions.

They don't like that. They don't like asking questions.

For instance, if I order pancakes and maple syrup

and you get about nine pancakes and maple syrup.

I would fancy a pancake, but I'm what I would say to the girl

when she says, "What you want, sir?"

I would say, "I would like some pancakes and maple syrup, but hold on a minute.

"How many do you get?" "Maybe nine or ten, sir."

"And what's on that?" "Maple syrup, sir."

I'd say, "No, I tell you what I want, give me two.

"I'll pay for the ten, but just give me two

"and just a little bit of maple syrup."

That's a whole big serious thing. They can't handle that.

They have to go in and see the supervisor and everything

and they think you're a troublemaker.

Anybody who does not order what exactly is on the menu,

whatever it is, is regarded as a person who is going to cause trouble.

We've an appointment with Dr Bob Haber,

a hair transplant surgeon who has been developing

his own award-winning hair restoration techniques.

-Tell me, tell me about this.

-Well, this is a very...

This is my, the greatest honour I've ever received

which is called the Golden Follicle award

and it's an award given by my peers,

by my colleagues in the field of hair restoration,

to recognise my academic and surgical contributions to the field.

So it's something that is given to just one doctor in the world

every year and it came as a great surprise a couple of years ago.

-That's your Oscar.

-Yes.

A special honour. It's very nice.

-What room is this, Bob?

-This is my surgery room here.

-OK.

So this is where we do our hair transplantation.

The patient here. We have our microscopes.

Everything here is microscopically controlled surgery.

Why is it that the hair on the back of your head

lasts a lifetime and the hair at the top is disposable?

Excellent question.

-Next question!

-GERRY CHUCKLES

-God only knows!

-Nobody knows that.

There is a Nobel Prize waiting for someone who can answer that question.

So my most recent area of research is nonsurgical.

This is what's called a light cap. Now, light, or laser light,

was first noticed to grow hair a long time ago.

1967, in Hungary, it was accidentally discovered by researchers

that mice that were exposed to low-level light treatments

had their hair grow back faster than mice that did not.

So that was the beginning of the theories of photo-biostimulation

and the idea of, can we design a device that actually grows hair?

This particular device has lots and lots of laser light.

It's a red light, and the idea is that the light is affecting

a structure called mitochondria.

-So this is the...

-Wow!

-..the light cap. It's very powerful.

-Oh, my God.

-There's 240 lasers in here,

compared to some other devices that have nine or 12 lasers or 80 lasers.

So, this device, unlike some other devices,

will expose pretty much the entire affected area of the scalp

to laser light.

So how long would you wear this?

The current treatment is about 30 minutes every other day.

Would you see results after...what?

We expect to see results...

And remember, some results might be just be not getting any worse.

If we're going to see a positive result,

we tell a patient not to expect that for about for about six months.

-Put that on your head.

-You wouldn't do it at night, let's say.

Well, not unless you wanted to... You know...

Let's see if that's going.

So there it is. You can't really see what's going on.

-No, you can't see anything.

-This is painless. That's great.

They are for sale. It's an expensive device because it's...

-How expensive?

-It's a 3,000 device.

-3,000 baseball cap.

-3,000 baseball cap.

-OK!

-And you think it works?

-I think it works, absolutely.

If Gerry was concerned about his current look

and wanted to have a thicker, fuller head of hair

then the light cap probably wouldn't be enough.

It's part of the treatment programme to help hold on to what you have.

It's great. It's great to know that something like this exists.

You know... God, you couldn't look at that, could you?

Is that how you turn it off? Like that?

Gerry seems slightly bemused by Bob's laser hat.

I think he knew that it wasn't the answer

to replacing his missing hair.

Next stop Philadelphia, to meet a scientist

who was making world headlines with his groundbreaking research.

But I made one fatal mistake.

I let Gerry drive.

-SAT NAV:

-'Recalculating. Take ramp on right.

'Turn right on South Street.

'Then turn left to I76 East.

'Continue 0.2 miles then turn left on College Street.'

-The one you

-BLEEP

-missed before!

'Turn right on Roosevelt Avenue.

'Then turn left. Recalculating.'

HORNS HONK

I'm really scared!

GERRY LAUGHS

Doesn't scare me.

That's what worries me!

'Turn left on Crescent Boulevard.'

We don't really know where we're going. Can I point that out now? OK.

-What's the

-BLEEP

-middle one? Is that just red, amber, green?

Most traffic lights are red, amber, green.

I'm a wee bit colour blind.

So, you're telling us you're colour blind?

-Do we need to tell you what colour that light is? It's green, it's green!

-I'm guessing here.

# Life in the fast lane Surely make you lose your mind

# Life in the fast lane... #

You can't get out of the car! You've put the window down.

Pennsylvania University, Department of Dermatology.

As we waited to see Dr Cotsarelis,

Gerry found the Victorian medical drawings fascinating.

There's psoriasis, and leprosy is over here.

There's everything here except the Elephant Man, and then I saw this.

You know?

Through a series of experiments, Dr George Cotsarelis

has found that stem cells do not develop properly

in balding scalps, compared with relatively hairy ones.

He and his team have been working out a way

to make the cells mature properly,

allowing the hair to grow by experimenting on mice.

Doctor, make sure Gerry doesn't break your microscope!

-He's very accident prone.

-Oh, look at that, though.

-What are we looking at now, Doctor?

-This is skin.

This is the mouse skin

and these are the human cells that were injected.

These are the hair follicles here

and those cells are dividing very rapidly,

generating the hair itself.

So, this is like the engine of the hair follicle.

We use this as a model where we can inject, actually, human cells

into the mouse skin and look for hair growth from the human cells.

That's fascinating. It's a bit scary that, you know.

It shouldn't scare you.

It's nothing to be scared of.

-Beautiful structures.

-Oh, that's great.

So, mice have hair that tends to be either growing or resting.

Normally in our scalps, for example,

90% of hairs are growing

and 10% are resting.

That's nice because you can then study the skin on the mouse

and look at follicles,

hair follicles that are in a resting stage

and watch them go into a growing stage.

There's a defect in the stem cells

becoming activated and producing new hair.

And so, then, now we can focus on

identifying what's inhibiting the hair,

the stem cells from growing

and also possibly what's absent that is preventing the activation.

So, ultimately, there may be,

just as now we have two FDA approved treatments,

down the road hopefully we'll have five or six.

It could be ten years before anything is commercially available.

That's not much help for Gerry.

# California love... #

Gerry's quest for a hair solution has brought him to Los Angeles,

a crazy place where anything goes and image is everything.

I can see that you have beautiful hair and it's all your own.

Oh, thanks Gerry!

Yes, Catwoman, everything's real.

But Gerry, you're delightful!

-And desirable and rich!

-Right, and you're single?

No, yes, no...

I don't know. I had to think about that!

No, I'm not single, how dare you?!

It's a place that Gerry loves.

Most people I've ever talked to don't like it.

They say it's soulless, sprawling, and means nothing.

Of course it's soulless, sprawling and means nothing! It's great!

It's full of weirdos and sun. Everything that I want.

I was born to be here.

The stork went the wrong way.

It was misdirected.

Why did it ever go to Northern Ireland

when it could have dropped me in Santa Monica?

Gerry's first stop is with Lorraine,

a hairdresser originally from Belfast.

She's been living in Santa Monica for 20 years

and now has her own salon.

Lorraine and her friend Holly are armed with local knowledge

of where Gerry can go to fix his hair.

Well, I guess in Los Angeles, really, here, cosmetic surgery,

hair is classed as cosmetic, it's very common.

So, a lot of guys, men, older men,

young men have already had it.

I have quite a few clients who have it, I have quite a few clients who

take medication for it, whether it be prescription or over-the-counter.

Products here - oh, my God, they're like everywhere,

what you can use for your hair.

Even just on the outer, so, superficial.

To me, you're a prime candidate for,

-if you wanted to do a transplant, for doing it.

-Well, yes.

Because you're doing it for yourself,

to feel as vibrant as you do inside, outside.

People at home don't tend to talk about that so much,

if they lose their hair they kind of...

-it's taboo, a wee bit, isn't it, did you find that?

-Very.

I go home once or twice a year and

every time I go home they're like, "Oh, look at Miss America coming!"

Because I just talk about everything

and for me it doesn't matter what it is.

Men are just as afraid as women are of losing their looks.

If you said, "Yes, I'm going to go for this,

"I'm going to do a transplant, a hair transplant, are you fearful

"of what other people are going to think about you?"

-Oh, there's always that, yes.

-Yes.

-They'll say, "Look at the state...

"What's he got on? What's wrong with him?"

-You could have a transplant that would work.

-Why not?

-Why not?

In case in three months, four months, a year

that you decide you're going to do it, that's why you need to

retain all of this and don't cut that short,

because they'll graft that, so I would, I would retain that

until you make up your mind 100% what you want to do.

Encouraged by the girls, Gerry set off to see what

the surgeons to the rich and famous in Los Angeles have to offer him.

Gerry's first appointment was on the edge of Beverly Hills,

with Dr Ken Siporin.

One of the area's registered 3,000 plastic surgeons,

Dr Siporin is easily found as he's so well-publicised on the internet.

Many of the links are his own videos.

I don't know if she wants to be mentioned by name

but that's my trusty assistant,

and what we are doing now is an FUE procedure

on a patient who's already had strip procedures,

who has very little laxity in his scalp,

so, we are doing the FUE procedure,

removing them one at a time...

-Gerry. Hi, Gerry. Dr Siporin . Nice to meet you.

-Hi. Good to see you.

-Come on in.

-Thank you.

-We'll just go into my office.

-Yes. I'll follow you.

-Make yourself comfortable.

-OK.

And we'll get to the root of your problem.

Just give me an indication of what your first thoughts are.

These are my thoughts.

First of all, you have a lot of hair loss, from front to back.

You've maintained your hairline, but you are thinning

from front to back so, on a typical scale

that is used to measure or quantify male pattern baldness,

you are a highly...

-I'm in trouble.

-You have a highly aggressive form.

You're a Norwood six.

-A Norwood six?

-Yes.

-Right.

-What's the worst thing you can be? A Norwood ten?

No, no, it's a seven!

Seven!

-So I'm just one...

-Actually, do you know what, you have good donor hair.

You know, you do have a lot of good, healthy hair back here.

So, the truth of the matter is, yes,

-I do think that you could absolutely get marked improvement.

-OK.

You have to clearly understand what you're getting into.

-First of all, it costs money.

-Lots of money, yeah.

So there is a financial commitment that you need to make.

Secondly I think you need to be willing to make a commitment

to more than one procedure.

I think you need to know, from the very beginning, the truth.

Even if a procedure goes well,

you can have some very, very significant scarring

on the back of your head. Even if it goes well.

You can't predict with any certainty how somebody's going to heal.

Just because the vast majority of patients heal very well,

doesn't mean one particular patient will.

Dr Siporin filled Gerry with horror.

He was on the bald barometer and Norwood seven.

Nice guy, personable and obviously highly qualified,

highly thought of in his field,

but something about that wild look in his eyes

tells me to get out of there.

If you talk to crazy people about something in Ireland or England,

the people you talk to here about the same thing will be much crazier.

Gerry hoped the next appointment would offer the perfect solution.

-Nice to meet you.

-Thank you very much.

-You want, back here with me.

I follow you.

Dr Ziering is one of three transplant surgeons in the USA

who has a robot that takes hairs out individually for transplantation.

The robot is guided by the surgeon into the selected donor hair area

and then, with military precision,

hairs are individually harvested for plantation.

It's an option that appeals to Gerry

because it avoids cutting a strip from the back of his head.

Oh, my God, that's big!

So, this is known as ARTAS and I call her Sutra.

Right. OK.

That just moves on like a car assembly plant, that kind of thing?

Well, it shifts over and I control every aspect of that.

-This is space age accuracy, isn't it?

-Oh, its precision accuracy.

You know, with this and the skill we have

and the artistry that the really good surgeons have,

you can get very, very natural results

and there's no reason to confine yourself and restrict yourself

with what a toupee or wig would do.

We really can help so many people and it really is a game changer.

Dr Ziering must first inspect Gerry's hair

to see if he'd be a suitable candidate for his robot method.

You're not quite as good a candidate for that procedure,

actually, in my opinion,

because you've lost a lot of hair, so that your donor area

is limited to this area where it's really the most dense.

You'd do best with the strip procedure because

with the follicular unit extraction,

you skip around and take about 15% or 20% of the donor hairs,

so you'd get a much smaller harvest with your particular case,

versus the strip which would give you much more hair.

It's beginning to look like the knife is the only option for Gerry.

Gerry's concerns about having surgery

had not been eased by the experts here met so far.

So he took the opportunity to seek advice from radio host Spencer Kobren.

'The man who is helping to make hair loss history!'

The world's bestselling author of hair loss guide The Bald Truth.

'It's Spencer David Kobren.

'The Bald Truth!'

This is a silent epidemic of biblical proportions.

We're scared s-less to talk about it is.

Society doesn't allow us to talk about hair loss.

And that's what this broadcast is for.

This industry is such a cesspool.

It's a 3.5 billion a year industry in this country, in North America.

And 99% of products don't work.

They're complete bullshit.

Will not help you.

In any way, shape or form.

We have, in the studio with us, a guy by the name of Gerry Anderson.

I guess he's now kind of admitted that he's part of this

insane fraternity that no-one wants to really belong to,

but he's here, and he wants to figure out what he's going to do.

So, why don't we take a phone call? Johnny.

-'How are you buddy?'

-Johnny is a long-time caller.

He is a hair loss sufferer. Again, had a bad hair transplant

and I guess you're calling to warn Gerry.

Can I ask you what was your experience? What happened to you?

'I was in my late 20s,

'I was losing my hair, ran across a gentleman,

'a doctor who was a cosmetic surgeon, plastic surgeon.

'He did hair transplants and he told me he could fix me

'and he's basically ruined my life

'in terms of I can't go out of the house without a hat on.

'There's a lot of pitting

'and like a corn-row effect in my crown area.

'I would say this, Gerry. Once you're cut, you're cut.

'There's no going back. There's no turning back.'

The trip to California seems to reveal one horror story after another.

Gerry had come all this way with high hopes of finding something new.

But so far Los Angeles had been disappointing.

There was one last stop before heading home.

A salon that was trying a new technique

that was becoming a genuine alternative for some.

Tattooing.

Ian Watson has developed a groundbreaking

cosmetic scalp pigmentation hair technique

that gives the appearance of a shaven head.

So, when he's finished, he will look as if he, basically,

is totally bald, but has had a full head of hair

but has not shaved it for two days.

One or two days.

The idea is that it's Steve's choice to have this type of a shaven style,

as opposed to looking at this moment in time that

-he's having to cut his hair short cos he's actually bald.

-Right, OK.

In your case that's exactly what you've done.

Yes, all this has been completely covered,

to actually make people believe it's my choice to shave my hair,

as opposed to walking round looking bald.

A series of fine needles penetrate the derma layer

and over a course of two three-hour sessions,

the look of microfibres are created on the head

with a specially designed ink, in a variety of colours.

What kind of a sensation do you have there?

Do you feel a pricking sensation?

-Slightly.

-But not painful, is it?

-Not painful at all.

We were actually talking earlier.

We were saying that this look would actually suit you.

I know you said you wouldn't consider it personally.

How would it work with me? You mean if I shaved my hair off completely?

-Yeah.

-I have the wrong shaped head.

-Everybody says that.

With my ears I look like the FA Cup.

You know what the FA Cup is? You don't know what the FA Cup is?

-Do you know what the FA Cup is?

-You wouldn't.

-My head looks like that.

-No, I don't think... What do you think?

-I think it would suit you.

Really? Would it not seem extreme for me, because I'm a Norbert six?!

I don't know what a Norbert six is.

I don't look too bad from the front like this.

You see, I don't look too bad.

-You've got a front, you've got a front hairline.

-You see!

-And that's not too bad.

-That's nice.

I would need to sacrifice that, you see,

if I wanted to do your procedure.

We'd keep within that original hair that you've got.

We would work behind that hair, so you'd still have a good natural hairline.

-But you'd have to shave it off!

-Yes, you would have to have it very short.

You haven't followed it back.

I think it would be a step far for me, I think.

Tattooing has also become a way

of dealing with the extreme scarring from botched hair transplants.

My God, look at that!

That's just purely from a hair transplant procedure.

-A hair transplant. Yep.

-That's been taken from there.

-Right there!

Right across the back, they've taken it from here as well and he's got...

Oh! Oh, I don't like the look of that.

And you... What can you do for that, Ian?

Basically we'd darkened this white tissue of scar

to the same colour above the scar

and basically we'll fade all that down to about there

and then you won't really see the colour transition of this white tissue.

It will be the same colour as there, we'll hide all that.

How did the transplant go apart from the disaster at the back?

How did it...? Were you happy with it?

-No. Not at all.

-Really? Yes?

Still had the thinness in the back, like the bald area right here.

They sell you the dream,

but the dream is not reality.

It was the last night in Los Angeles

and Gerry was mulling everything over in his mind.

What we did was, I went to see Dr Collins in Dublin, right,

and then we came here, we went to New York

we went to Cleveland and we went to Philadelphia.

We went everywhere and we ended up in LA.

We ended up sat here in a lovely, beautiful place.

We're here and we've learnt everything.

Now, what I have to do now is go back to Dr Collins and talk to him again

about all of the things that I found out

and then he'll say to me, "What do you think?"

And I'll say, "Well, I don't know," and then I might just say to him,

"OK, go ahead," or I might say, "No." I don't know yet.

There was one last person I wanted Gerry to meet before we went home.

Someone who I hoped he would find inspiring.

-SAT NAV:

-'Arriving at address 318, on right.'

Is this it here? Is this 318?

Kayla Martell is a former Miss USA finalist and state beauty queen.

All the pictures on my right side here are from

the Miss Delaware pageant when I competed and when I was crowned

and on the left side here they represent

the Miss America pageant, where I competed in Las Vegas in January.

I won the swimsuit award that year.

-I have to say that you do not look ugly in a swimsuit.

-Thank you!

-Thank you!

-Calm down, Gerry! I told you, Kayla!

-I just had to say that.

She swore your eyes would pick up on that picture.

Her name is first runner-up and they called me as the winner

of Miss Delaware, and I really don't remember the moment much at all,

but that looks like I'm screaming so...

Kayla's success is all the more inspiring

as she lost her hair due to alopecia as a young girl.

I started competing fresh out of high school,

my first year, and I placed fourth runner-up my first year. And then...

-Did you wear a hair piece then or did you go au naturel?

-I did not.

-All natural, yes.

-Did you?

Yes, I competed three times at the Miss Delaware pageant without a wig.

You know, I actually liked competing without a wig just as much

as with it, but almost a little bit more because it was so stress-free.

While the girls were worrying about getting their hair done and everything,

I was snacking in the back! Relaxing before the show!

I was ten-years-old when I first started losing my hair

and the only time I'd really seen women lose their hair in my life

was because of cancer, so, really my first thought was,

"Either I've done something wrong or I'm dying."

To hear that it was just my body attacking itself

and my hair was falling out, sounded much less severe.

Normally I only wear the wig when I'm dressing up.

I think of it as a really nice pair of high heels.

It's hot in here anyway, so this is nice.

You have to feel the inside, feel how hot it is.

-That is hot.

-Yes, it's like wearing a winter hat.

-Yes, yes, yes.

-Inside! You know, nobody does that.

He gets so warm. That's why, at school, I never wear it,

because once you're wearing it you're committed to it.

You've got what I'd describe as a stubble, would you not shave that?

I do normally, yes. I've kind of let this grow in

and I'll shave it when I get back from vacation.

It's kind of a buffer between the sun and my head right now.

I think someone's confidence is really the key to it all

because you can pay for the most expensive wig or you could buy a 50 wig

and it doesn't make a difference if you don't feel confident.

So I think, for me, this is how I normally feel,

just confident as I am because this is me and I can't change it,

so I just choose to embrace it.

-This is everything.

-That's what I call everything!

Kayla's positive outlook on her hair loss

and the experiences of all the people that we've met on our trip

have certainly given Gerry a lot to think about.

The nice thing about her was that she was not a bit self-conscious

and she can take the wig or leave it.

She doesn't really care one way or the other.

You get the feeling that a lot of the people who desperately want hair,

they want it for reasons that you'd probably rather not think about.

It tells you more about them than anything else, I think.

RADIO JINGLE PLAYS

'Gerry Anderson.

'On BBC Radio Ulster.'

'There's a Mexican kind of a dog, it has only hair on its...'

I hadn't seen or heard from Gerry for a few weeks

and I was curious to know whether he'd decided

to go through with the hair transplant or not.

I've been thinking about this thing.

You know, it's an odd kind of thing.

You waver back and forward.

I think possibly the best way to make up your mind

is to take some time with it and then you make up your mind

and then you sleep on it and then you're not sure the next day

and then you forget about it for the next two days.

And then you think about it again and then you talk about it in your head.

And I didn't talk to much to other people because I'm...

I'm a funny kind of a person, I don't like taking advice, you know?

Because, I just couldn't be bothered,

because you can feel it in your water.

So it actually comes down to the fact, why do you want to do this?

And I can't think of a good enough reason.

I don't think I know.

-I don't want it badly enough.

-When did you change your mind?

-I changed my mind over a long period.

-But you didn't tell me.

I didn't tell you, no, because I wasn't sure myself

and I woke up one day and I said, "No, I'm not going to do this,"

because I realised that I didn't want to.

I didn't want to.

And my instinct tells me, don't do this, don't do this.

So I'm not doing it.

Yet!

Besides, why would I want a hair transplant?

I've got a laser hat!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd