Clive’s Story

Where do I start? In a nutshell, I started to notice I was losing my hair in my early twenties. I could cover it up at first but over time it naturally got more obvious, and it affected my self-confidence more and more.

As the years went by it became easier for me to stop doing things I enjoyed rather than put myself in positions where I felt I would be the butt of jokes or people would notice how badly I was losing my hair. As my hair was thin I knew that if it got wet it meant you could see my scalp, making it look my obvious I was losing my hair, and therefore suddenly, the things I wanted to do like football and swimming, I simply stopped doing.

More about Clive

I tried various products to help reduce my hair loss and different things to help disguise the fact I was losing my hair. Nothing really worked and there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t get depressed about it. Over time my haircuts got shorter and shorter and eventually I was cutting my hair myself (a grade #1 all over) and then touching-up the areas that had thinned to help me feel better about my appearance.

Then in May 2016 I heard about SMP and started to research what it was all about. For the first time in years I started to feel excited about something and actually dreamt about how good I would feel after having the treatment done. I booked a consultation in London with a different clinic however the customer service I received was poor, and I felt pressurised to go through with the treatment on their terms.

This was when I got in touch with Brandwood. I telephoned and spoke to Katie who was amazing. Immediately she made me feel at ease and I booked a consultation with Simon for the same week.  I had various concerns about a numbers of things. Would it fade, could it go blue, how big were the dots, when would they reduce in size. Despite all of these my main concern was; hair loss had affected my entire life, I was embarrassed about it. So much so I didn’t want people to notice I was losing my hair and therefore of course I also didn’t want people to notice I had SMP. The guys were fantastic; they reassured me and answered all of my questions, completely putting me at ease. There was no pressure like the London clinic and the guys advised me to take my time and think about it. However, I had made up my mind. It was an easy decision and I have never looked back.

By the end of the consultation I was booked in, and Simon devised a strategy so I could have the treatment completed in a way that reduced the likelihood of anyone knowing what I had done. The plan was to do my treatment over three sessions, and as it was summer, I booked two weeks off work and had the first treatment on the Saturday, the morning after I finished work on the Friday.  I then had the second treatment on the following Saturday, allowing a week in between each treatment, and a week between the second treatment and me returning to work.

Of course I was really anxious after the first treatment that the gaps and dots were too big, however soon they reduced in size and after the second treatment the gaps closed. On the morning of my return to work (after two weeks) I was so paranoid about returning I almost called in sick. I didn’t though, I plucked up the courage and went. Not one single person noticed. I couldn’t believe it. The only comment that was made was “so you’ve decided to go really short this week instead of the standard grade #1?”.

Naturally I remained a bit nervous for a few weeks and didn’t want to get too close to people, however this was just me being paranoid. Hair loss had affected my life every day for the previous 12 years or so. Two weeks later I had my final treatment to finish the process and I am absolutely thrilled with its final appearance. It has changed my life and I will be forever grateful to Brandwood Clinic for how they have transformed me life. Amazingly, even a year on, only my girlfriend, brother and my best friend know what I have done. The rest of my family, work colleagues and my PARENTS have no idea. Me and my family are heading off on holiday later this summer, and for the first time in years I am looking forward to jumping into the swimming pool without a care in the world about what my hair looks like.