Hair-raising affair

THE unstable economy of the last couple of years may have made people pull back on their spending - but it hasn't stopped balding men from ponying up for hair transplants. In fact, the demand for this procedure is growing, says last year's practice census of the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery.

Between 2010 and 2012, the number of surgical hair-restoration procedures grew 10 per cent. The region where the highest number of such procedures were done? Asia, with 102,702 procedures in 2012.

Most of the patients - 86.3 per cent - were men, and more than half were aged 30 to 49. Chow Yuen Ho of TCS Aesthetics Central Clinic Robotic Hair Restoration service says that the rising numbers come on the back of improvements in technology that have minimised scarring, shortened recovery and downtime.