Published: Jan 06, 2015, 06:07 PM (IST)
Edited: Jan 07, 2015, 11:05 AM (IST)
When receding hairlines make news, follically-challenged cricketers make more news. Although it is a known fact that men lose hair for various reasons, these alpha males didn’t let this dither them from salvaging their thinning hairline and let themselves be known as the bald and the beautiful.
Tulika Bhattacharya of CricLife brings to you 10 cricketers who underwent expensive hair- grafts transplant to ‘subtract’ years from their age.
1. Shane Warne
The crafty Shane Warne’s hair loss was never a secret, and so have been his hair transplants. The Australian leg-spin bowler’s hair graft not only got him Liz Hurley as his sweetheart but also encouraged men all over the world to ditch their hideous toupees.
2. Sourav Ganguly
The stress of being the Indian cricket team captain took a toll on Ganguly and his unkempt and messy hair began balding right in the middle of his head. The Prince of Kolkata immediately resorted to hair transplant.
3. Jacques Kallis
Following the footsteps of Australian spinner Shane Warne, Jacques Kallis underwent a “strand-by-strand†treatment. Kallis’s long-term girlfriend, model Shamone Jardim, was ecstatic that her sweetheart had a more youthful look. He was quoted to be saying, “Once the procedure was done it looked so natural my girlfriend said ‘I’m not sure I could see you without hair again’. I got my hair back, which changed my look completely. I feel younger and more confident now.â€
4. Virender Sehwag
The receding hairline didn’t do justice to the title, “Nawab of Najafgarh†bestowed upon the dashing Indian opener and so he got himself a new crowning glory. And boy! We must say the transplant was worth every penny!
5. Graham Gooch
The former England cricketer and one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation suffered from hair loss problem which resulted in him going bald from the forehead up; he opted for a hair transplant to bring back the treasure he had lost.
6. Gautam Gambhir
When the left-handed opening batsman was asked in an interview in 2009, what was the worst thing about playing cricket for a living, he was frank enough to reply, “You lose a lot of hair — especially when you are an opening batsman! Like [Virender] Sehwag, I’m losing my hair left, right and centre. Cricket has giving me everything but it is taking away all my hair.†Well, 2009 was long back and Gambhir sure grew a much denser hairline, courtesy the hair graft surgery he underwent.
7. Doug Bollinger
Doug ‘The Rug’ Bollinger, Australia’s pace sensation was once a complete bald guy selling T-shirts on the streets before he got himself a all new head of hair and a renewed confidence using procedures in non-surgical skin grafts.
8. Martin Crowe
Thousands of people around the world have benefitted from the technologies that result in hair growth and one of them is New Zealand cricket legend, Martin Crowe. He not only got his mane back but also endorsed for hair transplant clinics.
9. Michael Vaughan
The retired English cricketer and captain opted for a £10,000 “strand-by-strand” replacement of thinning hair with “farmed” Russian hair that is woven in over several treatments, which was highly successful.
10. Rana Naveed Hassan
Thirty-six year-old Pakistani all-rounder got completely bald before hair transplant came to his rescue. Voila! The specialist ‘death’ bowler now has a healthy amount of hair on his head.
(Tulika Bhattacharya is a budding cricket journalist, presently interning at CricLife. She can be followed on Twitter here)
