Now thats some good news. How about coming out of some political heated debates and discuss something which is a growing trend and may be shaping up as a new industry. I may be looking to join them in few years too ![]()
This article certainly shows political, social and religious aspects :k:
Hair transplants in Pakistan: A weapon of mass seduction - Pakistan - DAWN.COM
Hair transplants: Pakistanâs new weapon of mass seduction
By AFP
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PESHAWAR: Mohammad Shahidâs eyes lit up when he saw his once bald cousin come home one day with a head full of hair and a strutting gait to match.A handsome but follically-challenged young man, he decided the time was ripe to restore his honour, battered by years of taunts that follow the barren-headed and the beardless in Pakistan.
In Peshawar, home to underground Taliban hideouts and a gateway for trade to Afghanistan, men go about their business in the crowded dusty streets, their faces covered by bushy black beards that would make Captain Haddock proud.
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This photograph taken on October 16, 2014, shows a man entering a hair transplants clinic in Peshawar.â AFP
The cityâs roads are filled with giant billboards of celebrities once bald but now all smiles. They extol the virtues of manhood restored surgically with a few well-placed tufts of hair.
âWhen I saw my cousin return from his procedure, I was in shock. I said to myself: I have to have it too,â said the thirty-something excitedly as he prepared to have the procedure at a local hair transplant clinic.
âHair is like our weapon against society."
In certain parts of Pakistan, hair is synonymous with virility to the point that even some Taliban fighters buy ointments to give their long locks and beards a lustrous finish.
Woe to those without: they are labelled âganjasâ, a deeply derogatory term.
âHere, calling someone a âganjaâ is a stigma but over there (in the West), saying âbaldâ is not that bad,â explained Dr Humayun Mohmand, one of the first doctors to offer the treatment in Pakistan.
[HR][/HR]The âNawaz effectâ
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Mohmand opened his practice in the early 2000s, but transplants done under local anaesthetic did not take off immediately.
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This photograph taken on October 16, 2014, shows doctor Humayun Mohmand, a pioneer in hair transplants in Pakistan, at his clinic in Islamabad. â AFP
The breakthrough moment came at the end of 2007, when Nawaz Sharif, who was balding when he was deposed as prime minister by General Pervez Musharraf eight years earlier, returned from exile with a full head of hair.**
âAfter the hair transplant⌠by Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif (his brother, the chief minister of Punjab province) this has become very popular,â said doctor Fawad Aamir at his Peshawar clinic, among a group of patients seeking new manes.**
â(Before) they were very afraid of this, that something is going to happen, that cancer will develop, that infection will lead to the brain.â Among them was the son of Farid Khan Khattak, a big man who fills the room with hearty laughter.
âMy son had some kind of inferiority complex because he had some gaps in his hair,â he said.
âOne of my friends told me that instead of a hair transplant I should buy a motorbike for my son. But my son insisted: âInstead of a motorbike I want a transplantâ, so itâs for his happiness.â
Since 2006, Mohmand has conducted 8,000 operations compared with 1,000 during the previous five years.
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This photograph taken on October 16, 2014, shows doctors treating a patient for hair transplants at a clinic in Islamabad. â AFP
In a conservative society where arranged marriages remain the norm, surgeons recall the anguish of patients whose engagements have been scuppered by baldness.
âOne of my clients had lost a lot of hair and two or three marriage proposals did not mature,â said the doctor of a female patient.
âAfter that, she came to give me the invitation to her wedding. That day, she had tears in her eyes. She said, âYou are the person who has made my lifeâ.â
[HR][/HR]Hair tourism
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Today, there are nearly 120 hair transplant clinics in Pakistan, according to official figures, with a dozen in Peshawar.
The operation generally costs from $400-$1,000, with some top clinics charging up to $6,000 â a fraction of what it costs in the West, but still well out of reach for most Pakistanis.
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This photograph taken on October 16, 2014, shows doctor Humayun Mohmand, a pioneer in hair transplants in the country, treating a patient at his clinic in Islamabad. â AFP
Many clients come from abroad, in particular the Pakistani-Afghan diaspora who come to see their friends and family â and return more hirsute.
Maihan, a cook from Denmark, finds himself in one such clinic in Peshawar.
The young Afghan knows that the shaven-headed Bruce Willis look isnât displeasing to the fairer sex in the West.
âIn Europe, in Canada, in Australia and in the United States, the girls donât care, but here guys must have long hair,â he said.
Hairless heads arenât the only worry. Doctor Asif Shah says he has also performed a number of beard transplants on patients keen to show their piety with a healthy growth.
Fawad Aamir recalls with pleasure the visit of a Taliban commanderâs son who had grown frustrated with his patchy beard while fellow rebels proudly sported bushy specimens.
âA doctor tried to convince the man that âyou donât grow beard because this is the beard given to you by Godâ,â he said.
âAnd he said âNo, I want to have this like Muhammad, peace be upon him.â
âSo we went ahead and six months later he had a very big beard and he was very happy. â