Rooney shaved by Rio

UPDATE 4th June 2011 - Rooney Tweets about Hair Transplant (click for story)

The Sun is running a cheeky story about Wayne Rooney's new shaved head, saying both that Rooney is "sensitive about losing his hair", and that he was "fed-up with being ribbed about his thinning hair", so asked Rio Ferdinand to shave his head before the West Ham game last Wednesday.

This doesn't ring true somehow. Clearly for footballers of Rooneys' calibre hair loss treatment is affordable .. it's affordable for most people nowadays. And footballers often lead the way with hairstyles .. my first football memory was of Kevin Keegan getting a perm.

So if he really was fed up and sensitive about his hair loss, he'd have done something about it.

The issue is more likely that, being in the public eye, rather like Richard Hammond being ribbed about whether he'd has his teeth whitened, if Rooney did get successful treatment the papers would start to wonder how come his hair was starting to grow back. That would reveal him to be sensitive about his looks (which are widely regarded as secondary to his skills). Revealing weakness simply leads to more relentless ribbing.

Rooney doesn't seem to have many options, but you may well have. The answer really is to start treatment as soon as you notice your hair is thinning. Then you can keep your hair and no-one's going to notice. If you're out of the public eye, a gradual return of your healthy hair isn't going to shock anyone, you'll just look younger.