We've had girlfriends who've laughed at man-boobs & hid baldness but we're proud to admit we've had male plastic surgery | The Sun

WITH cosmetic surgery for men still taboo, we speak to three who are proud to admit they went under the knife as told to Kate Graham.

‘Kids at school called me pinocchio’

Jack Chamberlain, 21, is a mechanic and lives in Manchester with his mum Jackie, 56, dad Tim, 60, and brother Max, 14.

“As the nurse took my hand, my body shook with nerves.

Had I really paid thousands for someone to cut open my face? All I could do was hope it would all be worth it when I woke up from surgery. 

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I was born with a large nose, and because of a birth defect, I had extra skin on one nostril. It didn’t impact my breathing and, growing up, my mum, dad and younger brother Max didn’t mention it.

It was only when I entered my teens I realised I was different. Kids at school would make jokes and call me Pinocchio. I went from never thinking about my nose to focusing on it constantly.

While friends posted selfies on Snapchat, I avoided the camera. But people would film me when I wasn’t looking and send it to me as a joke – it was horrible.

Even after I left school at 16 to start a sports and fitness course at college, my nose still affected my confidence.

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I hated what I saw in the mirror and found talking to people difficult – especially girls. Thankfully, I had gymnastics.

From the age of six I’d represented Great Britain in artistic gymnastics and went all over Europe with Team GB.

In 2019, aged 18, I asked an event photographer to edit my pictures to make my nose look better. It was a revelation.

I began researching rhinoplasty, but was crestfallen to realise how much it would cost. As soon as I started working as a mechanic in 2020, I began saving.

When I told my parents my plan, they were shocked, but Mum sat with me during my online consultation with MYA Cosmetic Surgery, where they confirmed the £8,500 fee.

Mum and Dad suggested I save £3,500 and they’d put the rest on a credit card. I’d then make the repayments each month. I put down the £950 deposit in March 2021, booked the surgery for that May and agreed holiday with work for the recommended four weeks’ recovery. 

When I woke up after three hours in surgery and saw my face for the first time, I cried. With the bruises, bandages and cast on my nose, I looked like I’d been beaten up. But I knew I’d have to wait 10 days to see the results properly.

Back home, Mum and Dad took care of me. I had cotton packed into both nostrils to support my nose, which made eating difficult. I also had to sleep at a 45-degree angle.

Ten days after surgery I had the cast, stitches and cotton removed. It felt like they were pulling my brain out! Despite it all, I was thrilled.

My nose was smaller and more symmetrical, and the extra skin in my nostril had gone. I felt amazing. It gave me an extra confidence boost, and two months after the op I started dating Jess, 19. We had friends in common, so she knew about the surgery and it wasn’t a big deal to her at all.

The surgery is about more than my love life, though. If people think a bloke going under the knife is weird, I don’t care. Now I can stand tall, look people in the eye and feel at peace with how I look.” 

‘My first girlfriend laughed at my man boobs’

Daniel Pritchard, 29, is a business development manager and lives in Dartford, Kent.

“I used to be known as the guy who always wore waistcoats.

At my 2017 wedding in the boiling Cyprus sun, I even made all my groomsmen wear them with me. Not because I loved them, but because they hid my ‘man boobs’. 

When I was only 12, my first girlfriend laughed at me when she saw me without a top on as I changed my T-shirt. That single moment left me feeling absolutely terrible about myself. 

Three years later, things got even worse. Growing up with my mum Wendy, now 56, and brother Lee, 25, we had a healthy lifestyle.

Yet as I hit puberty, I gained weight and my wobbly chest developed into these weird, triangular-shaped boobs. I started to dread PE, doing everything I could to avoid the other boys seeing my body.

But I couldn’t stop the comments coming – everything from: ‘Show us your titties’ to: ‘Are you wearing a bra?’

However hot the summer was, I’d be in a dark jumper to hide my body, sweating like mad. Even on holiday I avoided sunbathing and swimming.

The first time I had sex with a new girlfriend was always frightening, as I was still traumatised by that first girl’s reaction to my body when I was 12. Would I be laughed at again?

Thankfully it didn’t happen, either with the girlfriend I had from 14 to 19 years old, or Alice*, who I met in 2015 when I was 22 and ended up marrying two years later. 

Sadly, our relationship broke down the following November, and while we remained friendly, it left my confidence at an all-time low. 

I thought the answer might be to lose weight. 

So, at around 11 1/2st, I went on an insane diet, eating just two apples a day and losing 1 1/2st in just three months, before moving on to a more healthy diet to maintain that initial loss. I also started exercising. But the man boobs remained. 

I’d read online about male breast removal, and in December 2020 I had a consultation with a private clinic. I paid £3,700 from my savings for the procedure, and in the new year underwent surgery.  

The only person who knew about what I’d been planning was my mum and she was brilliant – she just wanted me to finally feel happy in myself.

When the 90-minute surgery was over, I couldn’t stop grinning, even though it was weird to look down at the bandages and see a flat chest. I wasn’t in any pain – the worst part was having to sleep upright for three days.

Once I took the bandages off, I wore a compression vest for two weeks. 

After that, my life changed immediately. The cloud that had been hanging over me for so long was gone and my self-confidence soared.

I ditched my trademark dark jumpers and I wore a vest for the first time, aged 28, when I ran a marathon in September 2021 – and it felt incredible. 

I also got a new job and met my amazing girlfriend Elle, 25, in January. And when the time came to be intimate with her for the first time I didn’t feel a single worry.

Life is good and I’m finally happy and secure in myself. I just wish I’d done something about it sooner.”

‘I wore wigs to hide the fact I had started going bald’

Marc Fretwell, 38, is an operations manager and lives in Blackburn, Lancashire, with his wife Leanne, 35, a travel agent, and their children Isla, five, and Harry, two.

“Watching the footage from the football match I had played in, my stomach sank. For the first time, I could see the top of my head clearly and there was no denying it, I was 21 and already losing my hair. 

As a skinny kid, I’d never liked my appearance. But while my dad Garry, now 67, and my uncle Paul, 54, were both bald, I never thought about my hair.

That was until I saw the film of the match I’d played in 2005 and realised I was on my way to losing mine. I was totally gutted.

I tried to stay positive, but when I split from my girlfriend in 2006, aged 22, my confidence took yet another hit. I was young, single and balding.

A year later, I got talking to my neighbour’s son, who worked in the hair-restoration business and knew about a lot of different treatment options. He suggested I try laser treatment and a drug called minoxidil to get my hair growing again. 

Once a week I had the laser treatment and I took the medication daily. Three months later, the results were amazing, and by the time I met Leanne in 2009, I had a full head of hair. 

I was really embarrassed to tell her about the treatment, but she was brilliant. Knowing that I could be honest with her made us even closer.

But the medication stopped working for me in 2014, when I was 30, so I turned to the next option. It’s called ‘the system’, but is really just a wig. Made from human hair, it’s attached to your head and only removed every three weeks for cleaning.

Sitting there while the stylist removed it every few weeks, seeing myself bald and suddenly looking years older was weird. 

I always breathed a little more easily when the hair was secured back on my head.

But when the pandemic hit and I couldn’t visit my stylist for maintenance, I finally had to face my baldness. That’s when I started researching hair transplants. 

I spoke to Surgery Group, who recommended both a follicular unit extraction (FUE), where individual hair follicles are taken from the scalp and inserted into the balding area, and a follicular unit transplant (FUT), where a strip of hair-bearing scalp is taken from one part of the head and implanted into the balding area.

It would cost me around £10,000, but Leanne – who I married in November 2015 – was behind me all the way and we agreed I would take out a loan to pay for it.

I also decided to be open with friends and everyone at work who I’d hidden it from for years – and no one teased me at all. The guys whose hair was thinning said they totally understood why I’d done it, and the others simply weren’t bothered!

In December 2020, I laid back as a surgeon injected anaesthetic into my head and a section of skin was peeled off. Hearing the flesh coming away was the worst part.

Individual follicles were then picked out and put into the bald bits on the front of my head. The procedure took seven hours.

A month later, the first sprouts of hair appeared, which was when I realised I had a very faint hairline again. With the combined treatments I’ve had, I now have a full head of hair which should last the rest of my life.

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As for my own son, while I’d never guide him down a path, if he loses his hair when he’s older, I’ll definitely tell him what I’ve had done.

It’s time to end the stigma around male cosmetic surgery. You only get one life, so why shouldn’t you make the most of it?”

• Visit Surgerygroup.co.uk, Mya.co.uk.

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