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‘I was so traumatised by my hair loss I hated Liberty X gigs – but a hair transplant has saved me’
WALKING out on stage, to the sound of the roaring crowd, Kevin Simm should have been revelling in the spotlight.
Instead the former Liberty X star was worrying about his thinning locks and wondering if his hair, carefully styled to cover bald patches, would stay in place.
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The 40-year-old singer - now fronting Wet, Wet, Wet - began losing his hair in his early 20s and became obsessed with his receding hairline.
In an exclusive interview, Kevin told the Sun: “It really affected my mental health.
“There were times when we were going to do a gig and I thought 'I look like sh**. I don't even want to go on stage'.
“When you look at yourself in the mirror every day it's something you can't escape."
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He’s not alone. In a poll of 1,000 men conducted by Juvida, over three-quarters (77 per cent) say hair loss knocked their confidence and over half (52 per cent) believed it had made them less attractive.
The report, Juvida -The Bald Truth About Mental Health, also found that 68 per cent said hair loss affects their mental health and five per cent have even felt suicidal because of it.
Two years ago, the 2016 Voice UK winner from Chorley, Lancashire, bit the bullet and had a hair transplant - and he has never looked back.
Now the dad-of-two is bravely speaking out about his struggle for the first time, to help other men who suffer in silence as hair loss erodes their self-esteem.
“There’s a real stigma around hair loss and other men in particular make fun of it,” he says. “Women don’t seem to mind - but around men it is an issue. It needs to be less of a stigma.”
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'I couldn't face the crowd'
Kevin was just 21 when he won Popstars with Liberty X and had a string of hits, including Just a Little and Got To Have Your Love.
But, even at the height of his fame, worries about hair loss began to creep in.
“I felt like my hair was receding and I worried about it all the time,” he says. “Now I look back at pictures and wonder why.
“But with hair loss, even small changes can deeply affect your mental health and make you really self-conscious.”
As time went by, Kevin got increasingly paranoid, spending hours styling his hair to cover up the thinning.
“I tried to disguise it the best I could, leaving it longer on top so I could comb it over,” he says.
“It became a constant battle every day and I ended up spending more and more time just trying to conceal it.
“I wouldn't leave the house without it being styled in a certain way and I would always be very self-conscious if I had a hat on, that someone might pull it off for a joke.”
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As a performer Kevin felt even more pressure to look his best.
“A lot of people go out on stage and have the time of their lives and I wanted to enjoy myself but a lot of the time I just felt uncomfortable,” he says.
I wanted to enjoy myself but a lot of the time I just felt uncomfortable
Kevin Simm
“It got to the point where I couldn't look out to the crowd. I'd always look down at my feet. That's no way to perform. I couldn't really be myself on stage.”
When it came to TV appearances and live shows, Kevin refused to let the backstage stylists near his hair, insisting he would do it himself,
“It was a horrible experience, going to a TV show and being sent to hair and make-up or even going to the hairdresser, because it reminds you every time that you're not happy with that side of you.
“Also I was worried that being in front of the cameras would magnify it.”
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Put off by price and bad transplants
Although he considered a hair transplant as a younger man, the procedure seemed too risky and too pricey to proceed.
But with an increasing number of men posting their transplants on social media, Kevin was finally persuaded two years ago.
“I always thought it was something that wasn't accessible, financially,” he says.
“I’d read about celebrities who have had it done in the past and it cost £20k or £30k.
“Like everyone else I'd seen a lot of offers in places like Turkey but there was no way I would risk going over there.
“I also saw a lot of bad examples of transplants so I always thought there is no cure or solution for it.
“But then I saw a few people on social media who had this done and I thought it looked amazing.
“I started looking into it and found a company which was fairly local to me so I went for a consultation, they told me what they could do and I thought 'Sod it. You only live once'.
“I’ve never looked back.”
Wife Laura supported his decision all the way,
“Laura knew how much it affected me,” he says. “It took quite a long time for me to even say to her I wasn’t happy with the way my hair was, because you don't want to talk about it.
“But she understood that I wanted to feel comfortable on stage because that's my entire life and work.”
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Confidence boost
Kevin says the procedure was carried out under local anaesthetic so there was “slight discomfort at times but no pain,” and it took less than a day.
“Obviously in the days afterwards it can be a little bit sore but generally it was a fairly painless procedure,” he says.
“In the first week, it scabs over a bit and once that goes the hair starts growing immediately.
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“After about four weeks, it falls out again, which they warn you about. That's the worst moment, even though you know it's coming, but after that, it starts growing again.”
Now happy with his full head of hair, Kevin says it boosted his self-esteem immediately.
“As soon as I had the procedure done I felt really confident and going on stage, I now feel way more secure in myself and less self-conscious about the way I look,” he says.
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“I lost my inhibitions about speaking about it all. I'd not told anyone else I was doing it other than my very close family. Now, it's something I can openly talk about.”
Kevin, who took over the lead in Wet,Wet,Wet after winning The Voice in 2016, is currently recording an album with the band but hasn't been able to showcase his new look at as many gigs as he'd have liked.
"We had to cancel all the shows last year because of the pandemic," he says. "Which means I got a hair transplant so I could sit at home for year!"
These days, the procedure typically costs around £5,000, but Kevin urges anyone looking for a transplant to do plenty of digging first.
“I'd say get a consultation if you are unhappy with yourself,” he says.
“It's probably cheaper than you would think and there's so much material out there to research now, with so many people who have been having it done, that you can get a really unbiased opinion.
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“It's not just the clinics, putting biased material out there. People are putting their own stories on Instagram and genuinely saying whether it's worked out for them or not.
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“So research the hell out of it and be aware that results vary, from person to person, depending on how much you've lost, how old you are and so on.
“But if anything is making you unhappy, you should at least look into trying to make yourself happy, whether that be with a hair transplant or any other procedure.”
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