Superstar chef Gordon Ramsay has reportedly become the latest celebrity to undergo a hair transplant, to go with the teeth whitening and Botox injections he was said to have had done on the advice of Simon Cowell.

The £30,000 procedure that Ramsay has had carried out involves the removal of a healthy hair follicle from the rear of the head, where baldness is less of an issue, before grafting it onto the front of the head, where the hair is thinner and patchier.

The rumours of a hair transplant were sparked when Ramsay was pictured in Los Angeles wearing a surgical cap.

The photos were taken at the exclusive Alvi Armani centre in Beverly Hills, where Ramsay arrived in a limousine. A source told the UK tabloid press; “While his hair may not have been obviously receding, it had become an issue for him. Some will call it vanity but to TV producers and Gordon it’s a pre-emptive action to stop him suddenly going on TV with obvious thinning.”

Hair transplants, to treat male pattern baldness, is a big industry in the US, with $2.3 billion spent on procedures every year. While the treatment is currently only available privately in the UK, there is evidence that more middle-aged men are going under the knife in order to look younger.

In recent years, actors James Nesbitt and John Cleese and sporting stars Shane Warne and Austin Healy have all admitted to having hair transplants carried out, with the latter two even endorsing the procedure in adverts.

Dr David Fenton, consultant dermatologist at St John’s Institute of Dermatology, St Thomas’ Hospital, London, said that Ramsay will have needed two things to happen for the procedure to be a success: “Enough hair to supply the back of the scalp and finding the best surgeon you can to get an undetectable end result”.