Noel Hunt’s getting a hair transplant because he plays football

A TOP footballer has put his premature baldness down to heading the ball too often.

Ireland international Noel Hunt believes years of taking it on the napper may have caused his receding hairline.

He also fears the stress of the sport may have had an impact.

The 32-year-old former Dunfermline and Dundee United star is one of scores of once-balding players due to start the new season with a full thatch after undergoing a hair transplant.

The routine treatment has become de rigeur for footballers after Wayne Rooney paid £30,000 to have his thinning pate covered up in 2011.

When asked what could have accelerated his hair loss, Hunt said: “I head the ball a lot, I don’t know if that has contributed to any of it.

“There’s obviously a lot of stresses in football, contracts etc., so maybe it has contributed. I don’t know.”

Hunt said he was inspired to get a hair transplant by Celtic star Anthony Stokes, who’s also had the operation.

Noel is one of five leading players to have had a close-season hair transplant at Glasgow’s KSL Hair clinic.

Other stars treated include Kilmarnock’s Mark Connolly, Andy Halliday, who has been linked with Rangers, Plymouth Argyle’s Gregg Wylde and Dundee captain Kevin Thomson.

The company has already weaved its magic on Stokes and his Celtic team-mates Leigh Griffiths and Gary Mackay-Steven while Kris Boyd and James McFadden have had similar procedures.

Simon Lindsay of KSL Hair, said: “It has become more acceptable for men to have cosmetic procedures done, with hair transplants at the forefront.”

Thomson, who puts his hair problems down to age, said he’s had to endure jibes about his hairline.

He said: “There was a guy at Middlesborough called Tony McMahon who would give me stick every day especially in the shower when my hair was wet and it looked worse.

“I’m having to wear my hair in a certain way, so to be able to style it how I want once I’ve had my treatment will be great.”