Student kills himself after botched beard transplant

30 October 2024 10:36 PM

A young French man tragically took his own life after a beard transplant in Turkey went catastrophically wrong, allegedly carried out by an estate agent posing as a surgeon, his father has claimed.

Mathieu Vigier Latour

Mathieu Vigier Latour travelled to Istanbul in March for the procedure, which cost him €1,300—just a fifth of the price it would have cost in France.

Recommended articles

beauty-health How your gym wear could be causing agonising infections

The treatment involved removing 1,000 hair grafts and transferring 4,000 from his scalp to his face.

After the surgery, the student was left with a patchy beard that grew at unnatural angles, creating a 'hedgehog-like' effect, his father described.

Latour, 24, also suffered burns and experienced significant discomfort, leaving him unable to sleep properly.

It was only later that he discovered the person who had performed the transplant was not a qualified surgeon but an estate agent, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Following this botched operation, Latour fell into a 'vicious cycle' and developed body dysmorphic disorder, obsessing over perceived flaws in his appearance.

A Belgian specialist attempting to correct the procedure noted that Latour’s scalp would never fully recover from the areas where grafts had been removed.

Three months after his trip to Turkey, Latour ended his life.

His father is now campaigning to raise awareness of the dangers associated with low-cost medical tourism, stating that it would be "a tribute to Mathieu" if his son’s tragic story could prevent others from facing similar fates.