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SCMP Reporter

Trichoderm could be the answer where looks and self-confidence are the all-important saving factors

High-flying IT executive Johnny Wong knows from bitter experience the importance of keeping up appearances. Failing to do so in the past cost him his marriage and almost his career.

Like many Hong Kong husbands, Mr Wong was single-minded about his work and took the view that if he was doing well in his job and climbing the corporate ladder, his wife would love him regardless of his looks.

Mr Wong was wrong - and when he started to lose his hair, it was the start of a downward spiral that led to the breakdown of his marriage, and a crisis of self-confidence that saw him come close to losing his well-paid job.

'I didn't realise my looks mattered and I didn't realise if I let them go, I had so much more to lose besides. It was a bruising lesson, and it made me see my whole life in a different way,' he said.

'Now I look around me and see that so many of my friends and colleagues are making the same mistake - and I want to warn them before the same thing happens and they go through what I went through.'

For Mr Wong's wife, the fact that he was losing his hair and did not seem to care was a sign that he no longer cared enough for her.

She saw it as a signal that he was not interested in making an effort to look good for her.

Soaring divorce rates in Hong Kong indicate tens of thousands of wives feel the same. It is not enough to have a husband who simply works hard and supports them. Today's women want husbands who care enough about them to take care of the way they look.

Hong Kong now has the world's third-highest divorce rate, with a staggering 41 per cent of marriages breaking down, compared with just 26 per cent in Singapore and 15 per cent in China. Only the United States and South Korea have higher divorce rates.

A major factor in the rocketing divorce rate is the rising levels of expectation among the city's modern, financially independent career women who expect their men to be solvent, healthy and meticulous about their appearance - before and after they take their marriage vows.

'Traditionally, men in Hong Kong have never been too bothered about their appearance, especially after they get married. That attitude might have been okay in the 1970s but believe me - it's a recipe for disaster today,' Mr Wong said.

When Mr Wong's wife left him two years ago, it delivered a hammer blow to his ego and dented his confidence so badly he lost faith in his ability to do his job.

Then, one day last year, a colleague took him aside and suggested he look at the root cause of his problems - his premature hair loss. 'I wasn't aware at that stage there was anything I could do about it but my colleague pointed out that the solution was in my own hands,' he said.

'I was amazed when he told me he had suffered the same problem because he had such a full, thick head of hair. Then he told me his secret and suggested it might work for me too.'

The 'secret' is one that thousands of Hong Kong men are discovering every month - Trichoderm, an easy-to-apply lotion which uses an exclusive hair collagen formula that is delivered directly to the hair follicles with a 100 per cent absorption rate. Provided the hair loss has not advanced to the extent that the follicles have died, Trichoderm and its exclusive ingredient can quickly generate new growth as well as thickening hair and improving its texture and look.

Extensive clinical tests, carried out before Trichoderm's Hong Kong launch last year, found that the treatment can increase the growth of new hair by 163 per cent and thicken and smooth damaged strands to improve the hair's texture.

Daily application of the lotion was found by the tests to reduce hair loss by 45 per cent and reduce dandruff and other scalp conditions by 50 per cent, giving hair a healthier, fuller and shinier appearance.

'The results have exceeded my expectations,' Mr Wong said. He is now remarried.



Hair loss puts HK men at risk of becoming a divorce statistic