Man who ignored ‘no sex’ advice after hair transplant instantly regrets it

Oh dear...

Ruben Owen, 24, travelled to Turkey for the operation after he was offered a hair transplant, and was told to not engage in high intensity activities following the op.

The specialists said the influencer should also avoid activities that would make him sweat, such as sex, sunbathing and exercise for at least two weeks.

Official advice also states that increased heart rate and blood pressure can reopen healing incisions, and sweating can increase the risk of infection and irritate the transplant area.

However, he ignored the recommendations to abstain from having sex - and he paid the price for it.

The next day, Ruben woke up with a puffed face and a tight scalp.

He said he found his head had blown up 'like a balloon' and made it look like he had been "stung by 100 bees".

Initially, Ruben thought he may have had an STI, but he soon realised the difference in his appearance was due to the hair transplant.

It took one week for the facial swell to go down.

He said: "I wake up and my head’s blown up like a balloon - Face puffed, scalp tight, and it looked like I’d been stung by 100 bees.

"No joke, I thought I’d caught something. I was actually googling STI symptoms and panicking.

"Turns out it was just my own fault for going too hard too soon - definitely learned my lesson the weird way.

"The left hand side was bigger than anything to the point it didn't even look like I had been punched - it genuinely looked like my face was going to explode."

Ruben went to Turkey in November 2022 to undertake the popular hair treatment after he had concerns with his hair line.

Then aged 22, he was offered the procedure for free in return for a modelling session for the clinic.

In total he spent £800 for the flights to and from Turkey and returned to his home in Abersoch, Wales the day after the procedure was done.

Despite being given advice to avoid having sex, he chose to avoid the advice.

He said: "I was doing some modelling work for their social media so I got the deal for a really good price.

"It all went ok they went through the after care things of what you are not meant to do."

He then explained where things all went wrong.

"I didn't quite listen about the sex part and because of that my face just went quite enormous.

"I had sex the night time. Woke up the next day and my head was just absolutely massive.

"When I woke up I was like 'oh my god what is going on, is it an STI?'.

"I was quite panicking to be honest. I went to Google and was worried for a bit."

On the left size of his head, his head started to swell, and it only returned to normal one week after the transplant surgery.

Ruben said: "I was told there was nothing to worry about too much and that it should go down which it did eventually because I was going to go to A&E.

"I looked like something out of a film - it was something else."

The influencer said he learnt the lesson "the hard way", but can now laugh about it.

He said: "It is one of those stories that still gets brought up, and to me it is too good not to share.

"This is one of them things that I look back on now and it was really stupid I hadn't listened but it was really funny."