People travelling abroad for hair transplants may end up having the procedures done by 'taxi drivers and Syrian refugees with no training', experts have warned.
The lure of lower prices is leading people to pay for poor quality, botched transplants which leave them scarred and bloody.
Grim photos released by the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) have shown what happens when these hair transplants go wrong.
The ISHRS said illegal clinics are tricking British customers with sophisticated websites and false guarantees while charging as little as £620 for the procedures.
The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery warns in some clinics overseas people are at risk of having treatment performed by people without the right training, which can result in injuries like the above, in which a man had too many follicles taken at once
'The marketing tactics are deceptive as it appears like a team of professional doctors with excellent testimonials,' said Dr Ricardo Meija, chair of the ISHRS's unlicenced practice of medicine committee.
'However, the reality is your surgery may be done by someone with no medical training.
'The demand for hair transplants is so high, reports are that taxi cab drivers and Syrian refugees do the surgery in some overseas countries.'
The ISHRS said there are growing numbers of people being left scarred by transplants gone wrong.
It has revealed photos of men and women who have had too much hair harvested from their heads, patients being left with wounds from the ops, and transplants which have simply failed.
Done successfully, hair transplants can transform the appearance of the patients, who are usually balding men.
They have grown in popularity in recent years, with 635,000 operations performed worldwide in 2017, the ISHRS said, up from 225,779 in 2006 – a 181 per cent rise.
Celebrities including Wayne Rooney, X Factor judge Louis Walsh, chef Gordon Ramsay, and actor James Nesbitt have all had the operations.
Usually costing around £7,000, the ops work by taking living hair follicles from areas where it is still growing and transplant them to balding areas.
While the rich and famous can fork out thousands to have transplants done in high-end clinics, others may be tempted by the cut-price procedures offered abroad.
Unregulated clinics may perform hair transplantation techniques which are outdated or not executed properly because of poor quality – or non-existent – training
One man in the ISHRS's warning was left with a wound which caused the tissue on his scalp to die, because the surgical procedure was done badly
Travelling to clinics which aren't staffed by experts, the ISHRS warns, can leave people forking out for undesirable results which they will then have to pay to correct when they get home
Mexico, Turkey, India and Sweden are all among the most popular destinations for transplant travellers, according to the ISHRS.
While regulation is strict in the UK and clinics must register with the NHS and care home watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, it may be more lax overseas.
Last week it was reported a man at a private clinic in Mumbai, India, had died after a 12-hour hair transplant operation.
The 43-year-old had paid 500,000 rupees (£5,400) for the hair transplant and is believed to have died of an allergic reaction, though this hasn't been confirmed.
Speaking of less serious but still concerning complications, Dr Meija added: 'Patients are the ones that suffer when they realise too late who carried out their surgery.
'[They] end up with botched complications and scars, and hairlines that are not normal and are disfiguring.'
The US-based ISHRS has launched a 'Black Market Awareness' campaign to try and stop these rogue operators, many of whom are in Turkey.
A spokesperson for society said: 'The rogue clinics and hospitals that facilitate illegal or unethical practices have created an expanding black market hair transplant underworld of sorts.
'Surgeries are performed by non-doctors with little or no training, are
