Featured Image Credit: Family Handout
Topics: France, Health, Mental Health, Travel, Beauty
Joe Yates
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide and graphic images which some readers may find distressing.
A man who paid a little over $1,000 for a beard transplant in a popular destination in Europe for cheap cosmetic surgery, has tragically taken his own life.
Mathieu Vigier Latour had saved up $1,300 to pay for the surgery, which would have cost five times more in his home country of France. However, following the 'surgeon's' botched attempts of the surgery, Latour discovered his real occupation.
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The 24-year-old had traveled to Istanbul, Turkey's capital, in March for the treatment, which lead to him suffering with a severe body dysmorphic disorder.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, it is a mental health condition that causes you to view your own physical appearance unfairly - thoughts and feelings relating to your appearance can consume you and affect your thoughts and actions.
The transplant saw the 'surgeon' transfer 4,000 grafts of hair from his head and place them on his face, losing 1,000 grafts of hairs in the process.
Following the transplant, Latour discovered that the man who performed his treatment was not even a qualified surgeon, but an estate agent.
His father, also named Mathieu Vigier Latour, told broadcaster BFM TV: “When it started to grow out, it looked like a hedgehog, it was unmanageable."
The surgery left the student, who was studying business back home in France, with an irregular shaped beard that was growing at an unnatural angle - while the burns he suffered from the procedure also made sleeping difficult for him due to the discomfort.
His dad explained: "He was suffering, he wasn’t doing well. He was in pain, suffered from burns, and he couldn’t sleep.”
To help correct the procedure his family found a specialist in neighboring Belgium, but upon hearing from the doctor that the part of his scalp where the hair was taken from would never recover, Latour fell into post-traumatic shock.
Three months later he tragically took his own life at his student accommodation in Paris.
“He entered a vicious circle and couldn’t get out,” his father added.
“If this testimony could prevent this from happening again and alert everyone, I think that would be a tribute to Mathieu."
If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.
If you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call National Suicide Prevention Helpline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The Helpline is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.