A 24-year-old man tragically took his own life after a botched beard transplant in Turkey performed by an estate agent posing as a surgeon. Mathieu Vigier Latour opted to travel to a clinic in Istanbul for the €1,300 (£1,082) procedure - a fifth of what he would have paid in his native France.

According to his father, the business student felt assured after seeing that the clinic carried the stamp of approval from the Turkish health ministry. But the procedure was a disaster.

During the operation, 4,000 grafts were removed from the back of Mathieu's head and transferred to his face - but the clinician lost 1,000 of the grafts. "When it started to grow out, it looked like a hedgehog. It was unmanageable,” his father Jacques Vigier Latour said in an interview with BFM TV, via The Telegraph.

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He said the beard was irregular, poorly mapped out, and that hairs were growing at an unnatural angle from his son's face. Furthermore, he said Mathieu suffered burns after the procedure and was having trouble sleeping due to the discomfort.

It was then that Mathieu carried out some more research into the surgery. He was shocked to discover that the person who performed his procedure was not a surgeon - but an estate agent.

To try to help fix the problem, his family managed to find a specialist in Belgium who was in the process of correcting the procedure. But the doctor concluded that the part of Mathieu's scalp, where grafts had been taken, would not recover.

The student is said to have then fallen into post-traumatic shock and suffered from severe body dysmorphic disorder, a mental health condition which sees sufferers fixate obsessively over perceived defects or flaws in their appearance. "He entered a vicious circle and couldn't get out," his father said.

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Tragically, three months after the initial operation, Mathieu took his own life in his student accommodation in Paris. His father said that he hoped speaking out about his son's suicide would help further expose the dangers of low-cost medical tourism. "If this testimony could prevent this from happening again and alert everyone, I think that would be a tribute to Mathieu," he said.

It comes after a man claimed he had been forced to quit his job aftera hair transplant that allegedly left him with massive purple scars on his head. Mark Sweeney, 57, said he was promised professional treatment at the Merchant City Medical centre in Glasgow city centre, and explained taht he chose the clinic over others abroad after hearing horror stories of surgeries gone wrong.

But his dream of a full head of hair turned into an apparent nightmare when the hair transplant procedure allegedly left him with a large scar across his forehead. He says that the alleged failed operation left him unable to continue his job as a waiter because he cannot bear to face the public, and said he has to style his hair forward to hide the unsightly marks.

Mr Sweeney, who quit his job at Glasgow's Buttery restaurant, told the Daily Record: "They've ruined my life. Absolutely ruined and destroyed my life and I can't do anything about it." Since the transplant, he says he has been battling anxiety and depression due to his self-image. He is now on medication prescribed by his GP.

Mark, who paid £3,500 for the procedure, says he has been left with a scar on his forehead and a bald patch on the side of his head where grafts were taken. He explained: "I'm bald where they took the hair and I'm scarred at the front. I've got a hairline that's low on one side. What I do now is I grow my hair long at the front and I shave the hairline to try to disguise it and cover it up."

Merchant City Medical's CEO Paul Mulholland confirmed that Mark had been a patient at their facility. Speaking to the Record, he added: "Mark turned up at our office yesterday and was told to leave."

For emotional support you can call the Samaritans 24-hour helpline on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, visit a Samaritans branch in person or go to the Samaritans website.