Shahmalak has written for newspapers and blogs including the
Manchester Evening News, and
Huffington Post. Shahmalak is a donor and supporter of Operation Restore, a charitable programme run by non-profit medical association the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) to help burns and cancer victims who cannot afford treatment. Shahmalak is involved in an ongoing
hair follicle research programme in collaboration with staff at the
University of Manchester. The research group, headed by Professor Ralf Paus, investigates the biology and pathology of the hair follicle as a microcosmic miniorgan in which many of the fundamental problems of biology can be studied in an exemplary fashion. Current research includes investigations into the
neuroendocrine properties of the human hair follicle, their impact on
mitochondrial function and hair follicle immune status, and the use of adult
stem cells populations associated with human skin appendages for regenerative medicine purposes. In May 2018, the results of Dr Paus's research were published by PLOS Biology showing that a drug originally designed as a treatment for osteoporosis has a dramatic stimulatory effect on human hair follicles donated by patients undergoing hair transplantation surgery. Shahmalak was thanked by the research team for providing scalp hair follicles from more than 40 patients. He is a frequent media spokesman, and has written about the importance placed in hair over the centuries and the fact that baldness until recently was not recognised as a social or medical issue, despite the sometimes catastrophic impact it can have on confidence and mental well-being. He wrote: "Male pattern baldness (MPB), the main cause of hair loss, affects an estimated quarter of men by the age of 30 and two thirds by the age of 60. Until recently, the impact baldness might have on confidence and well-being was little understood or recognised by the medical profession at large." Shahmalak has also written about the impact of work stress and pressure on hair colour and density, highlighting the example of US President
Barack Obama and leading UK politicians whose lifestyles have been reflected in their looks. Writing in the
Huffington Post he concluded: "These very visible physical manifestations of stress are not simply a gift to the world's picture editors, and hair transplant surgeons like myself. They are an outward indicator of the internal difficulties of leadership in the modern world. And Obama is not the first powerful man – and it is mainly men affected in this way – whose hair has suffered and signalled the strains of his job." Writing in the
Manchester Evening News (31 October 2012), Shahmalak praised celebrities such as footballer Wayne Rooney and Calum Best who have spoken publicly about their hair transplants, and decried public criticism of them as "gloomily familiar". He wrote: "Reading the comments on various newspaper message boards, it struck me how unforgiving many people remain about a young man like Calum who decides to have hair transplant surgery. So why is wanting to save his hair so controversial? And why is the public debate still so blinkered against men like Calum, and Wayne Rooney who admit to having had treatment?" He added: "Of course there is nothing wrong with baldness. I know many men, friends of mine in fact, who are proud to be bald. They wear their shaven heads as a badge of masculinity. But choice is everything." Shahmalak is a director for UK & Northern Europe for FUE Europe. In May 2017, at the sixth FUE Europe Congress in Ankara, Turkey, he performed live surgery on a patient. Shahmalak will be hosting the 8th annual FUE Europe Conference in Manchester, including a live surgical workshop at Crown Clinic, in 2019. In May 2018, Shahmalak was appointed President of The Trichological Society, dedicated to orthodox hair science and hair specialisms, for a two-year period. ==Broadcasting==