ROME, Dec 30 (AFP) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who prompted speculation about his hair when seen sporting a bandana earlier this year, assured his public Thursday his new hair was coming up nicely following a transplant.
Asked by a journalist about his mysterious disappearances to get the transplant and facial plastic surgery, Berlusconi said: "My hair is growing marvellously."
"With the progress of surgery and science, anyone able to do so really ought to get this kind of treatment," advised the prime minister, whose hair has been growing back in visibly.
Berlusconi told an end-of-year press conference he had felt he ought to have the treatment because he represented the nation on the world's stage.
"It has also to do with inner youth," the 68-year-old Italian said: "I feel like a man of 40 or 42."
"I can also do the 100 metres in excellent time," Berlusconi said, without giving away what his time was.
The mystery of Berlusconi's rapper-style bandana was explained in August when plastic surgeon Piero Rosati told the press he had performed a hair transplant operation on the prime minister.
Berlusconi wore the unusual headgear when welcoming British Prime Minister Tony Blair to his palatial vacation residence in Sardinia.
Rosati said he had transplanted some of Berlusconi's own hair -- from one part of his head to the other -- and that it would be several months before the full results of the operation were noticeable.
At the beginning of this year Berlusconi also underwent facial plastic surgery, which he described as a slight readjustment to his eyelids.
12/30/2004 17:32 GMT - AFP