AceShowbiz - Gordon Ramsay has explained away rumors he recently underwent a hair transplant, putting his swollen face and scalp down to an infection and an allergic reaction. The British chef was recently photographed wearing a medical-looking cap on his head and pictures of him with a puffy face, a common side effect of a hair transplant, fulled rumors he had undergone the procedure.

Ramsay has now opened up about the shocking images, revealing a recent encounter with robbers in Costa Rica, who poured gas all over him, led to a nasty scalp infection. He told reporters at a press conference, "I had petrol doused, gasoline poured all over my hair and I had a horrific infection. It certainly didn't cause my hair to be falling out."

And he admits a Christmas holiday with his family in California made his medical problems worse, adding, "I was in Napa for Christmas literally two weeks after the shoot and went horseback riding with the kids and had a horrendous allergic reaction to the horses, combined with the problems I had with my scalp, so it was just a hair nightmare..."

But the TV star is now on the road to recovery: "That all got sorted out. I can now say that I am almost 60-70 per cent recovered."