Lloyd's Now Offering Chest Hair Coverage

"We were contacted by an agent of a celebrity. I think he's an American celebrity, but we weren't told of his identify," Ms. Shield said. "Basically, the agent came to us and asked, ?Would you insure someone's chest hair?' Up until that point, we didn't have a policy specifically for that, so we put this together." The coverage was drawn up by Jonathan Thomas, from Lloyd's managing agency Creechurch, Ms. Shield said.

The specific coverage amount would vary depending on each individual, the spokesperson explained. "Obviously," Ms. Shield pointed out, "it would depend on the person, that person's lifestyle, and how important their chest hair is to their career." In further explaining the coverage, Ms. Shield said that singer Tom Jones, for example, would probably get a high coverage amount.

To be able to claim, she also explained, the policyholder must have lost 85 percent of his chest hair in an accident, and that loss would have to be verified by an independent panel of two doctors.

Like any other insurance coverage, there is an array of exclusions. "Some of the things that are excluded are hair losses from nuclear contamination, civil war, terrorism, war, invasion or revolution," Ms. Shield said. "And there are other things like, if you are a fire-eater or if you participate in dangerous sports like hunting, hang-gliding, skin-diving and such, you wouldn't qualify for the coverage."