We’ve come a long way in transparency around cosmetic procedures, with A-listers talking candidly about everything from their love of Botox to their facelifts. But hair transplant surgery still seems to be the exception to the trend. While it’s incredibly popular, with spin-offs like eyebrow transplants and beard transplants, few celebrities are up-front about it—despite hair loss being top of mind among both men and women and the procedure having a high satisfaction rate among patients.
We get it: everyone, particularly those in the spotlight, would like the world to think that their thick, full head of hair is entirely natural. But conditions like genetic hair loss and alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder, can often get in the way of that reality, and hair transplants can offer a natural-looking (and long-lasting) alternative to PRP for hair loss and other treatments.
With that, these are the celebrities who’ve revealed they underwent a hair transplant procedure—some, happily; others, not so much.
Joel McHale
The actor and comedian has been forthcoming about his hair transplants for years—even going so far as to shout his doctor out in a podcast last year. “They’re worth it. Thank you, Dr. Mohebi,” he said, referring to board-certified hair restoration surgeon Dr. Parsa Mohebi. He credited the procedure for his youthful appearance too. After being told that he appears to be 30 years old (McHale is 52) on another podcast, he replied: “Well, it’s also the hair transplants that helped too. This is the hair I always wanted.”
Tyga
If you want your celebrity hair transplants with a side of drama, look no further than Tyga. Nicki Minaj called him out in a tweet back in 2018, noting that her ex, Safaree, and the rapper shared the same hair restoration surgeon. “Tyga shit ain’t fall back out!!!! Y’all went to the same doctor!!! Yours fell out cuz GOD DONT LIKE UGLY!!!!!!” she wrote.
Unfazed, Tyga replied by sharing the contact info of his doctor, Los Angeles–based board-certified hair restoration surgeon Dr. Craig Ziering, on Twitter, with the caption “Tellem Tyga sent you.” (It’s since been deleted.) And for his part, Minaj’s ex corrected the record by tweeting that he went to a different doctor—but he and Tyga did get their hair transplants on the same day.
Chrissy Tiegen
The model has always been candid about her various cosmetic procedures, which include buccal fat removal and breast augmentation (and the subsequent implant removal). So it wasn’t all that surprising when Tiegen shared details of her eyebrow transplant on social media back in 2021.
In the caption of one story she shared, she wrote: “I never wear makeup so I was excited for this eyebrow transplant surgery where they take hairs from the back of your head!!” She went on to tag Beverly Hills, California, board-certified facial plastic surgeons Dr. Jason Diamond and Dr. Jason Champagne, crediting them for their work.
Sam Smith
The singer revealed their hair transplant in a video for Vogue back in 2020, during which they walked viewers through their beauty routine. They called their hair “a touchy place” for them, noting that they hadn’t actually talked about it before. “I don’t actually feel like I have anything to hide,” they said. “But I was losing my hair, here, about two years ago.”
Smith’s hairstylist recommended that they look into getting a hair transplant, and they ended up traveling to Ireland for the procedure. The trek was worth it. “How stunning is it? It’s nice to have hair,” they said. “But also, if I was bald, I would still own it too. Because bald is beautiful.”
Elton John
In his autobiography, the legendary singer shared the details of his two hair transplant surgeries after he began to lose his hair in the early 1970s—noting that he looked like Shrek without it. He was told it would be a simple, easy procedure, which he ultimately did not agree with. “Both times it hurt like hell,” he wrote in Me: Elton John. “The sound of the hair being removed was disconcertingly like a rabbit gnawing its way through a carrot.”
He described himself as “reeling in agony” after his first procedure, with the pain getting much worse after he hit his head getting into his car. Despite the investment, he ended up repeating the procedure after the first failed to take.
Marc Jacobs
Fashion designer Marc Jacobs—who’s been delightfully transparent about his facelift—was talking openly about his hair transplant as far back as 2010. “I couldn’t sleep on my side, and I couldn’t put my head back,” he recalled in an interview with since folded Details magazine shortly after the surgery.
More than a decade later, he still mentions it in interviews. “Once when I went to an event with a baseball cap, and people asked me, ‘Why are you wearing a baseball cap?’ And I said, ‘Well, I just had a hair transplant.’ People were amused and amazed that I answered. [Laughs.] But, honestly, what’s the difference?” he recounted to Vogue.
Cheyenne Jackson
In a since deleted Instagram post from 2020, actor Cheyenne Jackson revealed that he’d had five separate hair transplants since 2006, to address his hair loss—and shared a photo of the resultant scar, writing: “No, this gnarly scar across my head isn’t from lifesaving brain surgery, nor did I narrowly survive a shark attack. It’s worse. (At least in Hollywood….) I had hair transplant surgery. 5 of them, to be exact, over 14 years.”
He then went into detail about how he began to lose his hair in his early 20s and the emotional repercussions, which led him to get his first hair transplant surgery when he was 28. “I hid it from everyone. It was painful & expensive but I started to feel better about myself,” he wrote.
He concluded his caption with his goal: to inspire someone else to share a secret or reveal a scar. “”I’m trying to teach my kids to accept themselves & to be proud of who they are, & to put value on things that are IMPORTANT & REAL so as their father, the example should start with me,” he wrote.
Landon Donovan
Rather than trying to hide his shaved head, soccer star turned TV broadcaster Landon Donovan displayed his hair transplant on national television when he was commentating for Fox Sports—leading fellow former pro soccer player Mike Magee to text him about it (and then share that text in a tweet). “Had a hair transplant procedure two weeks ago and was told it wouldn’t show up on camera,” Donovan wrote before giving Magee the go-ahead to share their exchange.
Then, in his own tweet, Donovan shared an old photo of himself with a full head of hair, alongside the caption: “Thanks for putting me on blast Mo ☠️🤣 Just trying to get back to my glory days.”
