The celebrity hair transplant map

Which celebrities have had hair transplants?

Explore who's done it — and who might have — on an interactive world map. Tap any face for their story.

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Celebrities

Countries

Actors

A short history of celebrity hair transplants

1950s

The invention

In the 1950s, Dr. Norman Orentreich performed the first hair transplant in North America, using 4mm punch “plugs” to treat baldness. He also introduced “donor dominance” — the observation that follicles taken from the back of the scalp keep growing when moved elsewhere — an insight that underpins all modern hair restoration.

1972

The earliest case in the database

William Proxmire, a US senator, is the oldest documented case — his 1972 transplant even shows up in his published tax return. An era of near-total secrecy, when the procedure was still rough and rarely discussed.

1976

A rock legend, decades early

Elton John — the singer and pianist who became one of the biggest-selling artists of all time — had his transplant in the mid-1970s, among the earliest in the database. He later confirmed it in his autobiography.

1993

The strip-surgery era

Joe Buck, the sportscaster who has called the World Series and the Super Bowl, had a transplant in 1993 using FUT — Follicular Unit Transplantation, in which a strip of scalp is removed and divided into grafts. He has spoken candidly about it for three decades.

2003

A head of government goes public

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's longest-serving post-war prime minister, was open about his transplant — one of the most senior public figures ever documented.

2010–11

Football changes the conversation

Around 2010 a cluster of football figures appears — Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and manager José Mourinho. Then, in 2011, Wayne Rooney, England's record goalscorer, confirms his transplant on social media, a turning point for openness.

2011 →

FUE takes over

The first FUE cases appear in the database from 2011 (Wayne Rooney, Jimmy Carr). FUE — Follicular Unit Extraction — removes individual hair follicles one by one from the back of the head and reimplants them where hair is thinning. Because no strip of skin is cut, it leaves no linear scar — and it soon overtakes the older strip technique.

2020s

Documented in public

Recent cases are discussed — and even documented — openly: WWE star and actor John Cena shaved his head before a second procedure, across more than 21 hours of surgery over two FUE sessions.

Stories from the database

“Just to confirm to all my followers…”

Wayne Rooney — England's record goalscorer — announced it to millions of followers in a single June 2011 tweet: “Just to confirm to all my followers I have had a hair transplant. I was going bald at 25 why not. I'm delighted with the result.” A top athlete at his peak admitting it openly marked the moment the subject went mainstream.

The twenty-one-hour transplant

WWE star and actor John Cena was unusually open about his two FUE procedures with Dr. Ken Anderson at the Anderson Center for Hair in Georgia — more than 21 hours in surgery — shaving his head ahead of the second and calling the result life-changing: “It totally changed my life.”

From strip surgery to FUE

The earliest documented technique is FUT (Joe Buck, 1993), where a strip of scalp is removed and divided into grafts — still used as late as 2010, when the actor James Nesbitt had two procedures. The first FUE cases — harvesting individual follicles instead — appear in 2011 and dominate afterwards, a technical shift across three decades.

A head of government went public

Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's longest-serving post-war prime minister and a media tycoon, was open about his 2003 transplant — the change in his appearance drawing widespread coverage, a remarkable thing for a head of government.

From a senator to a drag queen

The database spans half a century and very different public figures: a US senator (William Proxmire, whose 1972 transplant appears in his published tax return — $2,758, claimed as a medical expense) and a drag performer (Bob the Drag Queen, 2025).

One of the earliest, and one of the most open

Elton John's mid-1970s transplant is among the earliest documented — and the singer later confirmed it in his autobiography Me, decades after the era's secrecy.

The 2010 sports moment

Around 2010, footballers Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, manager José Mourinho and golfer Tiger Woods all appear in the database. Ryan Giggs captured the era's anxiety — he admitted he'd become paranoid about his thinning hair, especially when games were televised or in the rain.

The comb-over that crossed a border

In 2007, Norwegian politician Øystein Hedstrøm crossed the border to Sweden for a transplant, and afterwards joked that he no longer had “the typical comb over” — a rare documented case of travelling abroad for treatment.

These stories describe the cases currently documented in the Clinic Reccy database and should not be interpreted as estimates of how common hair transplantation is among celebrities.

Where celebrities got their transplants

A handful of clinics come up again and again in the reporting around celebrity transplants — most famously Istanbul's hair-transplant clinics, alongside London's Harley Street and specialist surgeons in the United States.

Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Babel and Júlio César are all reported to have visited Dr. Cinik Clinic in Istanbul.
Ronaldinho went to Cosmedica Clinic, also in Istanbul.
Wayne Rooney had his transplant at the Harley Street Hair Clinic in London.
John Cena's two FUE procedures were performed by Dr. Ken Anderson at the Anderson Center for Hair in Atlanta, Georgia.