Superstar Harry Styles is known for his luscious locks.
So when she debuted a haircut last year, she surprised many of her fans. One even said it “hurt me emotionally, mentally and physically.”
Now, a leading plastic surgeon claims it wasn’t a style choice. Dr. Gary Linkov believes Styles, 30, underwent a hair transplant that required him to shave his head.
Dr. Linkov said the fashion icon had noticeably thinning hair at the corners of her hairline before her dramatic haircut in November 2023, which had become less dramatic as her hair grew back this year. anus.
The procedure that Dr. Linkov speculates Harry underwent involves removing hairs from one part of his head and inserting them into small incisions where baldness occurs to stimulate new hair growth.
New York City-based Dr. Gary Linkov pointed to these photos from 2021 and 2024 as possible signs that Harry Styles had undergone a minor hair transplant.
The shot above from Dr. Linkov’s YouTube video shows Harry at age 16 in 2010. The plastic surgeon said the singer showed no signs of baldness.
Analyzing photos of Harry over the years in one of his last youtube videosDr Linkov, who has performed hundreds of hair transplants, said Harry rose to fame with a full head of hair in 2010, at the age of 16.
Grading him on the Norwood scale, a scale used to measure male pattern baldness, Dr. Linkov said the singer was in stage 1, meaning he showed no signs of hair loss or receding hairline. hair.
But two years later, her hair was at stage 2 (the slight recession of the hairline around the temples) and she appeared to have a widow’s peak in the front center of the hairline. The star also showed some recession at the corners of her hairline.
Dr. Linkov also noted that Harry’s temples had begun to recede at this time and the corners of his hairline began to move further away from his eyebrows.
He said: ‘You can see that Harry’s temples have started to recede laterally. His temples are now farther apart and further away from his eyebrows than they were a few years ago.
In 2012, at the age of 18, Harry’s hairline was beginning to recede slightly, placing him at stage 2 on the Norwood scale.
Dr. Linkov said in 2012 that Harry appeared to have a widow’s peak.
Dr. Linkov said in 2012 that Harry’s hair was also starting to recede at the corners of his hairline.
The plastic surgeon went on to say that he didn’t see a difference in Harry’s hairline again until 2019, when the singer was 25 years old. He had now progressed to stage 3 on the Norwood scale, which is the first sign of clinically significant baldness.
At this stage, the hairline recedes deeper into the temples forming an M, U or V shape.
Dr Linkov said the recession was more prominent on Harry’s left side, which put him in the minority, as most people who experience baldness have more recession on the right side.
The doctor added that Harry still had quite thick hair.
However, in November 2023, at the age of 29, Harry debuted his shaved head. And while some suggested the haircut was in response to a song by his ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift, Dr. Linkov said he believes that’s when Harry underwent his hair transplant.
It is in the winter of 2024 when Dr. Linkov points out what appears to be new growth from the left corner of Harry’s hairline.
He said, “It looks angular.” It appears less set back and appears more rounded and more symmetrical with its right side. However, his temples and center hairline have not changed.
“So my hypothesis is that Harry’s shaving a year earlier was actually related to a possible hair transplant to balance out the contour of his hairline.”
Compared to just two years earlier, in 2012, Harry’s hairline was receding from his eyebrows.
In 2019, Dr. Linkov said that Harry’s hair recession had progressed to stage 3 on the Norwood Hair Loss Scale.
He added: “It was a subtle hair transplant…probably involving removal (of hair) from the back of the head.”
The plastic surgeon explained that Harry had likely undergone follicular unit extraction, or FUE, which involves moving individual hair follicles from the back of the head to places where the hair is thinning.
With an FUE, the area from which hair follicles (tube-like structures that facilitate hair growth) are transplanted is shaved to more easily allow for the extraction of hundreds to thousands of follicles.
However, Dr. Linkov suggested that Harry’s procedure was probably minor, with only 200 to 500 follicles transplanted.
Those follicles are then transplanted to the bald area.
An FUE is usually performed in several two- to four-hour sessions over several days. It is considered a minor procedure and patients can return home and continue as normal after each session.
During the procedure, doctors use a micro-drilling tool to remove the follicles and make small incisions with a needle where the follicles will be placed. The transplanted follicles are then inserted into those incisions.
Harry is famous for having luscious hair, and is even mentioned in a song by his ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift (both pictured above in 2012).
The area where the hair was removed may bleed for about a week after the procedure and may scab over.
FUE transplants can also leave small scars in the areas where the hair follicles were removed, although they are usually not noticeable.
The goal of an FUE transplant is to cause the transplanted follicles to grow new hair in the previously bald area. After the procedure, the follicles will be nourished by blood vessels, which will stimulate new hair growth.
Harry has not commented publicly on his possible hair transplant and sources say he did not undergo the transplant.
An FUE transplant can cost between $4,000 and $15,000 depending on the amount of hair transplanted.
Harry is not alone with his early hair loss.
By age 35, two-thirds of American men experience baldness, estimates from the American Hair Loss Association suggest.
And it is estimated that 230,000 people will undergo hair transplants in the United States each year until 2027, and the majority of patients will be men.
By age 50, this figure increases to approximately 85 percent of men experiencing significant weight loss.