Bradly Cooper is the latest Hollywood star to face speculation that he has had a hair transplant.
With some stars, it is very clear whether they have gone under the knife – either for an FUE (follicular unit extraction) procedure or the more traditional method of FUT (follicular unit transplantation).
With Cooper, the results are less conclusive. Certainly, at 44, he is the right age to need help with his hair. Around half of men have experienced some kind of male pattern baldness at that age. That certainly seems to be the case with Cooper.
Lots of men temporarily thicken their hair when they are in the public eye by using spray-on thickeners. Wayne Rooney did this for years, particularly before big televised football games, to disguise his aggressive male pattern baldness. Cooper may be using the same trick.
By far the most popular hair transplant procedure with celebrities such as Bradley Cooper is the FUE transplant. This is where individual follicles are removed from the back and side of the scalp and replanted in the balding area. The advantage of this method is that the scarring is minimal.
Coronation Street star Jack P Shepherd, 31, who plays David Platt in the soap, had an FUE transplant with Crown Clinic’s surgeon Asim Shahmalak shortly before Christmas to fill out the balding areas at the front of his scalp.
Other celebrity hair transplant FUE patients at Crown Clinic include model Calum Best, TV doctor Christian Jessen, Gogglebox star Chris Butland-Steed and Homes Under The Hammer presenter Martin Roberts.
Around 80% of our patients at Crown Clinic choose FUE. Around 20% still opt for the more traditional FUT methods where a strip of skin is removed from the back or side of the scalp to harvest the donor’s hair. The scarring for this method is more visible but not particularly so if you like to wear your hair slightly longer. The TV doctor Christian Jessen has had two FUT transplants with Dr Shahmalak.
So do we think that Bradley Cooper has benefitted from one of these methods?
It is impossible to say.
But the star is to be congratulated on his hair which looks terrific.