John Cena, 48, wrestled with hair loss for years, but this cosmetic procedure gave him his confidence back.
In an interview with People published on Wednesday, Cena spoke about retiring from the WWE and the realities of aging, including his experience with hair loss.
“As I was trying to hide my hair loss, the audience was bringing it to light,” he told People. “I saw their signs that said ‘The bald John Cena.'”
The 17-time WWE world champion said the public scrutiny around his appearance “pushed him” to find ways to deal with hair loss.
“I now have a routine: red-light therapy, minoxidil, vitamins, shampoo, conditioner — and I also got a hair transplant last November,” Cena said. “I hate the fact that if there wasn’t so much shame around it, I’d have gotten it done 10 years ago.”
The wrestler said he thought he was “alone” in his struggle, but eventually realized how common hair loss was among men.
The procedure was simple, Cena said: “They don’t do anything except move your hair, one by one, from one area to another.”
He added that he isn’t embarrassed to talk about his hair transplant experience.
“If somebody’s going to sweat me for that, I don’t think there’s any shame in that,” Cena said. “It completely changed the course of my life.”
As he looks beyond wrestling, he believes a fuller hairline might help him land a broader range of roles.
“A different hairstyle can identify a part that can get me more work, do the thing I love to do,” he added.
A representative for Cena did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.
Male pattern baldness, or androgenetic alopecia, accounts for over 95% of hair loss in men, per data from the American Hair Loss Association, a nonprofit organization. Around 25% of men with male pattern baldness start losing hair before age 21.
There are two FDA-approved medications for male pattern baldness, while other treatment options include laser therapy, platelet-rich plasma, and hair transplants.
In recent years, Turkey has made a name for itself as the go-to destination for hair transplant surgery. Around one million people traveled to Turkey for hair transplants in 2022, the head of the Turkish Health Tourism Association told local news agency Anadolu.
There’s also been a trend of white-collar men in the US spending thousands on plastic surgery, fillers, and other self-care routines to look good, especially at work.
Data from the 2023 American Society of Plastic Surgeons procedural statistics report showed that men accounted for 6% of cosmetic procedures overall. In 2023, facelifts among men rose by 17%, nose reshaping increased by 10%, and eyelid surgery increased by 9% compared to the previous year.
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