All About Sir Elton John’s Hair Transplant Journey

Photo by David Shankbone

Elton John is one of those rare talents that outperforms everyone in his class. Who else can play piano and sing like Sir Elton, let alone record platinum albums and create music for Broadway shows and Hollywood films?

Here’s an overview of Sir Elton John’s hair transplant journey and what we can learn from the story to help clients achieve their desired look.

Early Career and Hair Loss

Clearly, young Elton John had superstar potential from his early days at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He was quick to learn piano and was hired to play at a pub at age 15.

His career was off to a quick start in his early 20s, but his hairline showed signs of accelerated aging and thinning around that same time. While photos from this period show his hair growing long, it’s clear that male pattern baldness was developing across the front of the scalp and the temples.

Even as early as 1971, John was photographed wearing hats and often appeared to hide his hairline, when significant balding seems to have occurred. His hairline had nearly diminished when he released his magnum opus Goodbye Yellow Brick Road in 1973.

First Hair Transplants and Results

By the late 1970s, Sir Elton John found himself at the top of the world with more money than he knew what to do with. However, his hairline was in bad shape. It’s no wonder he turned to hair transplant doctors to see what options were available.

Sir Elton reveals in his autobiography that he had his first hair transplant around the age of 30. By approximately 1977, hair transplant tech was limited. The only real option lay in FUT strip surgery.

The star took the chance to revitalize his hairline, but the transplant results were not satisfactory, according to his own accounts and observations from the public at the time.

That’s no surprise. Back then, hair transplants were somewhat only recently developed (two or three decades prior), meaning that the techniques were less than optimal.

Today’s doctors look back on this era and point out issues like crude extraction methods and the appearance of “plugs” in the recipient region of the scalp.

We also must account for the fact that medicines and recovery protocols were not as established or widely practiced back then, likely resulting in a higher transection rate during surgery.

In other words, newly transplanted hair made it to the destination but did not stay in long enough to take root. We don’t know much about Sir Elton John’s results at this time, but we suspect that his first transplant missed the mark for these common reasons.

Next Hair Transplant and Struggles

It’s not clear what led to Sir Elton John’s hair transplant failure the first time around. He claims that he wore a hat and wigs during this period, which may have slowed his recovery. Sir Elton struggled with addiction throughout the late 1970s and 1980s.

Drug addictions typically create toxic conditions that often lead to further hair loss.

These factors did not stop Sir Elton from attempting another hair transplant shortly after his first, hoping the second effort would pay off. Again, he opted for the FUT treatment since no other options were available, and unfortunately, he did not make much in the way of progress.

Sir Elton states that the second transplant didn’t improve the condition of his hair and may have only caused further damage due to improper healing processes. As a result, we see most images of Sir Elton John wearing wigs, hats, and other pieces that better hide his hairline throughout the 1980s.

It didn’t help that Sir Elton’s lifestyle was not conducive to healthy hair during this period. Thankfully, he checked into rehab in the 1990s, but his hair was long gone by then. Now, Sir Elton prefers to wear a custom hairpiece in public, and seems happy enough with that look in his older years.