Billy Bob Thornton has had one of the most successful celebrity hair transplants of recent years.
If you look at the before and after pictures of him below he looks years younger than his 63 years.
The Hollywood actor was suffering from fairly advanced male pattern baldness in his 40s and early 50s and faced losing nearly all the hair on the top of his scalp.
The difference in his appearance now is remarkable. He has a full head of hair and his heavily thinning hairline has been almost fully restored.
He has maintained this fairly full hair cover over the last few years so it is very unlikely that he his new hair is from a wig or a weave.
He has almost certainly had several procedures – probably as many as three over several years. His surgeon is to be congratulated because he has a wonderful natural result.
Like most celebrities, Thornton is likely to have had FUE (follicular unit extraction) procedures. This is where the donor’s hair is obtained individually by removing follicles from the back and sides of the scalp.
The advantage of this method is the scarring is minimal – just some red pin pricks where the donor grafts are removed and replanted which go away after a few weeks.
Around 80% of patients at Crown Clinic now opt for FUE – a big change in recent years.
Most of the celebrity patients at Crown have opted for FUE including model Calum Best, Gogglebox star Chris Butland-Steed, the former footballer Didi Hamann and Homes Under The Hammer presenter Martin Roberts.
FUE is particularly suitable for men who like to wear their hair shaved or short because there is almost no scarring.
The other method of hair transplantation used by our surgeon Asim Shahmalak at Crown Clinic is FUT (follicular unit transplantation), also known as strip surgery. This is where a strip of skin is cut from the back or scalp and the donor grafts are then extracted from the strip by a technician under a microscope.
The advantage of this method is that all the hairs are removed in one go – so fewer are lost or damaged in the process of removal. It is also more time-effective than FUE, so it is more affordable.
Five years ago, 80% of our patients at Crown Clinic opted for FUT; this figure has dropped to around 20% and since then as FUE has become more popular.
Our most famous FUT patient at Crown Clinic is the TV doctor Christian Jessen who has had two hair transplants with Dr Shahmalak.
The main disadvantage with FUT is the scarring – patients are left with a lined scar on the scalp where the strip is removed.
This is not really visible if you wear your hair reasonably long like Dr Jessen but it is not an option if you wear your hair short or shaved.
Whatever procedure Billy Bob Thornton chose, he chose wisely because we believe that, along with Crown Clinic’s celebrity patients, he is one of the best recent examples of celebrities who have transformed their appearance and significantly boosted their careers by seeking hair transplantation.