Turkish hair transplant surgeon Dr Zafer Çetinkaya from Estenove talks to the Mirror about the recent Justin Bieber hair transplant speculation and how it is 'evident'

There's been quite a lot of speculation about Justin Bieber's hair.

Many are convinced the pop star has gotten a hair transplant. Recently in a May 2 Tik Tok post, a New York-based plastic surgeon Dr. Gary Linkov offered his opinion on the matter. Dr. Linkov analysed and compared two photos of Justin—one from 2024 posted last week by the 30-year-old Canadian singer and another from 2022 with him at the Super Bowl. By analysing and comparing the two photos taken two years apart, he deduced that Justin had gotten work done specifically a Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) to fix and fill out his hairline.

The Mirror spoke with hair transplant surgeon Dr. Zafer Çetinkaya to get his expertise on the matter among all the theorising spurred by Linkov's video.

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Dr. Zafer Çetinkaya, a hair transplant surgeon at one of the world’s leading clinics in Turkey, Estenove, also compared the same photos and came to a similar conclusion as Dr. Linkov. Based on Justin in earlier years such as 2021 as well as 2022 compared to now in 2024, a difference is "evident."

"In 2021 and 2022, it was possible to see Justin Bieber's hair thinning in many hatless photos shared on social media. In fact, lots of his fans commented on this issue, sharing photos of his hair loss," Dr. Çetinkaya told us.

"Justin used to have a very thick and dense hairline before experiencing hair loss. Preventing male pattern baldness of this kind is very difficult. He seems to have been careful not to share hatless photos for almost two years," the surgeon continued.

"When he did, he strategically covered the receding hairline by combing his long hair forward. In 2022, he was notably exhibiting what we call Norwood 2 stage baldness, with hair receding at the temples," the surgeon added. "The photo taken in 2024 with wet hair suggests that he has restored his receding hairline through hair transplantation."

Norwood stage 2 baldness is apart of classification system that details different stages of hair loss. As Dr. Çetinkaya stated, Norwood stage 2 baldness is hair receding from the temples which will create a M shaped hair line. According to the Treatment Rooms London, Norwood stage 2 is an early stage of hair loss and there are two techniques to remedy that stage: Follicular unit transplantation (FUT) and Follicular unit excision (FUE)

"Upon closer inspection, the widow's peaks seem to have disappeared. It's really difficult to discern a good hair transplant, but here it's evident because Justin Bieber's hairline doesn't have the natural curvature it used to, and it appears straight," Dr. Çetinkaya said as he went on to describe the change in Justin's hairline.

"When his hair is wet it appears that he has had dense transplantation, with grafts implanted at a density between 50 and 60 grafts per cm2 to achieve a result that almost mimics natural hair.” he concluded.

Hair transplants vary in cost depending on the person's extent of hair loss and the procedure. For Estenove (on their website) the price is around $3,500, the country Turkey ranges from $2500 to $5000, while in the UK, it ranges between £1,000 and £30,000 (as reported by the NHS).

International Society for Hair Restoration Surgery (or ISHRS) in their 2022 Practice Census Report estimated that 82.5% of males have gotten hair restoration surgical procedures.