If you are wondering if Prince Harry had a hair transplant, you are not the only one. As recent photos posted by the royal family member on his wellness website, BetterUp [1], show him with a full head of hair, the debate around his hair journey has been rekindled [2].
Since he has lived his entire life in the eye of the press, the ebbs and flows of Harry’s hair were easy to notice. There were times when his genetically inherited male pattern baldness was evident, but also times when his hair loss seemed to diminish significantly. However, in Prince Harry’s case, it is hard to tell whether his better hair days are due to a hair transplant, hair growth treatments or cosmetics such as hair thickening spray.
While the prince himself never commented on this issue, the media has speculated that he had a frontal hair restoration surgery around 2017, placing him among numerous other celebrities who may have had hair transplants.
Keep reading this article to find out all you need to know about:
Henry Charles Albert David, commonly known as Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is the youngest son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales. Born in 1984, he graduated Eton College and pursued army officer training at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst. Harry served 10 years in the British Army before marrying American actress Meghan Markle and starting a family.
In 2020, Prince Harry and his wife were at the centre of major controversy, as they announced their decision to step down from their role as senior members of the Royal Family and move to the U.S. Since then, they have started several businesses and are involved in a variety of charities and humanitarian activities.
Rumours about Prince Harry’s hair transplant started in 2017, as after a period of visible hairline receding, he appeared in public sporting fuller and darker frontal hair. These speculations resurfaced after 2021, when he started to display a significant bald spot on the crown, but much more limited frontal balding.
In 2021, after analysing recent photos of Prince Harry, a hair transplant influencer declared for The Telegraph [3] that:
“Those sorts of patterns can be similar to men who have recently had a hair transplant procedure, where the hair is first shaved off and then grows in. It’s a stage that men who have had this treatment get to before the hair matures. It wouldn’t surprise me if, in six to eight months, Harry looks very different.”
However, this prediction was not confirmed in 2023, as the Prince’s hair shedding continued. While he may have had a hair transplant, it is just as likely that he used one or a combination of the following to achieve this result:
The theory that Prince Harry might be using non-surgical methods to improve the appearance of his hair in the public eye is supported by discrepancies pointed out in the media between recent photos posted to his website and the way he looked in public appearances only days later [1].
Prince Harry comes from a long line of men who experienced androgenetic alopecia (male pattern baldness). This common condition is influenced by a number of factors, such as age, genetics and hormones and it affects 85% of men during their lifetime [4X]. What happens is that when your body produces an excess of a male hormone called dihydrotestosterone (DHT), it binds to receptors on your hair follicles, making them decrease in size and stop producing hair.
Both King Charles III, Harry’s father, and his brother, Prince William, exhibit typical signs of male pattern baldness, and Harry appears to be facing the same problem. His temple hair loss and M-shaped hairline, alongside his thinning crown, are tell-tale signs of androgenetic alopecia. Of course, just because your dad is bald, it doesn’t always mean you will go bald as well, but it does make you more likely to do so.
While male pattern baldness can sometimes be treated with medication, if that proves ineffective, a hair transplant can be a very good alternative.
Here is how Prince Harry’s hair has evolved over time, from his youth until the present day:
As a teenager and in his early 20s, Prince Harry had a head full of thick, rebellious, ginger hair. He showed no signs of hair shedding, his hairline was straight and his temple hair aligned with the end of his eyebrows. This is quite common for young men of this age, as the first signs of androgenetic alopecia often appear around the age of 30 (though they can become apparent as early as the onset of puberty) [5].
Around the age of 25, Harry started to show the first signs of a receding hairline. It was no longer straight, but somewhat curved, as his hair started thinning at the temples, creating sharper corners.
The Prince’s uneven hairline became more and more visible between 2012 and 2014, and his temple hair was no longer aligned with his eyebrows, but had receded towards the sides of his head. While it may seem like Harry’s hairline had matured, he had actually developed an M-shaped hairline, typical for male pattern baldness. He had also started to develop a thinning spot on the crown.
Harry’s hair shedding only got worse by 2016, hinting at the fact that the royal would soon be balding at the front and crown unless he received treatment.
Then, in 2017, at age 33, Harry was photographed with significantly fuller frontal hair and a straighter hairline than he had had in the previous few years.
However, these photographs may have been deceiving, since the combination of flattering lighting, the prince’s natural curly hair texture and cosmetic products may have effectively hidden his hair thinning. Here are two photographs from the same 2017 photo shoot which paint two different pictures of the Prince’s locks:
While the first photo makes the prince’s hairline seem straighter and his hair seem fuller, the second emphasises his temple recession and his thinning at the crown.
Between 2018 and 2020, Harry’s hairline did indeed look straighter and more natural and his hair shedding appeared less evident in official photos taken during public appearances.
Other images, however, taken from less flattering angles, show the Prince’s hair was still progressively falling out.
Photographs from 2022-2023 show Harry’s balding had become more advanced on the crown, while the front of his head seemed to have experienced significantly less hair loss. This is not a common pattern in androgenetic alopecia, which is why some media sources took it as a sign that the Prince’s frontal hair had been transplanted.
This is a plausible theory, as hair grafts are not easily affected by androgenetic alopecia. However, there are different patterns of male pattern baldness [7] and in some men, the crown is more severely affected than the frontal area.
If Prince Harry did, in fact, get a hair transplant, it is speculated that he may have had a FUT-type procedure. While this option is less popular in recent years than the more modern FUE type surgery, due to more visible scarring, profile photos of Harry reveal what some internet commenters describe as a potential FUT scar.
While it is debatable whether a scar is actually present in the photo above, the area does seem to have thinning consistent with a hair transplant donor area.
Judging by appearance alone, Prince Harry’s presumed hair transplant would have only covered his hairline and frontal area. According to the hair graft calculator, he may have had a 1500-2000 graft hair transplant.
However, since Harry was already developing a bald spot on his crown prior to this alleged hair restoration surgery, he seemed to experience Norwood stage 3 pattern baldness. This means he would likely have been advised for a more substantial hair transplant, which would also have covered the top of his head. This is especially true since he has a family history of advanced androgenetic alopecia, which means his hair loss could be expected to progress.
It is possible that Harry had planned to get a second hair transplant for his crown. However, if this is true, he has likely changed his mind about it, since the hair loss on the top of his head is now extensive and he may not have enough healthy donor hair left to cover it.
If Prince Harry has indeed got a hairline and frontal scalp hair transplant, he is likely to have done so at one of the best hair transplant clinics in the UK. So it is fair to assume that he would have paid a high-end transplant cost.
The highest hair transplant cost in the UK for 1500 hair grafts is £15,000, so we may assume that the prince may have paid something close to this amount. However, had he had an average-priced procedure, he might have only paid around £5000 for it.
Had Prince Harry got his hair restoration surgery after moving to California, assuming he had still received 1500 grafts, the Los Angeles hair transplant cost would have been around $15,000 at a high-end clinic, so not much different from the UK. But the cost of an average hair restoration surgery would have been significantly higher than in the UK: over $11,500.
If you are considering getting a hair transplant, you would be in good company, as the number of movie stars, artists and footballers who had hair transplant transformations is increasing every day. Here are some of the famous people who have openly discussed having had this procedure:
And they’re not the only ones. Regular people have been increasingly choosing hair restoration surgery as well, because unlike medication, hair transplants are permanent. That makes them a good investment in your appearance for years to come.
Since advancements in technology have made surgical hair restoration more effective, safer and more affordable, it has never been so easy to get a natural looking hair transplant. And since FUE surgery leaves almost no scarring, you can now get a hair transplant without anyone knowing. The hair restoration surgery success rates of the Wimpole Clinic is 97-100% and the before and after hair transplant results speak for themselves.
So book a consultation now with one of our world-class surgeons and find out whether you would make a good candidate for a hair restoration procedure that might put an end to all your hair loss problems.
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