In this article, we will tell you about the hair transplant journey of successful athlete Ben Stokes. We live in an extremely visual society where, in modern media, appearance—a specific form of appearance that is youthful, symmetrical, and from a very specific palette of natural skin tones—is everything and drives huge industries in beauty and fashion. It is no wonder, then, that hair loss can be incredibly traumatic for men, especially since one of the few options you have to restore or maintain your hair is shrouded in an enormous amount of stigma. Granted, no one is likely to lose the ability to find work or housing because they have spent on a hair transplant, but suffering from hair loss is almost as universal an experience for those assigned male at birth as it is for depression, with a significant percentage of men experiencing at least some degree of male pattern baldness, so quite nearly half of all people who suffer hair loss or thinning hair are men. In recent news, a public figure flew to Turkey and had hair transplant surgery, which is clearly an action informed by personal opinions, beliefs, and aesthetic preferences. The purpose of this essay is not to speculate upon motivations, but instead to discuss the possible outcomes of this action in the public sphere. A cultural obsession with appearances and how they make us feel is at the heart of a modern mental health crisis among young men. Because trying to reach the bottom of the two interconnected phenomena is beyond the scope of this paper and this module generally, we can return to this public figure and consider engagements with this aspect of British masculinity and how individual actions may resonate and percolate within a wider culture.
It is another prevalent attitude to reject hair restoration surgery or any other cosmetic surgery as shallow; in the case where the individual has had one or is considering having one, it is frequently assumed that people want to avert, citing concerns about hygiene, what will happen to it if they can no longer afford the upkeep, or the compromise with themselves over changing a part of them that does not sit well. In this chapter, the primary research question of the dissertation will be clarified. The main focus of the study will explore the impact of choosing to have hair transplant surgery and the potential positive inroads this action may, consciously or otherwise, make with reference to mental health. More broadly, this chapter will also consider what the stigma around hair loss and the cognitive dissonance of elective cosmetic surgery may reveal about cultural gender norms. I aim to begin the challenging, yet incredibly necessary, work of disintegrating this barrier and discussing the relationship between appearance and mental health. At the center of this discussion will be the choice to take part in hair transplant surgery, and why a decision like this, however specific, will always rest heavily on masculinity. I seek to demonstrate how actions may open a popular dialogue around the importance of appearance when it comes to self-image and self-worth, and show the necessity for that conversation to permeate our collective mindset.
Ben and his wife Clare decided to have hair transplant surgery in 2020. He explains that he first noticed his hair had started thinning around the age of 22. The desire to have a hair restoration was then compounded by the public-facing role he has as a professional cricketer. “I noticed my hair thinning further around the temple area after my shoulder operation and the length of time I spent wearing a hat and batting helmet while making my return during the summer of 2018,” says Stokes. “Being in the public eye, I became a target for a lot of social media nasty comments from people passing judgment on my hairline. I have always been someone who is comfortable in my own skin and with my own experiences in life, but there were a few occasions when I would look at a photo and be paranoid about what my hairline looked like, and apart from being grateful I wear a hat when playing, it shouldn’t matter what my hair looks like. Trying to deal with negativity from trolls can take its toll on a person.”
As well as the social side of things, Ben says that the scrutiny faced by all elite athletes made the decision to look into hair restoration surgery, on both his and his wife’s part, in the end, an easy one. “Of course, the primary reason to even attempt to split opinion and risk having both my wife’s and my head sliced open is because of my image,” he says. “When you play sport, you want to be known for what you do or what you achieve. Every sportsperson wants to be recognized for how good they are, but today they are recognized first and foremost by what they look like. I have spoken about this openly on more than one occasion. What is important to me is how my family and close friends see me. I don’t care what any of your followers think of the way I look; it’s not important. But actually, it is, and it does bother me. It reinforces the reasons why I have been thinking about a hair transplant for over a year but have never been comfortable sharing those thoughts.” Ben finishes that part by saying that “If I can help stop the stigma of getting help for something that causes nothing but a drain on your mental wellness, then I will be happy. No doubt there will still be those keyboard warriors out there who will give me stick for what I have done, but I’m also sure that for some, I will contribute to starting the conversation.”
In 2018, Ben Stokes invited a crew to watch his hair transplant procedure at a clinic for a series. This operation, as we will discuss later, was a follicular FUE transplant. An FUE hair transplant is conducted by purifying a small area of skin in the scalp and removing individual follicular units, leaving the area they are taken from extremely difficult to detect with the naked eye. This is particularly useful for high-performance athletes like Stokes, as due to the advanced healing process the patient would have gone through, even when teammates are wearing shirts with short hair, it is unlikely that they would be able to see where the donor hair was taken from just a couple of days before on the TV cameras.
An FUE transplant operation starts with a thorough assessment of the patient by a trichologist to ascertain if the patient’s scalp is an ideal candidate. Demonstrable healthy donor hair is required, and it would be better not to over-harvest from a patient’s donor area. An estimate of how many grafts could be transplanted and exactly where and in what hairline design would be required is given. Many patients are excellent prospects for this method; in fact, even patients with modest hair loss could benefit from a more natural result on a smaller subcutaneous area. FUE transplants are about reinvesting in your own healthy scalp and hair. It is important to remember that obviously no client or customer of any business has to show their reasons for a choice they make, whether they want to or not, and it would be hopelessly out of line to even grant anything like that.
Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) hair transplant in Turkey is a minimally invasive form of hair restoration. The technique does not require the patient to undergo major surgery and has a quicker turnaround time with minimal pain or discomfort. The procedure extracts hair follicles one by one from the healthy hair growth areas of the scalp, eliminating the need for a strip of hair to be removed, as was the case in older FUT hair restoration techniques. In FUT, hair follicles are removed from the back and sides of the scalp after a strip of skin is cut down. This is then divided into hair grafts that are transplanted into the area of the head where hair growth is required. While FUT results in a linear scar along the back of the patient’s scalp, FUE offers significantly less scarring after the operation and has a quicker recovery time.
FUE is a precise job that requires a great deal of experience from the surgeon. The technique has become popular as it leaves practically no scarring after the surgery compared to traditional hair restoration surgeries. The results of FUE treatment are becoming gradually more natural and advanced as it continues to be developed, compelling individuals from all walks of life to undergo the treatment to address their hair loss concerns. Overall, this section aims to provide readers with a basic understanding of what FUE is and what the specific technique involves, thus educating the audience and reducing the stigma associated with hair transplant in Turkey and aesthetic treatments.
The team transplanted around 1,800 grafts. This is a number that you will often hear in relation to hair transplants or hair restorations. A graft is hair that is removed from one part of the scalp and transplanted to another. The term comes from gardening, and it is how plants, including hair, are measured. The interesting thing about a number like 1,800 grafts is that it’s enough to make a noticeable impact on a patient’s hair, but it’s not so many that it will cover an entire area. Generally, it is estimated that 1,800 grafts are usually enough to cover about half of the top of someone’s head. At 1,800, there is a trade-off. If patients want to cover as much of their head as possible to get the most density, they may want to prioritize one spot of their head. This is actually what most patients do, even over several sessions.
Initially, therefore, 1,800 grafts may not be enough to provide a very dense look all over. Think of it like sprinkling the top of the scalp with seeds. When the seeds are in the same place, there will seem to be more of them, and the scalp will be less visible. A hair transplant is performed like in normal hair growth, where the hairs fall out and are regrown. It takes several months for the final growth results to be visible as the transplanted hairs begin to grow and then fill in over time. In the longer term, as the transplanted hairs grow, it is possible for you to eventually have a much denser, more covered look on the entire scalp. However, don’t expect as much density overall as someone with the same number of grafts who focuses on transplanting hairs in a smaller part of their scalp.
There are many motivations behind the decision to undergo a hair transplant, and the reasons for investing in oneself are often complex. At the root, there is frequently an element of personal choice, whether it be the desire for a more refined public image, increased self-confidence, or simply a personal aversion to being bald. Public image is, for most people, intrinsically tied to identity. This is not least for celebrities, who are held to such a high standard by their audience that an insecurity can become a considerable weight that they feel they carry, whether the insecurity is real or perceived. For professional athletes, who is Ben Stokes dedicate their lives to developing peak physical bodies through intense training, interest in their personal appearances can become a stronger stigma: the chance to scrutinize and shame the ‘ugly’ pro athlete. Furthermore, the pursuit of self-improvement, while generally encouraged by society, is often less tolerated in men on account of misogynistic stereotypes grounded in emotional repression. Whether the fear that closely cropped hair might make a man look less masculine is logical is almost beside the point – for athletes who devote their lives to their masculine persona, maintaining a suitable public image in their sport is critical.
Alopecia can be a psychologically difficult process to come to terms with, as much as any other body disfigurement. Baldness can be an increasingly weighty pressure when amplified by the encircling spotlight of the effects of a professional career in the public eye. It is becoming increasingly acknowledged that pervasive generalized anxiety is seriously damaging to professional athletes. Many people who lose their hair through conditions beyond their control are inhibited by feelings of shame and self-doubt in ways that feelings about hair can often be too convenient to dismiss as “shallow”. Opening up the dialogue on who is Ben Stokes and the emotional agony of hair loss created during the hair transplant is valuable as it humanizes sportspeople to ordinary people who may be similarly adversely affected by societal norms. Looking at public reaction, the photographs of post-op healing physically manifesting our collective sense of relief to the news of depression do not seem a unique occurrence. Fixed insecurity seemed to prompt public endurance in accepting what was done to make it end. The invisibility of mental illness might have led to an appreciation of endurance of the surgery, though this is speculative. How we view the sacrifices made for self-improvement is admittedly generally dubious, as it’s a blurry ethics at best.
What led Ben Stokes to choose hair transplantation? Like every patient, he knows better than anyone else why he decided to take this step. I would imagine his feelings are a complex mix of the following: The aesthetic one, this is more than obvious. Especially for someone like Stokes, who is considered a global sports superstar and, like it or not, appearance is just as important as skills. If taken to extremes, the problem can make or break an athlete’s career. The operations aimed at lifting the buttocks or breasts or liposuction affect our personal and professional lives almost just as much as the hairline. We delude ourselves if we think that nobody will care about such matters. Let’s not forget the complex contractual clauses in professional performance.
According to the terms of his agreement with sponsors and cricket teams, who is Ben Stokes can be a superstar if he scores hundreds, but also just one of the pack if he crosses the personal hairline threshold. The “being one of them” one.
This is a growing trend among millennial parents. They are the first generation of men who underwent painless childbirth because they could not stand the sight of their wives in labor. The basic social expectations from them, the grooming ones, leave grades in the sport of life. The barbershop gossip, stereotyping evolves into a major handicap in choosing our friends, life partners, and professional mentors. The psychological comfort of taking care of your looks, your image, is a game in which every man plays for himself.
Once it’s done, Ben is going to get something on his to-do list completely crossed off. Just as boring, if we come to think of it, as getting the car’s oil changed, the tires inflated, or getting a spanner fixed.
Each of us does it not to give the self-esteem a blood-booster kick.
Although it may seem inconsequential, public perceptions of hair loss often reach deep into British society where better-looking bosses can earn as much as 10% more in salary if their attractive appearance fits in with ideals. How you feel about your hair loss, and how others react to it, are also factors that weigh heavily on individual choices and self-esteem. People are hardwired to notice threats; we are programmed to monitor danger and to scan for the unusual in our environment. Hence, any visible sign that someone can be different is immediately taken in by others. Media reports major hair loss stories with an almost pathological focus on the furtiveness and shame that the person is supposed to feel. The recursive narrative of this shame effectively primes the reader to emotionally react with ridicule. Comments highlight that you never know what’s going on in someone’s head; their whole world could be falling apart. In short, we are all different folks looking out through the same eyes. Victims of facial burns or scarring and minor skin lesions often feel isolated, with unattractiveness to others making them feel less worthwhile as individuals. People with the most noticeable head shapes may therefore provide broader public interest in hair transplants for social solidarity, though someone may also feel stigmatized if they come in for public exposure. The complex relationship between self-image and identity, and the importance of wider mental health awareness and the performance of this self, is also central to the narrative. Stigma can only be eradicated through acceptance of fear and vulnerability on both sides, by espousing the virtues of openness about undergoing hair transplants as a genuine option. As people gradually come forward regarding their experiences, these issues can achieve a wider public acceptance. Disclosures are part of a longer journey of mental health awareness and stigma reduction.
In this chapter, we aim to challenge and reshape the comments that stigmatize men for representing ‘esteem weakness in hair loss and hair transplantation.’ History notes beauty minimization as detracting from an individual’s (in this case, a young man’s) moral and social value. While a negative connotation is still used for cosmetic procedures, a repositioning of hair restoration as a credible medical and socio-psychological need should help to reduce the potential of forming negative stereotypes around such surgical practices. Hair transplants can potentially destigmatize mental health as rugged vulnerability in an open, honest culture. In so doing, this can only change minds from those expressions of the ‘disenfranchisement of the fragile’ to offer some potentially useful binaries to those in distress.
Discussing these linked anxieties can encourage men who are marginalized to speak out and create a supportive environment to enable others to do the same. It is important that the message is positive, constructive, and works to try and normalize transplants, rather than painting them as a procedure for the balding man ‘desperado.’ One reason for highlighting progress is to encourage others to talk about hair loss, especially those in the public eye. The greater the number of high-profile people discussing these concerns, the better, and the message will travel further, attracting educational support and perhaps formalizing community support for young men on low incomes. We therefore think he could encourage and add to the swell of support and knowledge to enable a different form of cultural shift, where individuality is something to be embraced and celebrated.
Ben Stokes is an accomplished cricketer who recently underwent a hair transplant. The images show significant losses from before the transplant to the full growth after the waxing procedure. Having more hair has the ability to modify the way we perceive a person. It may make the individual appear more attractive or look younger, but more importantly, a hair transplant can help boost one’s self-esteem. The impact of hair loss on young males’ perception of physical appearance and the powerful impact on mood and mental well-being has been explored to a limited extent.
In recent years, people’s idea of what it means to be a man has changed. Increasingly, the picturesque macho persona is being questioned. What powered the transformation was the global discourse on gender, especially on how men should present themselves. Today, straight, unadorned looks are considered bland, luxuriant hair is considered a man’s privilege, and traits once thought to be the exclusive domain of women are now regarded as part of a man’s entire regimen. The more demanding coverage is more than perception; it’s about being and feeling more competent. Is the picture worth scrutinizing? A man’s battle to embrace himself truly likely won’t change; however, it may also help stall the tsunami of psychological healthlessness that threatens to engulf many personalities, especially adolescents.
As written in our contributing author and surgeon, visual transformation is pivotal and significant as well. At the base of the transformation is the fact that everyone saw how Ben Stokes hair transplant before after looked; everybody had seen the ‘before’ pictures. In the pictures of his first comeback game after the transplant, cricketer Ben Stokes beams with pride and confidence. The traces of his devastated face after what he had gone through, about the worst imaginable personal pain, are still apparent after about four months of a grim toxic slog to the end of reason, when a thin smile returned to his lips. But it is not so significant as for us to actually notice; just as in the way we hardly notice loss of hair forms, as opposed to loss of blooms.
The celebration of Ben Stokes hair transplant before after successful hair transplant is primarily about a testimony of his recovery from the suicide that had made a ruin of his heart, about his appearance, for the first time after the transplant, smoothed out from the remoteness that is felt towards everything and everyone to his full social mask. It also speaks to the role such a successful transformation played in the internal narrative that helped reshape his identity. For the player, the support now comes with a lot more love and his own self, as he looks in the mirror and feels like nothing has basically changed. He said, “I feel so much better about myself, I am a different person when I look in the mirror. I am so grateful for making me look younger.”
There have been many times in my life when my hair and my body, as it was, were picked apart for public scrutiny. Not a day goes by at work without getting mentioned, and I knew I would be judged for it no matter what the outcome. I’ve been in the limelight for so long; it seems like people think they are entitled to convince me that I’m cut out more for the surgeon’s table than I am for a cricket match. You can call this a vanity project on my part – and believe me, I mean no disrespect to the countless people who undertake these kinds of procedures as a form of reconstruction rather than modification. For me, however, it was much more than that. I now feel a peace that I haven’t experienced for far too long, and after spending so much of my career under the intense scrutiny that comes with competitive sport, I am proud to say I have turned a potential taboo procedure into a victory for me, myself, and my body. A Week Before: One thing anyone seriously considering a transplant should bear in mind is that every procedure is different, as is every experience. It’s a good idea to be prepared for the very real possibility of nerves and a flip-flopping anxiety in the lead-up to your surgery, regardless of the extent of your procedure. Plan your time off (or to leave work early during recovery days) well in advance, because those final stretches in procrastination are not going to feel safe. Going forward in the process is a journey of its own, and best of all is taking things one step at a time – you’d be surprised by how substantial the journey builds up to be.
Step one was to shave my head, which both excited me and made me really nervous. I went to see the hair loss consultant to see if it was worth proceeding with a hair transplant. His advice was to lower the hairline, as once the areas are transplanted, you can never go back. This means I shaved my head to see the end result of a new hairline and thought it would be a great chance to see what I would look like with no hair. The hairline was created, my head was then shaved, and lines were drawn on the scalp to show where the new follicles would be implanted. There is then the small matter of waiting. The usual wait before results and improvement in the hair starts to show as the new strong hairs begin to grow.
Due to the progress I had made in my sports, which had impacted my head, I took longer to see the usual growth. From my original meeting to the point of coming up to four days to go, I had never watched the procedure and was in the clinic for five hours on three separate days. For me, this has impacted me even more, as it has made me realize what it actually involves. So, when I say I have been taken on a journey, I really have. On the third day, the last of the procedure, I sat for eight hours in the surgery chair as they took the individual implants from the back and side of my head to plant where the hair was. I thought I was the best patient ever, as I went from thinking I knew what they did until the day I was shown in detail. I love my new hairline and the overall results. Everyone in the clinic was so good at their job and caring. At the moment, results are mixed, but my kids will never know me any differently. Do I need it? Probably not; the hair transplant person said I’m the best candidate ever. I just blame my sport for going bald.
Stokes spent a reported £7,500 on his procedure. Hair transplant price 2025 is often one of the first things people will bring up when discussing cosmetic surgery. There are always raised eyebrows at the price of these procedures, a truth universally acknowledged. Financial gatekeeping is always at play. People ask, quite brazenly, how much others have spent and then make assumptions based on that figure – could they, personally, afford it? They often consider what else the money could have been spent on. In the same breath, they will praise people for getting the work done, but it’s a double-edged sword – the fact that money is in the vicinity of self-improvement often elicits an automatic prejudice. ‘Why are you spending that money?’ they ask. ‘Why don’t you spend it on your mortgage? Perhaps save it for your children?’
It’s not uncommon to see these financial fights online as well. When Stokes uploaded a picture of his hair transplant, people from all walks of life were eager to have a heated debate about how he had picked, as they saw it, a positive move and how he had benefited from having the money to afford it. Worth. The implications of this word alone are substantial – or, indeed, substantial to some. The worth of an individual’s purchase has no monetary value and yet means something. In this context, it is the phrase ‘yes, but what was it worth to you?’ that leaps out and strikes a particularly resonant chord. We’re well-versed in the ways we should be expected to look after ourselves. Beauty treatments and procedures are the vaunted form of self-care – a guise which, meaning to underpin the importance of these procedures, instead underlines the triviality.
The investments necessary to undergo a hair transplant go beyond the easy equation of cost. Procedures often include pre-procedure appointments where the patient discusses their experienced hair loss, receives advice, and schedules follow-up actions. After the procedure, appointments, post-operative care, and products are also included. Being able to afford to undertake a cosmetic procedure is immediately perceived to be in the domain of the well-off, socially and monetarily. Historically, people have not wanted to be perceived as someone who has undergone a hair transplant because it might reveal that they have had enough money. It would appear that treatments like hair transplants are for the unattractively wealthy in a society that is barely recovering from an economic crisis. Furthermore, signs—thinning hair and signs of cosmetic procedures—if revealed, highlight someone who is already in a stigmatized category; they have aging and loss of attractiveness—a doubly stigmatized attribute. However, some claim that the stigma described within the economic aspect of capitalism suggests that these treatments—like buying nice clothes or using makeup—are all investments and signs of wealth that can be adored. Owning your worth in investments in personal attributes like body or facial hair is actually a demonstration of economic preparedness and well-being.
While much of the discussion regarding the cost of hair transplant in Turkey might focus on its financial currency, it is salient to note that worth and value are also emotional experiences related to expected or hoped-for future satisfaction, rather than just an objectifiable hair transplant price 2025 that can be measured. This includes having access to the resources a person needs to act, react, and act on policy goals as well as basic provisions. The drive to invest in something that many argue is unnecessary and cosmetic but can build a person’s self-confidence and alleviate psychological distress suggests that the bottom-line value of hair restoration is for many clearly psychological rather than a simple monetary measure. No price can be assigned to these unmeasured intangibles in any meaningful way, but a change in approach to how someone determines their worth is clear in the hair transplant in Turkey patient population: many are reporting a higher sense of self-worth, measurable as the positive impacts upon their mental and emotional state, simply for making a very personal change or improvement in their own heads of hair.
In order to provide a comprehensive analysis and comparison of hair transplant prices in Turkey and the UK, two surgical options, namely FUE and DHI, were separately examined in both cases. Given that FUE has a longer and more successful record in experience rating of patients, this method is generally nominated when choosing a hair transplant. For the UK and Turkey, factors affecting the hair transplant price 2025 were listed as gender, hair type, length of transplant procedure, reputation of the clinic, location, as well as offers and promotions. It is determined that the cost of PRP application, which is very popular after hair transplantation, is around 50. It is observed that patients are offered discounts or free services in Turkey and paid additional PRP treatment in the UK according to the case they will. This indicates that this treatment should add additional value, and it does add value for both countries. Since the geographical location of the city and the effect of which product is used during application are mentioned, no minimum and maximum limits were specified.
Currently, the average hair transplant price 2025 in Turkey and the UK is given as 1,700 and 13,000-18,000, respectively. According to the case illustrated involving a male with V hair type and average hair amount (3,500 grafts), a manual FUE hair transplant of the same type with the same quality in the UK would cost a hair transplant price 2025 over 15,000. Redirecting the case to Istanbul, several clinics offer a complete package including transportation and accommodation, nutrition services, consultation, and the operation itself for 1,700 in total or more. The amenities of the city are also considered. Following a simple cost-benefit analysis, by dismissing the right part which represents the UK and comparing the remaining parts – including air ticket to Istanbul – the value earned would obviously equal that of receiving a day tour for free. Hence, Turkey presents the cheaper option; unquestionably, most patients go for this option and are satisfied with it. Some are very happy too, by the way.
