October 02, 2015
Beard transplants seem to be a growing trend among men, perhaps in an attempt to look "manlier."
Jose Armos, a 28-year-old paramedic who lives in Miami, told The New York Times that his baby face seemed to cause some patients’ added distress.
"They would look at me and be like, 'O.K., is this 16-year-old really going to take care of me?'" Armos told The Times. "It was hard for people to trust me because I had that baby face."
RELATED STORY: Grow at your own risk: Microbiologist says some beards comparable to toilets
In an effort to obtain a more manly look, Armos said he had a full beard transplant, from sideburns to chin, which cost him about $7,000.
But Armos is not alone.
The number of beard transplants increased from 1.5 percent of all hair restoration procedures performed internationally in 2012 to 3.7 percent in 2014, according to the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery. Dr. Marc Dauer, a hair transplant surgeon in Los Angeles, told The Times that five years ago he performed about five beard transplants in a year, but now he does that many in a month.
This is due, in part, to the ability to produce more natural-looking beards.
Hair transplants from a generation ago had the unfortunate effect of making the scalp look like a doll’s head, because what were transplanted were pluglike grafts of about 15 hair follicles. Those who underwent the procedure could disguise the plugs by growing their hair longer and teasing it into Trumpian swirls.
Now, surgeons transplant single hair follicles instead of plugs of 15 of them, allowing the beards to be shaved and then regrown, just as with regular beards.
Read more from The New York Times here.
