Balding celebrities such as John Travolta, Jon Cryer, and Nicolas Cage seem to sprout lush manes in a matter of hours, years after losing their hair—especially when they’re up for new movie or TV roles, or due for a red carpet appearance. How do they do it? See photos of stars who appear to grow instant hair.
John Travolta’s hair loss issues are such an open secret that the 57-year-old star has been daring to go bare lately—or at least be seen without one of his many hairpieces. Last week, Travolta was photographed after a tennis match with friends with an unquestionably bald head, but then a day later, he made a speedy recovery at a Bombardier Business Aircraft press conference, where he sported thick, black locks. Perhaps the pate debate is why Lewis Kasman, a former associate of the late John Gotti (whom Travolta will soon portray onscreen), said the star was not tough enough to play the Dapper Don. “For John Gotti Sr., you need a man’s man to play that role,” Kasman told The New York Post on Monday. So clearly he just rented Hairspray.
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Though a high school photograph of Ashton Kutcher looking balder than Bruce Willis recently emerged, it’s actually his Two and a Half Men costar Jon Cryer who has been pulling the wool near his eyes for years. On the morning of this year’s Emmy Awards, the 46-year-old Cryer was photographed competing in the Malibu Triathlon with a considerably thinning hairline. Several hours later, he was onstage at the Emmys with nailed-in hair. The only thing more impressive than Cryer’s sudden transformation? The ratings for Two and Half Men’s season premiere.
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Sixteen years after George Costanza sported a toupee on Seinfeld—and a few months after he was photographed with a bald head—Jason Alexander showed a remarkable hair transformation. Last week, Alexander was spotted with a new, thick hairline, but he had prepared fans for the miracle growth: “I am experimenting with some interesting hair systems,” Alexander tweeted in July. “Don't be shocked if you suddenly see pics of me with more hair than usual.”
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Here’s one medical mystery that Hugh Laurie’s TV alter ego won’t be solving any time soon: how does the 52-year-old star of House, who has a serious hole in his roof, appear on television each week with a thick head of hair? The answer appears to be a toupee. Not that Laurie—whose appropriately titled blues CD, Let Them Talk, was released earlier this month—hides his hirsute history off-camera. Like many TV stars (Jon Cryer, Ted Danson), he only wears a piece when TV duty calls.
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Much like Sean Connery, his costar in The Rock, Nicolas Cage has a hairline that’s a moving target. Sometimes it’s thick and shaggy, sometimes it’s thin and stringy, but it’s almost certainly not his own. So why would a wealthy movie star pay to have such phony-looking hair? The answer may lie in the fact that Cage spends his money on more important things—like a dozen houses, Caribbean islands, and dinosaur skulls.
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Unlike soccer gods David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney is not exactly worshiped for his looks. (Indeed, the movie star Wazza is most often compared to is Shrek.) But when the 25-year-old striker started losing his hair while very young, he decided to strike back. This summer, Rooney spent a reported £30,000 on a hair transplant and tweeted a TMI photo to his followers immediately afterward. “Hi all there's my head. It will take a few months to grow. Still a bit bloody too. But that's all normal. #hairwego.” But the new Roo ‘do is also helping his game—Rooney is off to a superb start in the English Premier League this season and, ironically, credits all his success to his barber.
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A prime minister who’s willing to pay for a little “bunga-bunga” probably shouldn’t be too concerned about his looks—after all, the ladies who show up for those parties are pretty much sure things. Then again, 74-year-old Silvio Berlusconi admitted to one prostitute that he’s Italy’s prime minister only in his “spare time.” So what does Berlusconi focus on instead? His hair, apparently—he had a transplant in 2004. And last year, over the course of several days, Berlusconi was photographed with at least three different hairlines. Such vanity even drew a rebuke from Bill Gates, who spoke disparagingly of Berlusconi to a German paper: “Rich people spend a lot more on personal problems like baldness,” Gates said, “than they do to combat malaria.”
When he pulled out of a Broadway play in 2009, Jeremy Piven gave a fishy excuse—claiming he had mercury poisoning from eating too much sushi. So what’s the 46-year-old Entourage star’s explanation for having a better hairline than he did 15 years ago? He isn’t saying, but he probably didn’t “rug it out.” In 2010, TMZ published photos of Piven (since removed) with a huge scar on the back of his head from what is assumed to be a hair transplant. A very successful one.
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If you rebuild it, hair will come. In 2007, the National Enquirer caught actor-director Kevin Costner in a minor scandal involving his receding hairline. Comparing photos of the Oscar winner from September 2006 and March 2007, an expert (who hadn’t treated Costner) concluded that he had in fact had a transplant. “In my opinion, there’s definitely a chance,” Dr. Craig Ziering told The Enquirer—with almost absolute hedged certainty.
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The legendary journalist I.F. Stone famously warned that “governments lie”—but does that also include hair loss? Rumors about Joe Biden’s hair have circulated since the late 1980s, when he first ran for president. Back then, the Washington Post directly asked the potential head of state about the state of his head. “I’ve got to keep some mystery in my life,” Biden responded, coyly. While there’s little doubt that the vice president’s hair has had a resurrection over the years, at least one hairdresser swears it’s all his. Biden’s hair is “100 percent natural,” Sheila McGurk told The Hill after her salon did the VP’s hair before a 60 Minutes segment. “No doubt about it.”
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