Brooklyn Dudes Are Getting Beard Transplants Now
Great news if you can't grow a beard and have a few thousand dollars to spare: "Facial hair transplants" are reportedly on the rise in New York.
According to DNAinfo.com, Dr. Yael Halaas has performed an average of one beard transplant per month on men from Brooklyn's "hipster"-filled neighborhoods, like Bushwick, Park Slope, and Williamsburg.
"I get a lot of detail-oriented people — artists, architects," Halaas said.
Dr. Jeffrey Epstein, who has been performing beard transplants for more than 12 years, told DNAinfo he averages about three beard transplants per week in his offices in Miami and Manhattan.
"Whether you are talking about the Brooklyn hipster or the advertising executive, the look is definitely to have a bit of facial hair," he said.
Other common clients include weakly-beared Hasidic Jews and men with facial scarring.
One 39-year-old New Yorker who received a transplant last April described the procedure and results to DNAinfo.
"I couldn't believe how much I had changed over the years and that I no longer looked like myself," he said. "I had contemplated [getting a beard transplant] for approximately eight months. Knowing the results, I wish I hadn't wasted so much time deciding."
So how does the process work? From DNAinfo:
The hair for beard transplants typically is taken from the patient's head — roots and all — and then planted through micro-incisions on a bare patch of face, in an eight-hour procedure under local anesthesia, similar to how hair transplants are done, doctors said.
...
Once transplanted, the beard hair takes root gradually. The hair then falls out, but the roots stay and begin to grow new hair within several months, doctors said.
Once it's fully healed, the new beard can be shaved regularly and will grow back just like real hair.
And it only costs $3,000 (for fill-ins) to $7,000 (for a full beard)! Money well spent if you ask me.