John Cena Has No Shame Talking About The Cosmetic Procedure He Wishes He Got 10 Years Ago
It shouldn't be revolutionary to say you don't feel ashamed about feeling better about yourself.
Tinseltown | Shutterstock It's strange that cosmetic surgical procedures are still so stigmatized, given how common they are. So common, in fact, that even young people in their 20s are going under the knife, or at least under the needle in droves.
Women are, of course, the biggest targets of this stigma and basically can't win. They're criticized for aging, then criticized for doing something about it. But there's no shortage of mockery for men who do it too, perhaps especially when the procedure in question is to fill out a receding hairline. John Cena, however, is one man who isn't taking the bait.
John Cena said he has no shame for getting a hair transplant.
John Cena has been a legend in the world of wrestling for decades, but that chapter of his life and career is about to come to a close. He announced a yearlong farewell tour to the sport, or performance art, or whatever exactly wrestling is (a bit of both?) amid shifting priorities since marrying his wife, Canadian engineer Shay Shariatzadeh, five years ago.
Cena recently told People that the tour is his way of giving his dedicated audience "closure" on his long wrestling career, which has somewhat taken a backseat to his career as an actor in recent years. That audience, Cena said, has always pushed him to be his best. But they were also the ones who first drew attention to a problem that began vexing him about a decade ago: hair loss.
"As I was trying to hide my hair loss, the audience was bringing it to light," he told People, including on signs they'd hold up at wrestling events ribbing him about going bald. For better or worse, it pushed him into seeing what his options were.
"I now have a routine: red-light therapy, minoxidil, vitamins, shampoo, conditioner — and I also got a hair transplant last November," he told the magazine. And while the decision may have been a tough one, Cena says he has only one regret: that he didn't do it sooner.
Cena said he would have gotten the transplant 10 years ago if not for the stigma.
Hair loss is incredibly common for men, of course. As many as 85% of men experience hair thinning, male pattern baldness, and other hair-loss conditions by the time they reach old age.
Accordingly, hair transplants, in which hair follicles are moved from one part of the body, typically the back of the head, where human hair tends to grow the thickest, to areas that are balding. The procedure has been growing in popularity in recent years, with Turkey becoming a hotspot of medical tourism, if you will, for hair transplants.
Kathy Hutchins | Shutterstock | Canva Pro
But the commonality of hair loss and the growth of the procedure haven't erased the stigma against them, of course. And Cena said that stigma is what made it take nearly a decade for him to finally address his own hair loss. "I hate the fact that if there wasn’t so much shame around it, I’d have gotten it done 10 years ago," he told People. "I thought I was alone."
Cena says the procedure has transformed his confidence and his career.
Now that he's had the procedure, Cena loves the results, and said he's passionate about breaking that stigma so other men (and women, for that matter, who comprise 10-15% of hair transplant recipients according to those in the industry) can regain their confidence too.
Cena told People he's "fired up" about the topic because of how it changed him. "If somebody’s going to sweat me for that, I don’t think there’s any shame in that,” he told People. “It completely changed the course of my life."
It's impacted his career, too, especially with regard to film and television roles. "A different hairstyle can identify a part that can get me more work, do the thing I love to do," he said. And the treatments coincided with something of a renaissance in his acting career, which he said took a major slump due to a slew of what he called "bad movies" where he "wasn't present."
It's strange that a star has to even talk about this in the first place. The public's investment in stars' aging and looks is bizarre as it is, but the "can't win" nature of the situation — mocked for aging, mocked even more for then doing something about it — is cruelly backwards. Here's hoping Cena's candor moves the needle, especially for all the women who are so rarely, if ever, permitted to feel good about cosmetic procedures like men are.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
