Guess How Many Thousands of Dollars Joel McHale Spent on His Hair Transplant
It’s doubtful that Joel McHale would have had his successful leading-man career in Community and other comedy projects if he hadn’t addressed the fading hairline he was rocking in this IHOP commercial.
McHale’s handsome head of hair is one reason comedian Mark Normand is considering his own hair transplant, he said this week on the We Might Be Drunk podcast. Considering how great other transplantees like McHale, Seth MacFarlane and Jimmy Kimmel look, Normand said, it might be time for him to join Team Transplant.
McHale told Normand that it was a worthy quest; after all, he was “fully bald” before he had four procedures himself. “I did it way back when, when it was a strip, which was painful,” McHale said. “Don’t do the strip.” (For the uninitiated, a “strip” involves surgically removing a section of scalp from the back or sides of the head that still has healthy hair follicles, then transplanting that hunk of hair into balding areas of the scalp. It sounds like a horror movie.)
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These days, hair experts simply “pluck it from the whole back section,” says McHale. “And it’s a miracle.”
Podcast cohost Sam Morril wondered if Normand would have to go to Turkey, which is apparently the fake hair capital of the world. McHale’s guy was local in Los Angeles, but “I can get you the name of a guy in Turkey.” A word to the wise from McHale: If a guy in Turkey claims he’ll do a hair job for $3,000, stay far away. “You get what you pay for.”
Three grand isn’t enough to pluck and place? Not if you want a good job, says McHale. The Animal Control star estimates that he spent not three, not five, but ten thousand dollars on his own set of luxurious locks. “But it might have gone up,” he said.
Normand wasn’t scared off by the price tag — ten grand isn’t bad if you have hair the rest of your life.
Hold up, said Morril. Why did McHale need four procedures?
“You’re still going bald,” he said about his personal Whac-A-Mole process. “That hair is still falling out. The hair that you put there is growing, but you’ll still thin because the hair that was going to fall out is going to fall out.”
McHale still recommends the process. Sure, there’s some pain, but the docs send you home with Tylenol. And if you shave your head afterwards, the whole process goes faster.
Normand wasn’t down for the shaving part. Would that mean he’d have to wear a ball cap for a while?
No, replied McHale. “Baseball hats.”
“That’s what I’m saying!” said Normand.
“Oh,” realized McHale. “I thought you said ‘bald cap.’”
