The thick, flowing beards adorning hipsters from Williamsburg to Park Slope are driving follicly-challenged New Yorkers to a little-known but growing field of plastic surgery — facial hair transplants.
Via DNA Info reports:
Whether they’re filling in a few gaps or doing a complete beard construction, New York City doctors who specialize in the procedure said they’re seeing a growing number of men paying as much as $7,000 to pump up their beards.
“Whether you are talking about the Brooklyn hipster or the advertising executive, the look is definitely to have a bit of facial hair,” said Dr. Jeffrey Epstein, a facial plastic surgeon who has performed the procedure for 12 years.
Epstein said he started out doing just a handful of beard transplants each year a decade ago — but is now averaging about three beard implants a week through his offices in Midtown East and Miami.
Dr. Yael Halaas, another plastic surgeon who specializes in facial hair transplants, said an increasing number of “hip” and “fashionable” young professionals in their 20s and 30s are seeking the procedure.
“I get a lot of detail-oriented people — artists, architects,” the doctor said, noting that beard-centric neighborhoods such as Williamsburg, Bushwick and Park Slope have each delivered four to five clients to her practice in the past year.
In addition to beardless hipsters, doctors said their clients include men who have struggled since adolescence to grow a beard, those undergoing a gender transition from female to male, men with with facial scarring and Hasidic Jews who hope to achieve denser payot, or sidelocks. A greater awareness of facial hair transplants has also fueled the popularity of the procedure, doctors said. READ MORE
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