Dimitar Berbatov Hair Transplant
Plenty of footballers have had hair transplants. Few have been talked about as much as Dimitar Berbatov’s, and few have looked as convincing.
Berbatov is a Bulgarian forward who made 78 appearances for his country and played for Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and Monaco. He is an icon at home and was known in England for being unhurried, elegant and, in the later years, visibly thinning on top.
His hairline had been public property for a long time. Ahead of his Monaco debut the press were describing him as “the balding Berbatov”, which is a fairly brutal thing to read about yourself in a match preview.
What his hair loss looked like
From photographs alone, and we should be clear that is all anyone outside his own clinic is working from, the pattern looked like roughly a Norwood 4. That is a receding front with a distinct bald area developing at the crown, and a band of hair still separating the two.
Norwood 4 is a meaningful point in male pattern baldness. The loss is now coming from two directions at once, it is obvious in photographs and in mirrors, and the donor area at the back and sides is usually still strong enough to do something about it. Leave it much longer and the front and crown join up, the area needing coverage grows considerably, and the donor supply has to stretch much further.
If you want to work out roughly where you sit, our guide to the seven types of hairline and the Norwood scale walks through the stages with pictures.
The transplant, and the reaction
Berbatov was widely reported to have had a hair transplant in 2016. He turned up at Soccer Aid that year with a restored hairline and the reaction online was immediate and almost entirely positive. One frequently quoted post had it that his hairline belonged “up there with Liverpool in Istanbul for great comebacks”.
What is notable, professionally speaking, is how ordinary it looked. The hairline was rebuilt slightly lower but not implausibly so, it was not drawn as a straight line across the forehead, and it suited a man in his mid thirties rather than a teenager. That restraint is the difference between a good result and one that gets noticed for the wrong reasons, and it is a great deal harder than simply putting hair back.
What it tells you, if you are thinking about it yourself
Two things, really.
The first is that being successful, wealthy and admired does not insulate anyone from feeling self conscious about their hair. Berbatov spent years being asked about his hairline in press conferences. Most of the men who come to us describe something smaller but the same in kind: years of comments from friends, a running joke at work, or simply avoiding photographs.
The second is about timing. He had it done at a stage where there was still plenty to work with. Hair loss is progressive, and the donor area at the back of your head is a fixed supply. The earlier you understand your pattern, the more options you have and the further that supply goes.
What it would cost you
You do not need a footballer’s wages. A hair transplant with us costs between £3,000 and £7,000, set by how many grafts you need, and finance plans start from £70 a month. You get your exact price in writing at your assessment, before you commit to anything.
You can see the results our surgeons achieve in our before and after gallery, or read more on our hair transplants page.
To find out what your own hair loss would need, book a free video assessment. It takes about fifteen minutes, there is no obligation, and you will get an honest answer, including if that answer is that surgery is not right for you yet.
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