This article was originally published on Crafting Your Home. A human contributor also wrote and edited the post.
John Cena has spent years being one of the most recognizable faces in WWE and Hollywood, but it turns out one of the biggest changes to his career and confidence happened somewhere no camera was rolling: in a hair restoration clinic in Georgia.
In a new exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Cena opened up about undergoing two separate hair transplant surgeries with Dr. Ken Anderson, totaling more than 20 hours combined in the operating chair, and explained why he now considers the decision one of the most impactful of his life.
Cena’s first procedure took place in November 2024, using a technique known as Follicular Unit Extraction, or FUE, which involves removing individual hair follicles from denser areas of the scalp and relocating them to thinning spots. That first surgery reportedly ran about 13.5 hours.
Cena underwent a second FUE procedure with Dr. Anderson more recently, publicly marking the occasion in June by sharing a photo of his freshly shaved head alongside his doctor.
That second round lasted roughly eight hours, bringing his combined total time in surgery across both procedures to more than 20 hours.
Fan Comments Pushed Him Toward Treatment
Cena has been candid about what ultimately drove him to seek treatment in the first place, and it traces directly back to his time in the WWE ring.
He has described how fans openly called attention to his thinning hair, at times holding up signs during live events. “I saw their signs that said ‘The bald John Cena.’
They pushed me into going to see what my options were,” Cena has said of that period. He has also reflected on how his own attempts to downplay the hair loss only seemed to draw more attention to it, telling one outlet that trying to hide the issue backfired since the audience “highlighted it even more.”
Cena has been clear that he views his hair loss as something rooted in genetics rather than anything within his control, a framing that lines up with how he has discussed the broader stigma around cosmetic procedures for men.
He has pointed out that hair loss affects far more people than many realize, noting that roughly seven or eight out of every ten men experience some form of thinning or baldness over the course of their lives.
That statistic became part of why Cena felt comfortable being so open about his own experience, framing it as something closer to a shared, common issue rather than a private embarrassment.
His Only Regret Is Waiting So Long
Despite how positively Cena has described the outcome, he has been equally direct about the one part of the process he wishes had gone differently: the amount of time he spent putting it off.
“I hate the fact that if there wasn’t so much shame around it, I’d have gotten it done 10 years ago,” Cena has said, pointing squarely at the stigma surrounding cosmetic procedures as the reason he waited as long as he did.
He has drawn a direct comparison between hair restoration and other widely accepted procedures people pursue to improve their quality of life, arguing that treatments like braces or LASIK eye surgery rarely carry the same social hesitation that hair transplants do.
That same sense of regret over lost time has fueled much of why Cena has chosen to speak publicly about the experience at all, rather than keeping the procedures private the way many public figures do.
By putting his own journey on the record, in detail, down to the specific hours spent in surgery, Cena has positioned himself as something of an unofficial spokesperson for reducing stigma around the topic within his own fan base and beyond it.
Dr. Anderson has echoed that same sentiment from the clinical side, previously stating that he was “grateful for John’s trust and friendship” throughout the process and calling it an honor to be part of his hair restoration journey.
A Full Routine Beyond The Operating Table
Cena’s hair restoration efforts have not stopped at the two surgical procedures themselves. According to his account, he has built out a broader maintenance routine that includes minoxidil, red-light therapy, hair-focused vitamins, and specialized scalp-care products aimed at preserving and building on his results over time.
Dr. Anderson has also detailed a more gradual approach behind the scenes, explaining in a radio interview that Cena spent roughly ten months undergoing non-surgical scalp therapy before his first transplant even took place, a stabilization period intended to put his scalp in the best possible condition heading into surgery.
Anderson has emphasized that his broader surgical philosophy centers on making results look natural rather than aggressively lowering a hairline, noting that he intentionally recreates some signs of recession, particularly at the corners, so the final look matches how someone’s hair would realistically sit even without any loss at all.
Cena has also connected his restored hair directly to tangible career benefits, something that sets his account apart from a purely cosmetic framing of the decision.
He has said that having more flexibility with his hairstyle has opened up acting opportunities that might not have been available to him otherwise, explaining that a different look can help him land certain roles that a fully bald or visibly thinning appearance would have ruled out.
Combined with the confidence boost he has described feeling in his day-to-day life, Cena has characterized the entire experience, tough recovery hours and all, as something that “completely changed the course of my life,” a phrase he has returned to repeatedly when describing the overall impact of the two procedures on his career and personal outlook alike.
As Cena continues recovering from his second procedure, his openness about the process has already sparked plenty of conversation among fans and within the broader hair restoration community, with some pointing to his willingness to discuss the specifics, hours in the chair, timelines, and product routines included, as a meaningful step toward normalizing a topic that has historically carried real stigma for men.
Whether or not Cena pursues any further procedures down the line, his public accounting of the experience so far offers a rare, detailed look at what a multi-year hair restoration journey actually involves, straight from someone whose appearance has been under public scrutiny for the better part of two decades.
Cena first addressed his hair loss publicly back in April 2025, just a day after winning his record 17th world championship at WrestleMania 41. Speaking on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show at the time, Cena brought up the topic himself before anyone could ask about it.
“There’s another headline for ya: hair transplant,” he told McAfee, adding that he saw no reason to be embarrassed about addressing something he considered a straightforward problem. “There’s no shame in that, man,” Cena said.
“I got a problem, I tried to fix it. I’m working on it. I saw so many bald spot signs.” That early, unprompted admission set the tone for how openly he has continued to discuss the topic in the months and procedures since, culminating in his most detailed account yet with PEOPLE.
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