John Cena Recalls Walking Around with an 'Alien Head' During Recovery from 2024 Hair Transplant
John Cena Recalls Walking Around with an 'Alien Head' During Recovery from 2024 Hair Transplant
Michelle LeeMon, April 20, 2026 at 6:50 PM UTC
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John Cena reflects on recovering from 2024 hair transplantCredit: Andrew Timms/WWE/Getty -
John Cena talked about his hair transplant recovery in a new interview with TMZ Sports at the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony on April 17
Cena underwent the procedure in late 2024 and later revealed that he was “bullied” into getting it
The wrestling star told PEOPLE in August 2025 that the transplant "completely changed the course" of his life
John Cena is laying it all out there.
The former wrestler, 48, underwent a hair transplant in November 2024 and recently talked about what really went into recovery from the procedure.
"It is a surgery. First 14 days are the most important, can't get [the surgical site] wet, it's an open wound. Your head swells, [then] the swelling comes down, your skull looks different for a little bit," he said in an interview with TMZ Sports.
John Cena hosting WrestleMania 42 on April 18, 2026Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty
"But I didn't care," he added, explaining how it was back to business once the first part of recuperation was over. "I literally got the transplant and went right to pre-prep for a movie in Budapest. I was walking around Christmas markets in Budapest with, like, an alien head," he said.
Cena's transplant was performed by Atlanta-based surgeon Ken Anderson, and the superstar said that he's been doing everything he can — from taking vitamins and undergoing red light therapy to prioritizing a scalp routine and taking hair-loss medication Minoxidil — to maintain the doctor's work.
In April 2025, Cena said that he was more enticed to undergo the transformation after WWE fans “bullied” him about his “bald spot.”
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“You chant and you make me feel small and you embarrass me,” Cena said on the Pat McAfee Show at the time. “Y'all don't know what that's like. That is straight-up bullying. That's just not cool. I don't like it."
He added: “And you guys, by the way, thank you for being so aware of my needs and emotions, because you guys ripped me to shreds for a genetic problem that I can't control.”
Shay Shariatzadeh and John Cena at the 'Matchbox' press day on February 3, 2026Credit: Stewart Cook/Apple TV via Getty
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In a later interview with PEOPLE, Cena admitted that if there "wasn't so much shame" around the surgery, he would've "gotten it done 10 years ago. I thought I was alone, but seven or eight out of 10 [men] suffer from thinning or baldness."
Now that he has gotten a hair transplant, he's realized just how much it's changed his life. One way he says it helped him is by giving him more range as an actor. He shared, "A different hairstyle can identify a part that can get me more work, do the thing I love to do."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
