Joe Buck Hair Transplant and Hair Plugs, From 1993 to 2022

Joe Buck has said in his own words that he had hair transplants, and the story is longer than most people expect. His first procedure was in 1993. By early 2011 he had gone through eight. The eighth left him unable to speak, and he spent months telling colleagues and viewers that he had a virus. He explained what really happened in his 2016 book, and in 2022 he posted about a new procedure ahead of his first season on Monday Night Football.

Quick answer: Yes. Buck first had hair plugs at 24 and wrote in his book, as the Los Angeles Times quotes it, "I, Joseph Francis Buck, became a hair-plug addict." The total of "at least nine" procedures is our own sum (eight he described, plus the one he showed in 2022). He has never given that number himself.

Info corner: how to read this page. Each claim below is tagged "confirmed" when it comes from Buck's own words (his book, his interviews, his own social post) and "reported" when only an outlet or a clinic says it. We name no clinic for any procedure before 2022 because he has not. We give no cost for any of his procedures because he has not shared one, and we do not guess.

Joe Buck Hair Transplants, 1993 to 2022 at a Glance

How Many Hair Transplants Has Joe Buck Had?

He told Howard Stern about eight, and the book puts the eighth just before the 2011 season, per the Howard Stern site and the Los Angeles Times. Add the 2022 procedure and the count is at least nine. That sum is ours. Other sites print "nine", "ten" or "a dozen", and none of them can trace the number to Buck.

The honest answer is "eight he named, plus 2022". Anything above that is arithmetic or guesswork.

Who Is Joe Buck, the Voice of Big Games?

Buck was born on 25.04.1969 in St. Louis, the son of broadcaster Jack Buck. He worked for Fox from 1994 until 2021, then moved to ESPN and ABC in 2022, according to Wikipedia. His father died in 2002. Buck called the 2002 and 2011 World Series.

That context matters for the hair story. A play-by-play announcer works on camera and in front of a microphone. His face and his voice are the two things he sells, and the 2011 procedure put both at risk at once.

The First Procedure in 1993

The Los Angeles Times reported that Buck wrote about his first procedure in 1993, when he was 24, and that after it he "became a hair-plug addict". OutKick adds that he first flew to New York for it. The book says he had been worried about baldness since his early twenties, a point Yahoo Sports also draws from the memoir as quoted in Sports Illustrated.

In the Times piece he explained the pull of it in his own words: "I would tell myself I needed to look younger, I needed to have thicker hair, I don't want to look older than I am." Few patients describe the motive so plainly. It was not one decision, it was a standing rule he applied every time the hairline looked thinner.

What a Hair Plug Procedure Was

Early hair restoration moved large round tufts of hair, which is where the word "plug" comes from. A StatPearls review of hair transplantation on PubMed notes that plug grafts were historically used, and that today the standard is to move individual follicular units taken from the back of the scalp. The older method could leave a visible, doll-like pattern at the hairline, and that is why the word "plugs" now carries a bad reputation.

We do not know which technique Buck's own early sessions used, and he has not said. We only know what the plug era looked like in general.

Eight Procedures in 18 Years

Between 1993 and 2011 he had eight procedures. The sources do not date each one, so we cannot build a year-by-year table for the middle sessions. What the sources do show is the pattern: he returned again and again, and he kept the whole thing quiet.

That silence is the part people find hardest to read. He did not hide a single operation. He hid a habit, and the habit ran for almost two decades before an injury made it public.

• First session: 1993, in New York, age 24.
• Count by 2011: eight, as he told Howard Stern.
• Reason he gave: to look younger and to have thicker hair.
• Disclosure: none until 2016, and then through a book.

The Eighth Procedure and the Lost Voice in 2011

The eighth session is the one that changed the story. The Los Angeles Times reports that just before the 2011 baseball season, Buck woke from the procedure unable to speak. Complex describes it as a procedure of about six hours that left his left vocal cord paralysed, and names the specialist who later treated him, Dr Steven Zeitels, who injected Restylane into the cord.

Buck had a theory about the cause. He believed a protective cuff used during the procedure paralysed the cord. That is his own theory, not a medical finding, and we report it as such. Newser says his voice took about six months to come back, while Yahoo Sports says it improved through 2011 and was fully recovered by that year's World Series, helped by injections into the vocal cords.

What We Know About the Anesthesia

Yahoo Sports reports that Buck says he will not use general anesthetic again. That detail is useful for any patient, because a hair transplant does not have to be done under general anesthesia at all. Most modern sessions use local anesthesia, sometimes with light sedation. The NHS explains what general anaesthesia is and why it is used: the patient is put into a controlled sleep, and a breathing tube or airway device may be needed.

A breathing tube is one of the known routes to vocal cord problems. A Japanese review on PubMed describes vocal cord paralysis after intubation as rare, with arytenoid cartilage dislocation and recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis as the main causes. The review is about intubation in general. It does not describe Buck's case, and we do not claim it explains what happened to him.

The Virus Story and the Book Lucky Bastard

At the time he told people it was a virus. The Los Angeles Times says he told almost everyone, including his employer, that he had a virus, and that most people still believed it. Fox let him work through the season while his voice was not right.

In 2016 he published Lucky Bastard, written with Michael Rosenberg, per the Howard Stern site. In it he gave the real reason. The Times quotes him: "I said it was a virus. I didn't say it was an elective procedure to add hair to the front of my head." The TheWrap and Newser write-ups carry the same account.

He also said he has not had a procedure since 2011 but would not rule one out. The Times and Yahoo Sports both carry that line, and it is the bridge to the 2022 story.

Joe Buck's New Hair Before Monday Night Football in 2022

In late July 2022 Buck posted on Instagram, as OutKick quotes it: "Training camp doesn't just start for players. New network, newly arranged follicles. Hello ESPN!!! Cannot wait for September 12, and for this green to wash out of my hair. I promise I'll look normal-ish by week 1."

The "green" was a colour treatment that had not yet washed out. The post marked his debut season as the lead voice of ESPN's Monday Night Football, working with Troy Aikman. A few days later he posted a second photo, and BroBible quotes the caption: "my new Peaky F'in Blinders cut the day after. Arthur meet Joe." He thanked Dr Parsa Mohebi and wrote that the post was not a paid ad: "he's just that good."

What the Clinic Says About 2022

The Mohebi clinic blog describes the 2022 work as FUE. It also says Buck came in the year before to address results he had gained earlier from other doctors. Both points are the clinic's account. Buck has not confirmed the technique or the earlier visit, so we keep them labelled "reported". We do not repeat any graft count from clinic pages, because none comes from Buck.

Joe Buck Before and After the Transplants

Is Joe Buck bald? No source says so. What he describes is a hairline he wanted to keep thick at the front. The two photos on this page come from Wikimedia Commons, both from autumn 2018. They are public photographs, not clinical records, and a photo alone cannot tell you how many grafts anyone had.

This frame, dated 28.09.2018, carries a Creative Commons licence credited to Buck himself. The 2006 frame on the cover shows him twelve years earlier, but at full size it is too small to read the hairline, and a 2009 frame on Commons is too soft, so we do not show them here. Nothing in a single photograph proves or disproves a procedure. The proof is in his own statements, which is why this page leans on them.

The second 2018 photograph, credited to Fox Sports, appears further down with Troy Aikman. Both sit between the 2011 injury and the 2022 post, a period in which, by his own account, he had no new procedure.

Does Joe Buck Wear a Toupee or a Wig?

The sources describe transplants, not a wig. Buck wrote about adding hair to the front of his head through procedures, and the outlets that cover him describe procedures too. We found no source in which he or a reliable outlet says he wears a hairpiece.

Hair Loss Basics: What Is Normal and What Is Not

Buck's early worry started in his twenties. That is not unusual. The NHS says it is normal to lose 50 to 100 hairs a day, and that male and female pattern baldness is permanent and runs in families. Other types of hair loss are temporary and can follow illness, stress, cancer treatment, weight loss or iron deficiency. See the NHS page on hair loss.

• Pattern baldness is the permanent kind and is inherited.
• Shedding after illness, stress or rapid weight loss is usually temporary.
• An iron or other nutrient deficiency can also thin hair and should be checked by a doctor.
• If the change is sudden or patchy, see a GP before deciding on any procedure.

That last point is the NHS advice and ours. A transplant moves hair that is already yours. It does not treat the cause of hair loss, and it works only where the donor hair is stable.

How a Modern Hair Transplant Differs From Plugs

The StatPearls review explains the two main methods used today, FUT (strip) and FUE (individual follicular unit extraction). FUE avoids a linear scar. The hair used comes from the back of the scalp, the occipital area, because that hair is resistant to the hormone that drives pattern baldness. The review also advises against grafting only the crown, since hair loss around it can continue.

Our own pages cover the modern method in detail: see FUE hair transplant and FUE vs DHI.

Risks Worth Knowing Before You Start

The same review lists the risks of hair transplantation: infection, scarring, graft failure, unnatural hairlines and temporary shock loss, where transplanted and nearby hair falls out for a while before growing back. These are risks of the procedure in general, not a record of Buck's results.

• Infection can follow any surgery that breaks the skin.
• Scarring depends on the method and on how the person heals.
• Graft failure means some transplanted follicles do not grow.
• An unnatural hairline is usually a design problem, not a healing one.
• Shock loss is temporary shedding after the procedure.

The International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery publishes a patient guide that covers the same ground and is a good second source before any consultation.

Why the Donor Area Is the Limit

The StatPearls review states plainly that the donor site is one of the primary limiting factors, whatever the technique. The safe donor zone sits in the mid-occipital region, between the upper and lower occipital protuberances, and typically holds 65 to 85 follicular units per square centimetre. Donor areas above 80 units per square centimetre are described as excellent candidates, while densities below 40 are considered less suitable.

Because hair from that zone resists androgens, transplanted hairs keep the traits of the donor area, including their thickness. That is why moved hair tends to last while the hair around it keeps thinning. It is also why repeated sessions matter. Each one uses part of a supply that does not refill.

When the scalp donor area is not enough, the review says other sites, such as the parietal scalp, the chin area, the chest and other body areas, can be used. It adds that the evidence for them is thinner and the hair can behave differently from scalp hair. We mention this because "just take hair from somewhere else" is often said casually online, and the literature does not treat it that lightly.

Who Is a Good Candidate

• A healthy scalp, with donor hair of good quality and quantity.
• Stable pattern hair loss rather than active, unexplained shedding.
• Realistic expectations about coverage and density, which the review says need thorough counselling and shared decision making.
• A plan that looks ahead to future loss instead of covering only the current gap.

Treatments That Do Not Involve Surgery

The NHS says most hair loss does not need treatment, because it is either temporary or a normal part of getting older. For male pattern baldness it names finasteride and minoxidil as the main treatments. It also says they do not work for everyone, only work for as long as they are used, and are not all available on the NHS. Women should not use finasteride. No treatment is 100% effective, and some wigs are available on the NHS, depending on circumstances. Read the details on the NHS hair loss page.

The NHS adds one piece of advice that applies to every patient, famous or not: see a GP to get an idea of what is causing the hair loss before thinking about going to a commercial hair clinic. If the loss is causing distress, the GP may be able to help with counselling too.

How the Outlets Differ on the Buck Story

Six outlets carry some part of the 2011 and 2016 story, and they agree on the core. They differ in which details they include. The table shows what each one contributes, so you can see which details have more than one source behind them.

The 2022 coverage is thinner. OutKick and BroBible quote his posts directly. The clinic's own blog adds the FUE label and the earlier-visit claim, and nobody independent has confirmed either.

Why Celebrity Hair Stories Are Hard to Read

• Most people never say which technique they had, so any technique named on a third-party page is a guess.
• Graft counts on clinic blogs are estimates made from photos. A photo cannot show the number.
• Clinics have a reason to claim famous patients, so a clinic's account stays "reported" until the person confirms it.
• Jokes and interviews give quotes, not medical records, so dates can be loose.

The 2022 Debut and Why the Timing Matters

According to OutKick, Buck's first Monday Night Football game with Troy Aikman was the Broncos-Seahawks game that doubled as Russell Wilson's return to Seattle. The post about the "newly arranged follicles" went up in the weeks before it. A television debut is a fixed date, and the green dye was a joke about how little time he had to let it fade.

The timing says something about how men approach these procedures. A new job, a wedding or a camera date often sets the schedule, and healing sets the limit. Early shedding, redness and shock loss are normal in the weeks after a transplant, so planning around a hard date is a risk. Leave real margin.

Recovery and Timelines in General

We cannot give Buck's own recovery timeline for 2022, because he has not shared one. What the medical sources support is general. The StatPearls review lists temporary shock loss as a recognised effect, and the NHS says that hair loss from temporary causes grows back once the cause is gone. If you are planning a procedure, ask your surgeon for a written timeline covering the first days, the shedding phase and the months until the hair is established.

• Day of the procedure: local anesthesia is common, so ask what is planned.
• First days: ask what care the donor and recipient areas need.
• Weeks after: transplanted hair may shed. This is expected and temporary.
• Months after: ask when your surgeon expects growth to be established, and judge results then, not before.

What Buck's Story Says About Chasing a Hairline

A hairline is never finished. If you keep adding to it, you spend donor hair, and donor hair is limited. Eight sessions over 18 years shows how easy it is to keep chasing the look. A modern plan is built around the whole lifetime of the donor area, not around the next session.

• Ask the surgeon how much donor hair you have and how much of it the plan uses.
• Ask what happens to the hairline if loss continues behind the transplanted area.
• Ask which anesthesia will be used and who monitors you.
• Ask to see unretouched results at least a year after the procedure.

What a Modern Hair Transplant Costs Compared With Plugs

Buck has not disclosed any price, and we do not estimate what his procedures cost. For a modern session at our own packages, the range is $2,550 to $4,500, and our own team performs the procedure in partner hospitals and polyclinics in Istanbul. See our hair transplant cost page for what each package includes, and hair transplant in Istanbul for the city and hospitals.

Frequently Asked Questions

Considering Hair Restoration for Your Own Hairline?

Send us photos for a free assessment on our contact page. Our own team does the procedure, and we will tell you how many grafts the plan needs. For more public figures, see our celebrity hair transplant page, and for our own patients' results, see before and after.