Did MGK get a hair transplant? We compare dated photos from 2013 to 2023, the Papercuts bald cap and the scar rumors, and show what is actually confirmed.
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Machine Gun Kelly has not publicly confirmed having a hair transplant. The rumor rests on how his frontal hairline looked in photos around 2013 and 2014 compared with later years, plus online theories about a scar at the back of his head. No surgeon, clinic, graft count or medical record has been named. The closest he has come to the subject is a joke about his own "2014 hairline" in January 2026.
There is no confirmed answer. MGK, whose real name is Colson Baker, has never said in an interview or post that he had hair restoration surgery. Every claim you will find online traces back to two things: side-by-side photo comparisons made by fans and hair clinics, and a theory that a linear scar can be seen on the back of his head.
Those comparisons are not worthless, but they are not proof. A hairline can look different because of length, styling, lighting, angle and age. A scar seen in a low-resolution concert photo can be a scar, a shadow, a parting or a tattoo line. The only people who could settle the question are MGK himself or the medical team that treated him, and neither has spoken.
This review sorts what has actually been documented, with dates, from what has only been repeated. It also explains what each theory would mean in surgical terms, so you can judge the claims for yourself.
Freely licensed photos with known dates are the fairest way to look at the change, because each one can be checked against its file page on Wikimedia Commons. The panel below uses three of them, cropped to the head only and not retouched.
In his early mixtape years, MGK usually wore his hair very short or shaved at the sides, with a short top. That style leaves the temples and the frontal line fully exposed, so any recession is easy to see. It is also the period most comparison images start from, which matters: a buzz cut makes almost any adult hairline look higher than a longer cut would.
Most rumor posts point to photos from around 2013 and 2014, where the temples look deeper than in later years. In the licensed 04.03.2013 photo above, taken from the side, the hair is swept forward over the temple, so the corners cannot be measured. MGK himself seems aware that this era is remembered: when Pete Davidson joked in January 2026 that MGK's baby daughter had his "2014 hairline", MGK replied, "You know I said that too, 'Is it going to fill in,'" according to The News.
From the mid-2010s, photos show a fuller front and a lower-looking line, which is what fueled the transplant theory. In the 05.07.2018 photo, taken from the front, the hair is cut short with the fringe brought down onto the forehead, which hides the exact position of the line.
In the 12.08.2023 photo he is blond, with longer hair falling forward. Again, the frontal edge is covered. Across all three licensed photos we could find, the hairline itself is never fully exposed, which is the honest limit of any comparison made from them.
This is where most of the "he had FUT" claims come from. Hair clinic blogs say that photos of the back of his head, taken when it was shaved, appear to show a horizontal line consistent with a strip harvest scar. We could not verify that from any freely licensed photo, and no close-up medical image exists in public.
The back of his head also has a well-documented, non-surgical history. On 11.06.2019 he shared a clip of the title of his album Hotel Diablo being tattooed on his head, ahead of its 05.07.2019 release, and told Beats 1 that it was "tattooed there" on the back of his head. In August 2021 he posted "I shaved my head for this" before the Papercuts video, which turned out to use a bald cap, as Hollywood Life reported on 12.08.2021. Tattoo ink, shaving lines and a prosthetic cap can all be misread in low-resolution images. If you want to understand how real donor scars are treated, our page on a hair transplant into scar tissue explains the options.
Nobody outside his medical team knows, and he has not said. The two theories you will see are below, with what each would actually mean.
FUT, or follicular unit transplantation, removes a thin strip of scalp from the back of the head and closes the wound, which leaves a fine linear scar. Because people believe they can see a line on his shaved head, FUT is the technique most often attached to his name. Several clinic blogs cite a YouTube analysis by Dr Gary Linkov, a surgeon, who suggested a strip procedure in 2013. That is a hypothesis built on photos, not a diagnosis.
The same analysis suggests a second session after 2014, possibly by FUE, follicular unit extraction, where grafts are taken one at a time with a small punch and leave scattered dot scars instead of a line. A second session is a common pattern in real patients when hair loss continues behind an earlier restoration. Our FUE hair transplant page explains how individual extraction works.
Nothing about technique. No photo in the public domain shows his donor area clearly enough to tell a strip scar from a shaving line, and no doctor who has examined him has spoken. Any article that states "MGK had FUT in 2013" as fact is presenting a theory as a record. A claim like this could only move from rumor to fact through one of the following:
None of these exists so far. What can be described is how the two techniques named in the rumors differ, because that is what people look for in his photos. The comparison below follows the general descriptions published by the ISHRS.
| Feature | FUT (strip) | FUE (extraction) |
|---|---|---|
| How grafts are taken | A strip of scalp is removed from the back of the head and divided into grafts | Follicular units are taken one by one with a small punch |
| Donor scar | One linear scar across the back of the head | Many small dot scars spread over the donor zone |
| When it may show | With very short or shaved hair at the back | Usually hard to see, unless the area is shaved very close |
| What it would mean for the MGK theory | A visible line is the main claim, but it has not been confirmed as a scar | Dot scars have not been documented in any public photo |
The number is unknown. The most repeated online version is "two", one strip procedure around 2013 and one extraction procedure later, but that figure comes from the same photo-based theory described above. It has not been confirmed by MGK, a surgeon or a clinic. It is also possible that he had none and that styling, length and natural variation explain what fans saw. Treat any specific number as speculation.
No graft count has ever been published, and we do not estimate one. A graft number cannot be read from photos. It depends on how wide and deep the restored area is, the density the patient wants, the thickness and curl of the hair, and how many follicles the donor area can safely give.
For general context, a frontal hairline is usually a smaller job than restoring the top or the crown, and the stage of loss on the Norwood scale shapes the plan. Our guide to how many grafts a hairline transplant needs shows how the number is worked out in a consultation.
Partly, yes. Several ordinary factors change how a hairline looks on camera, and each should be considered before calling a change surgical.
None of these proves he did not have surgery. They only explain why photos alone cannot prove that he did.
When hair restoration teams assess a hairline, they work from standardized images: the same angle, the same lighting, the same hair length, dated months apart, plus close-ups of the donor area. Celebrity comparisons rarely meet any of those conditions, and MGK's do not.
Our article on hair transplant before and after results shows how proper patient documentation differs from celebrity comparisons.
His case shows how a celebrity hair story forms and hardens. Photos from one period are set beside photos from another, a clinic blog adds a surgical name to the change, and within a few years "he may have had" becomes "he had". Readers then repeat a technique and a year that nobody has confirmed.
For anyone researching their own treatment, there are three practical lessons. First, the technique matters for the donor area: a strip leaves a line, extraction leaves dots, and both should be discussed before surgery. Second, many people need a plan that allows for future loss, because hair loss often continues behind a restored front. Third, judge results from dated, same-angle photos and first-hand accounts, not from concert pictures. Our overview of celebrity hair transplants compares which public figures have confirmed procedures and which, like MGK, are only rumored.
A frontal hairline like the one MGK is shown with in later photos is one of the most common goals in hair restoration. Whether it is realistic for you depends on your donor density, the stage of your hair loss, your hair type and your age, because a hairline has to suit you in 20 years, not only next year.
Today most frontal work is done with follicular unit methods. DHI uses an implanter pen for fine control of angle at the front, and our FUE vs DHI comparison explains when each is chosen. For budgeting, our hair transplant cost page lists what affects the price. You can compare MGK's case with other musicians in our Zach Bryan hair transplant review.
A celebrity story gives context, but every scalp and donor area is different. If you are noticing a receding or thinning hairline, the Turkey Hair Center team can review your photos and give you a free, confidential hair analysis with a donor-area assessment. You can reach us through our contact page.
Machine Gun Kelly is not a patient of Turkey Hair Center and has not endorsed our services. This article is an independent educational review based on dated media reports, freely licensed photographs and general educational material. Turkey Hair Center has no access to his private medical records and makes no claim that he had any procedure. The observations here are not a clinical diagnosis and do not guarantee any treatment outcome.
Written by Nazmi Güldeş — Certified Trichologist·Last reviewed:
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