It’s hard not to swoon at the sight of the silver fox that Steve Carell has become. Thinking back, it probably had something to do with that good peanut butter massage that Michael got from Dwight.
Or, as memers say, he was such a good boss that his hair just grew back out of respect for him. Which one was it? We’ll never really know. But let’s deep dive into another conspiracy theory about his hair: Steve Carell hair transplant.
Most of us don’t even remember that particular hair-do that’s making rounds on the internet as proof of Steve’s balding head. It’s season 1, Michael from The Office. His hair is slicked-back, probably with some sort of gel, and there he is just being himself, which is the world’s best boss, of course.
In that image, though, you can clearly see his scalp through his hair. Enter season 2, and it’s like Michael’s a whole new man. He’s looking fit, he’s looking tan, and he’s got a beautiful combover. There are absolutely no signs of thinning anymore. So, what happened?
Steve Carell Hair’s Before And After
You only have to look at a Reddit thread titled “Steve Carell’s hairline over the seasons” to get an idea of Steve’s hairline transformation through different seasons of the show.
Season 1 hair is the worst, hands down. If you didn’t know any better, you might’ve thought that it looked like hair plugs.
It’s probably because the show’s creators were trying to stay loyal to the UK version of The Office with Ricky Gervais as David Brent.
No one liked that guy, and in order to evoke similar sentiments, his get-up was reproduced on Michael.
However, in the podcast “Office Ladies”, Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer speak about the reason why that look was discontinued. It was after Season 1. “The summer that he was going to film
The 40-Year-Old Virgin, he got in crazy amazing shape…and then he’s maintained that. He’s very fit now, he sort of, like, made that part of his life.
They just made gave him a whole new look too, they zhuzhed him up.” That’s what Angela had to say.
Jenna Fischer says that they used it as an excuse to finally let go of David Brent and let Steve do his thing. And it may just have been the thing that saved the show from getting cancelled.
Because even if we felt second-hand embarrassment from watching Michael make a fool of himself in front of the world, Steve Carell’s character just made him loveable regardless.
Kim Ferry – The New Hairstylist
That was another thing that had changed in season 2. In an interview with Mashable, Kim Ferry says, “I sat down with all the actors and talked to them about their looks.
You know, ‘What do you want to move forward with? What do you want to change? How do you feel?’ That kind of thing.”
Going through the tapes of season 1, Ferry went “oof” when she looked at Michael’s hair. She says, “I felt like it was a very severe look on [Steve]. I wanted to talk to [him] about it, and that’s the first thing I did.
He was like, ‘Yeah, I definitely want to change it.'” According to Ferry, the intention was to make Michael’s hair look more like “Gordon Gekko” from the 1987 film Wall Street.
However, she says it “wasn’t flattering.” So, Kim made sure to do his good looks some justice. There was blow-drying and lifting involved. Gone was the slick-back hair, and, instead, we had a side part.
Scaling Steve Carell’s Hair Loss
Before anything, it’s important that we establish that Steve Carell was, quite probably, suffering from pattern baldness.
Now, we aren’t sure about the hair density on the top of the head, but from that one image from season 1, it didn’t look as good.
However, it isn’t enough to say that he was also losing hair on the top of the head and the crown region.
What’s clear is that his hairline was receding. There was a clear “M” shape that you could see.
And according to the Norwood Scale, he was on Stage 2, which isn’t as bad. If you get hair transplantation surgery at this time, you’ll leave many people wondering whether or not you were actually losing your hair.
That’s what happened with Steve Carell’s hair, or did it?
Steve Carell Hair Transplant or Was It Just Makeup & Hairstyle?
That is hotly debated on different social media platforms. Clearly, you could see Steve’s scalp through the gelled wisps of hair. A new hairstyle couldn’t have just rid him of pattern baldness or signs of thinning.
But that’s the thing; his previous hairstyle was just so that it looked like his hair was thinning. There was a ton of gel involved, and it’s as if someone used their fingers to slick them back.
Some people say that it was just the hairstyle that made him look bald. It wasn’t anything like a receding hairline or permanent hair loss, for that matter. However, for others, the transformation is too radical, and they can’t help but say that Steve Carell’s hair transplant actually happened.
Now, you may read somewhere that in the second season of the show, the producers intended for Michael to visit a hair transplant clinic for his thinning hair, which would’ve confirmed that surgery may have taken place. However, there’s no source confirming that.
And, frankly, that joke’s offensive! Steve’s a pretty nice and private guy. If he doesn’t want his hair transplant to become common knowledge, that’s his choice. It’d be pretty bad to ridicule his hair on national television.
Was it Toppik?
One Redditor had something very interesting to say about this on Dunder Mifflin’s subreddit. Posting a page from the book The Daily Show (The Book): An Oral History, they drew attention to one line that said, “I remember that Steve Carell had been using this powder called Toppik.”
For those who don’t know, Toppik is basically a spray of hair fibre that gives the illusion of high hair density. It may have made Steve Carell’s normal hairline look thicker, darker, and denser.
And because of the way the density of Steve’s hair almost fluctuated from time to time, it’s possible that it was Toppik after all. Take a look at these photos below:
Steve’s hair on November 12, 2014:
Steve’s hair on 21st November, 2014:
Steve Carell MFF 2014 (cropped),
CC BY 2.0
So, was it this? Well, in the first season, things are a bit up in the air. However, in many close-up shots of Michael’s head in the second season, he doesn’t even seem to have his hair dyed. You can see his greys.
Maybe he was sporting his natural hairline after all. We can never say for sure because the actor himself hasn’t confirmed or denied anything about the “Steve Carell’s hair transplant” phenomenon.
Was A Hair Transplant Surgery Ever Involved?
Let’s assume that the Steve Carell’s hair transplant really did happen. Today, follicular unit extraction or FUE hair transplants are the go-to choice for hair restoration for almost everyone.
So, Steve probably would’ve gone with this option. Not just because it’s popular, the FUE procedure doesn’t leave a long linear scar like FUT (FUE scars are small and circular and not as visible when the hair’s short) and the results are natural-looking.
The old technique used “hair plugs,” which gave the head a doll-like appearance. It’s now obsolete (of course, we don’t offer hair plugs in Turkey). Instead, it’s a follicular unit hair transplant.
In the latter, the surgeon takes individual hair follicles from the back/sides of the scalp. Looking at different pictures of Steve Carell, he seems to have a robust donor area.
However, since his balding area wasn’t that large, he wouldn’t have needed more than 1,000 hair implants for fuller hair, according to the graft calculator
So, What’s the Verdict?
So, if you have skipped to this point, we’ll just summarize for you: It was makeup and hairstyle that made Michael look quite bald in season 1 of The Office.
The thing is that Michael’s character in season one of the show was meant to look “sleazy” like Gervais’ David Brent. Part of that sleaze charm was thinning hair.
Even if Steve Carell was suffering from hair loss, the show made it look worse through a buttload of hair gel.
So, his thinning was more “highlighted”, so to say. Was that how his hair naturally was? Or was he thinning due to pattern baldness? We can’t say for sure.
Now, don’t go screaming, “No, God! Please, No!” that’s not the answer I was looking for. But that’s just the truth of the matter, unfortunately.
If you look at Steve Carell’s hair now, honestly, you’ll find that his hairline keeps looking different, depending on his hairstyle.
Looking at one picture, you can bet yourself that it’s a transplant, but the right next photo will tell you a different story. This could possibly be because of hair fibres.
In some of his very recent pictures, you can still spot the “M” along his hairline. His hair’s still thinning in a spot right next to the midpart. So, there’s no clear evidence of Steve Carell’s hair transplant, but it’s possible that he might be using hair fibres.
Summing Up
Steve Carell hair transplant took place around a time when the actor’s career was taking off. However, he was already in his 40s at that time.
This is usually the time signs of male pattern baldness start becoming more visible. Baldness would have aged him considerably more, so he did what he could.
Whether or not Steve Carell hair transplant took place, we can all agree that he is the world’s best boss, period.
