For a man who has dedicated his fortune to colonising Mars and merging human consciousness with artificial intelligence, Elon Musk appears curiously preoccupied with the earthly vanity of his own hairline.
While the Tesla CEO has been uncharacteristically transparent about his use of weight-loss medication, his silence regarding his follicular fortunes has always been deafening.
Now, a series of high-definition photographs circulating on the very platform Elon Musk owns, X, has reignited the debate, exposing a distinct scar tracing the back of his skull—a mark that experts say tells a story the billionaire won’t.
The images, showing a pale, linear scar cutting across the posterior scalp, have done little to quell the long-standing rumours. Online commentators, demonstrating the ruthless efficiency of the internet hive mind, were quick to dissect the evidence.
People surprised about Elon Musk tweeting about Hitler when he has a haircut that screams 1980’s German synth-pop pic.twitter.com/Khlew8NNN8
— 💀DeathMetalViking💀 (@DeathMetalV) February 17, 2022
“Did Elon get in a fight with a Flowbee?” one user quipped, referencing the vacuum-cleaner haircutting system of the 1980s. Yet, beneath the mockery lies a forensic curiosity about the physical cost of maintaining a billionaire’s youth.
To understand the medical reality behind the viral speculation, one must look past the memes. Dr Michael May of the Wimpole Clinic, a surgeon with over 25 years of experience in hair restoration, suggests the scarring is consistent with Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT).
Just a reminder of Elon Musk before he got his hair plugs pic.twitter.com/J6TYudgjN1
— Morgan J. Freeman (@mjfree) November 28, 2024
This procedure, once the industry gold standard in the 2000s, involves removing a strip of skin from the back of the head to harvest grafts—leaving exactly the kind of linear mark observed on Elon Musk.
Dr May estimates that achieving the density Elon Musk now has would have required more than 5,500 grafts across multiple surgeries. In the US, such extensive work would cost between $20,000 and $30,000.
It is a drop in the ocean for the world’s richest man, but the choice of FUT—an older, more invasive technique—offers a rare glimpse into the timeline of Elon Musk’s transformation, dating his aesthetic interventions back to an era before his ascent to global ubiquity.
Yikes….you’d think the richest guy in the world would have the best surgeons https://t.co/c7h59ikAzq
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) February 2, 2026
The irony of the situation is not lost on Elon Musk’s critics, particularly given his increasingly vocal stance on bodily autonomy in other contexts. The billionaire has previously championed cosmetic enhancement, once tweeting that “Plastic surgery (done right) is awesome. Technology ftw” in response to a discussion on Botox. He was less enthusiastic, however, about his ex-partner Grimes’ desire for “elf ears,” warning that the downsides likely outweighed the benefits.
gender affirming surgery ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/3yTcuOwrQX
— exfauna (@poisonjr) June 14, 2022
Yet, this libertarian attitude towards aesthetic modification clashes sharply with his rigid opposition to gender-affirming care. In an interview with The Advocate, Elon Musk described such procedures as “child mutilation” and has frequently used his platform to decry irreversible surgeries, claiming his transgender daughter, Vivian, was “killed by the woke mind virus.”
Observers have been quick to highlight the hypocrisy: a man who has allegedly undergone invasive, irreversible surgery to affirm his own self-image as an alpha male tech mogul, railing against others seeking surgery to affirm their gender identity.
“Doesn’t he rail against gender affirming care?” one user asked, pointing to the cognitive dissonance. As old photos of a balding Elon Musk resurfaced alongside the new, scarred images, another response cut through the noise with brutal simplicity: “Your wife isn’t coming back.”
Inquistr has reached out to Elon Musk’s reps for comments.
