Life affects us all and those of us lucky enough to live to a ripe old age will eventually begin to show the effects of aging, but celebrities have a particularly harsh lens through which to go from their youthful glow to a more youthful and mature appearance. Elton John has spent much of his life in the spotlight, and extravagant fashion and flashy style are part of his image.
What’s also been part of her image – though certainly much less embraced by the music superstar – is her hairline. John reportedly quietly complained about his hair loss in private, and it’s possible that previous drug use contributed to the problem.
Elton John has one of the most successful music careers of all time
As All Music reports, John practically burst onto the music scene in the 1970s and saw his popularity skyrocket. He started playing the piano at the age of four and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 11. As a teenager, he dropped out of school in search of fame and fortune, and he certainly found both! As he struggled to find his footing in a brutal music industry in the 1960s, he built what would become a lasting partnership with Bernie Taupin.
Taupin is famous for churning out lyrics at a fast pace (apparently one song per hour!), and John made music for the lyrics almost as quickly. When John began performing for American audiences in the early 1970s, his future was already in place. Success after success, he climbed the charts and quickly became an extremely popular musician with a particularly pronounced reputation for organizing extraordinary concerts.
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Once John – who is now famous for his gay outspokenness and supporter of the gay rights movement – admitted his bisexuality in the late 1970s, his popularity dwindled somewhat. He was also suffering from exhaustion and dealing with a lot of stress which, he has since admitted, was punctuated by drug use and partying that was taking its toll. He pulled the tour schedule and looked like he was about to run out. By the 1980s, his cocaine and alcohol abuse had peaked and he underwent throat surgery but did not stop his drug use.
It wasn’t until 1990 that John focused on sobriety and treating his bulimia. At the same time, she underwent hair replacement surgery.
Previous drug use may have affected Elton John’s hair loss
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As Ultimate Classic Rock reports, hair loss was a concern for John long before he rose to fame. In his early days, he admired Elvis Presley, who had a reputation for having thick, flowing locks. His mother was quick to tell him that he should enjoy his loose hair for as long as he could because family history suggested he would be “bald as an egg” by the age of 20.
In fact, John’s hair loss was an integral part of his appearance. Then, in the mid-1980s, he seems to have reversed the trend. His hair was noticeably thicker and fuller. Even today, at 75, John sports “healthy blond hair”.
Part of the rebound could be due to his newfound sobriety. John has been drug-free since 1990, but experts such as Samuel M. Lam believe John should use a hairpiece in addition to having had surgeries because “his hair loss is extensive enough that a hair transplant cannot not fix the problem with sufficient cosmetic density for him.
What did Elton John say about his hair loss?
The Daily Mail has published an excerpt from John’s memoir tackling the problem of hair loss head-on. John admits his hair was already thinning when a particularly abrasive dye job left him with little to save: “In 1976 there was hardly anything left on it. I hated my appearance”.
He explained that he had had surgery twice, and both times it “hurts a lot”. It was only pain, but no gain, because the procedure didn’t work.
Why? John speculates: “Maybe it had something to do with the amount of drugs I was taking. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that the only thing I was told not to do in the weeks following the procedure was to wear a hat – advice I chose to do. ‘ignore completely because, hatless, it now looked like something that pops up towards the end of a horror movie and starts picking up gangs of teenage campers with an axe.
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