[CptJamesCook]

A hair transplant isn't extremely expensive, and price is definitely not the limiting factor on the result you can achieve. They cost around $10k on the low end and $35k from the most expensive doctors in the USA.

Elon was lucky to have great donor sites for the hair. Likely also started using finasteride, minoxidil, and a DHT inhibiting shampoo right around when he got the transplant if not a couple years before.

I've had 3 hair transplants myself, and have spent enough time in and around hair transplant surgeon's offices to know that the vast majority of cases don't turn out as well as Elon's. Most people just don't have enough hair.

[voisin]

I posted this above but then saw you have direct experience and thought I’d ask: am I correct in understanding that transplanted hair is done in random patterns but not at random angles, and so the hair tends to look “stiff” and unnatural, like it has hair spray in it?

[CptJamesCook]

This is my surgeon's response to your question:

The angle, orientation and position of EACH AND EVERY transplanted graft (of hair follicles) determines the final naturalness of the outcome. This is determined by the “stroke” of the surgeon’s hand while making the recipient sites and cannot be changed by technicians during placement.

A typical poor outcome from a “chop shop” or inexperienced surgeon will likely be unnatural due to a combination of a poorly designed 2-dimensional hairline shape as well as poor angulation of the grafts creating a contrived appearance—like the example you described, but there are many other pitfalls that can occur.

An artistic surgeon will excel at the nuances of hairline shape, variations of transplanted density across the recipient area, graft size (1, 2 or 3 hair grafts) and angles of growth to create undetectability AND coverage at the same time.

[pestatije]

You are saying random angles, but that is definitely not how hair is naturally set. The issue is more like: vertical angle throughout vs. slight angle only changing uniformly in different areas.