In 1989, court documents from Donald Trump’s divorce proceedings with Ivana Trump revealed a surprising detail: the former president underwent scalp reduction surgery, a cosmetic procedure designed to shrink bald spots by removing sections of skin from the scalp.

This revelation came to light during testimony related to the couple’s high-profile split, making headlines decades later as part of Trump’s long-debated hair mystery.

Experts in hair restoration have since speculated that Trump’s distinctive hairstyle may also involve hair transplants along the frontal hairline, combined with a meticulous comb-over technique.

These procedures were common among wealthy individuals in the late 1980s, long before modern follicular unit extraction became the norm.

Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) is a modern hair transplant technique. It involves removing individual hair follicles from a donor area (usually the back of the scalp) and implanting them into thinning or bald areas. Unlike older methods (like scalp reduction or strip harvesting), FUE leaves minimal scarring and looks more natural because hairs are transplanted in their natural grouping.