Beard it like Beckham! Trans man, 40, spends £5K on facial hair transplant to look like Man Utd legend after growing fed up with being called ‘Miss’
A transgender man says he feels ‘complete’ after spending £5,000 to grow a beard like David Beckham – after getting fed up with being called ‘Miss’.
Lee Brown, 40, invested in a grueling 12-hour operation to implant hair follicles in his face, allowing him to grow his stubble and look exactly like the Manchester United legend.
Mr Brown, who had been taking testosterone for 18 months, opted for the follicle transplant after the medication failed to stimulate his natural facial hair growth and he grew tired of being addressed as a woman.
And surgeons even took him “beard shopping,” giving him a catalog of celebrity whiskers to flip through so he could find the perfect look.
He chose Golden Balls’ iconic stubble because of the footballer’s trendy fashion and grooming features.
Lee Brown, from Buckinghamshire, spent £5,000 on a beard transplant as part of his gender transition from female to male
The 40-year-old had a range of celebrity facial hair to choose from – and chose to copy David Beckham for his knack for a trendy beard
Lee Brown pictured himself eight years (left) and six years (right) before his transition. He says he felt like he was in the wrong body from the age of four – and now feels ‘complete’
And two years after the operation, Lee says he feels complete – and has never been mistreated since.
Lee, from Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, said: ‘When I went to the clinic they asked me what I was thinking about.
‘I thought of David Beckham because he’s always had facial hair, he’s always been trendy and everyone loves his facial hair.
‘It was something I wanted to do because I wasn’t growing my own facial hair because of my hormones, it was taking too long.
‘Misgendering still happened and I felt confident that if I had some facial hair it wouldn’t happen.
‘I’ve had a double mastectomy and a full hysterectomy, so the facial hair was the missing piece of the puzzle that kind of let me down.
‘Every day I look in the mirror and I’m so happy I have this. Funnily enough, I’m never misunderstood again.’
Lee says he knew from the age of four that “nothing felt right” about his body – but it wasn’t until decades later that he confided to his 58-year-old wife Dawn that he wanted to change gender.
He added: “I always knew I was in the wrong body. My first memory of realizing that nothing felt right was when I was about four years old, but I didn’t know what it was.
“When I was growing up in the 80s, there wasn’t as much about being transgender as there is now.
‘As I got older I became more aware of who I really was, but I didn’t want to tell people because I worried about how my friends and family would take it.
‘I kept it to myself and it started to get to the point where it was causing me severe depression.’
Surgery Group surgeons drew the beard shape Lee wanted on his face before beginning a grueling 12-hour skin graft surgery
Surgeons removed a total of 3,000 follicles from the back of Mr Brown’s head and implanted them directly into his face to give him the beard he had always wanted
Surgeons examine some of Mr Brown’s hair follicles under a microscope before implanting them in his face
A cup of harvested hair follicles from the back of Lee Brown’s head – which were implanted directly into his face over the course of 12 hours
Mr. Brown during a break from surgery. He says he ‘looked and felt like a truck had run over my face’ – but in the long run he was happy with the results
A civil service position in 2019 became a wake-up call after he was repeatedly called miss despite identifying as male, and after confiding in his boss, he began his transition in January 2020.
Lee said, “I had no idea people would call me ‘Miss.’ It drove me crazy being called “Miss” hundreds of times a day.
‘It really started to go downhill mentally. I went to occupational medicine through my work and they sent me to a works council that was understanding.
‘I have a very loving and relaxed family, 99 percent of me said, “They’re fine with it,” but it was that one percent that I didn’t want to risk.
“My parents were sad that I felt like I couldn’t tell them because we are so close.
‘We had a conversation and they said ‘we will help and support you’. They helped me pay for all my surgeries.”
Lee began hormone therapy: He received testosterone injections to lose fat, gain muscle, deepen his voice and, he was told, grow a beard.
But the facial topiary never appeared – a misstep that Lee said he was “gutted” about.
After hearing about beard transplants, the frustrated civil servant researched beard transplants online and contacted Surgery Group.
He said of his journey to growing a beard: ‘Everything happened except facial hair, I was really gutted because as a trans man that’s the main thing you want.
‘You want to look masculine, feel masculine and pass for masculine. Maybe I was a little impatient, I gave it a year and nothing happened.
“I thought, am I going to be one of those people where it doesn’t happen, or is it going to take five or 10 years?”
“I went on Google. I knew there were hair transplants, but I didn’t know there were beard transplants and I just came across them,
“I started getting a little obsessed with it and researching it.
‘I thought to myself, “I want to do this, it will make me feel complete and I won’t be mistreated.” If someone didn’t know I wasn’t born male, I don’t think they would know.”
The results of the beard transplant after 10 days (left) and six weeks (right)
Lee Brown can now grow his facial hair in different styles, including a full beard, a mustache and a goatee
Lee Brown, pictured in August 2023, says the beard was the ‘missing piece of the puzzle’ as part of his gender transition
Lee Brown’s grown beard. His own natural facial hair is finally starting to grow, raising hopes that he can actually achieve thick and shiny chops
During the November 2021 surgery, the outline of his new ‘life-changing’ beard was drawn and individual follicles were extracted from the back of his head and placed in his face.
Surgeons have made almost 3,000 grafts, including a minor upgrade procedure on his chin last year.
For the first few weeks, he had to sleep sitting up, waking himself every hour to spray a saline solution on his face to keep the grafts moist so they would be accepted by his body.
Initially, the surgery left him looking and feeling “like a truck had run over my face.” But after almost two years of letting his beard settle, Now that his breasts and uterus have been removed, Lee feels like a new man.
His own natural facial hair is finally starting to emerge as well, giving him hope of growing a luxuriously thick beard.
He summarized: ‘At that time I’ve started growing my own facial hair, so maybe it will blend in with my beard transplant and make it a bit thicker.
‘When I look in the mirror I now feel complete, the inside of me matches the outside.’