Matthew McConaughey clears up infamous rumour about his hair

Matthew McConaughey has addressed a longstanding rumour about his appearance, revealing the real story behind it.

Matthew McConaughey has been candid about his significant late-1990s hair loss – and its seemingly magical regrowth.

The 52-year-old actor revealed that a doctor claimed credit for giving him a hair transplant, which he never actually underwent, reports the New York Post.

In his memoir Greenlights and in a recent interview with LADbible, the Dallas Buyers Club star said he started to shave his head many years ago because the hair-thinning was so severe.

However, he remarkably was able to reverse it.

“How did it grow back? That’s a great mystery,” McConaughey told the outlet, adding that he rubbed a “topical ointment” into his scalp once a day.

“I was fully committed to it – no Propecia [hair-loss medication], no nothing, it was just manual labour,” the Texas native said. “All I can tell you is it came back. I have more hair now than I had in 1999.”

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A bald McConaughey on the red carpet with Jennifer Lopez in 2001. Picture: Mark J. Terrill/AP

And McConaughey sporting flowing locks in January 2020. Picture: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

However, after his mane began to grow back, he said people thought he’d had a hair transplant because a surgeon reportedly was claiming that the Oscar-winner paid big bucks for one.

McConaughey said he’d even bumped into another doctor in Beverly Hills who told him about the surgeon hitting hair transplant conventions, where he would claim to be responsible for the screen legend’s new ’do.

He now sports an impressively full head of hair. Picture: Noam Galai/Getty Images

McConaughey added that the doctor he met in Los Angeles even asked to inspect his hair to see the natural regrowth for himself.

“He goes, ‘Can I just look at your hair? Can I just feel it and see?’” McConaughey said. “I said ‘Yeah, man.’ He goes, ‘You don’t have transplants.’ I said, ‘That’s what I said, of course I don’t.’”

The doctor then told McConaughey he couldn’t wait to call out the surgeon’s ruse at the next convention.

The Austin FC soccer club owner also revealed he’s been applying the same ointment on his scalp for over 20 years now.

“I’m not gonna quit to see if, like, ‘Oh, do I need to do it anymore?’ I’m not taking that chance,” McConaughey said.

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was reproduced with permission