On Thursday, following Prince Harry’s first public appearance of the year – at a virtual summit for BetterUp, the mental health start-up where he works as chief impact officer – there was only one talking point in town. Not his heartfelt confession that he had experienced “burnout” while carrying out Royal duties, nor that he needs to meditate for 45 minutes “every single day”, and not even his insistence that employers should give their staff “time to focus on themselves”.

No, the question that lit up social media was: what on earth has Harry done to his hair?

It has been shorn into a fetching short crop, and while not exactly bushy, it seems wispier than usual – and unruly, too. It feels like real a departure because, until now, the crown prince of Montecito has mostly kept his hair somewhat shaggy and unkempt. Certainly, its new thinned-out-ness provides a neat counterpoint to the fulsome beard on his visage.

The way the ginger prince wears his wiry barnet has prompted musings before. Last September, when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were named by Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 most influential people, social media was awash with discussions about whether Harry’s hair was starting to thin like his older brother’s, what lengths he might he might be going to give himself a fuller head, and whether he may even have had a hair transplant.

According to Spencer Stevenson, founder of spexhair.com, a website aimed to educate men who are facing hair loss and considering a hair transplant, Harry’s strawberry blond top has something of a spring in its step, despite an emerging bald patch – a strange mix of too much and too little.

“To me, it appears matted and fuzzy, in a way that doesn’t look entirely natural,” says Stevenson, who launched a podcast, The Bald Truth, to help men through hair loss. “Those sorts of patterns can be similar to men who have recently had a hair transplant procedure, where the hair is first shaved off and then grows in. It’s a stage that men who have had this treatment get to before the hair matures. It wouldn’t surprise me if, in six to eight months, Harry looks very different.”

Whether or not Harry has actually succumbed to follicular maintenance – and who knows? – can we blame him? His image overhaul since relocating to the glossy hills outside Santa Barbara has been thorough and deliberate. No more stuffy British suits or rigid uprightness; instead, it’s breezy polo shirts, gym attire (for the sessions at SoulCycle before kale smoothies at Malibu House) and a Gen Z approach to touchy-feely mindfulness in place of a stiff upper lip. His brother might be destined for a crown, but Harry’s in a Succession-style baseball cap.

He also happens to be in the most image conscious environment in the world – where easy tweakments are easily available – so some of that superficiality is bound to wear off.

Not that any man opting for a hair transplant is a vanity project; in Britain, statistics show that treatments have increased from 30,000 to 80,000 in a decade, with public figures such as James Nesbitt and Jimmy Carr openly talking about their decision to have procedures. Men are more aware than ever of grooming and the importance of appearance, so a hair transplant is the next natural step if a man is concerned about his loss of hair.

Hair transplant surgery is the most searched-for cosmetic procedure in the UK, with Google reporting 35,000 searches a month, according to statistics released this week.

“We need to break the stigma around men having procedures like this, because it can lead to them not wanting to talk about it, which in turn leads to a lack of education and due diligence in researching the right options. It’s surgery – it’s a big deal,” says Stevenson, who notes that two-thirds of men who come to him for advice do so because they’re in need of repair treatments from transplants they’re unhappy with. To cut a long story short, if it comes with a package deal to Bodrum for under a grand, proceed with caution.

Not that the Duke of Sussex would ever need to go down such a route. One of his best celebrity friends, David Beckham, also faced speculation about possible hair implants: in 2020, the star was photographed with notably thinning hair, which later looked lustrous and full. Social media was also quick to diagnose a supposed use of spray-on treatments. Has Golden Balls been lending guidance to California’s newest golden boy?

To those men for whom a hair transplant feels like an extreme measure, there are other preventative steps that can dial back a receding hairline. Stevenson recommends looking into Minoxidil, a solution to aid growth; Finasteride tablets, which block the hormone that encourages hair loss; and GroMD Shampoo, which functions in a similar way. “Hair loss is progressive, so it’s vital a man takes action early on to help prevent further loss. That, in turn, will mean fewer hair transplants are required later.”

Then there’s a world of concealers to explore. Products such as Nonogen hair fibres can be applied to the scalp to lend the appearance of fulsome hair.

Neville Hair’s senior stylist Elle Bandoc says hairdressers have a part to play, too. In their arsenal are a few nifty cutting and styling touches that can help thinning hair appear to have more heft.

“I always recommend keeping the sides short – but not not too short, never to the skin,” says Bandoc. “Then, up top, it’s important to keep it short.” The mistake many men make, she says, is opting for length up top to cover the baldness, the result being patchy and uneven.

Also, pay attention to the products you use on whatever hair you have. “I’d steer away from waxes or clays and use a texturising spray instead, because it holds without clumping strands of hair together. That will make the hair seem thinner.”