John Cena wishes he'd had his hair transplant a decade ago

He told People magazine: "I hate the fact that if there wasn't so much shame around it, I'd have gotten it done 10 years ago.

"I thought I was alone, but seven or eight out of 10 [men] suffer from thinning or baldness.

"They don't do anything except move your hair, one by one, from one area to another. It's my hair and I'm not using this stuff [on the side] and I'd like to put it up [on the top].

"If somebody's going to sweat me for that, I don't think there's any shame in that. It completely changed the course of my life."

John was driven to finally have the transplant because of WWE fans, though he insisted he didn't feel they were "bullying" him.

He said: "Just like a good friend, when you have something in your teeth, they pull you aside and are like, 'You have something in your teeth.'

"They've held me accountable. They don't let you get away with phoning it in, because they'll eat you alive," he says. "That's what a good support system does.

"As I was trying to hide my hair loss, the audience was bringing it to light. I saw their signs that said 'The bald John Cena.' They pushed me into going to see what my options were and actually do some homework to learn about scalp health, hair health, follicle health.

"I now have a routine: red-light therapy, minoxidil, vitamins, shampoo, conditioner and I also got a hair transplant."

John had a tough period after the transplant when the results of the surgery were not immediately clear.

He said: "I came back for the [WWE] retirement tour starting in January - these are the deets you guys don't know - there's what's called a dormant phase, where the little hair [that was left] falls asleep and the new hair falls asleep.

"So boy, do you get bald. And January, February, early March was my dormant phase. And boy, did [the fans] let me have it.

"So every day I knew I went out there with so much more of a bald spot. It was not easy."