The hipster trend of beards has sparked another, stranger trend: the trend of getting "beard transplants," where men in big cities like NYC are spending upwards of $8,000 to keep up with the Joneses as far as their facial hair is concerned.

Fox News is reporting that there is a marked uptick in plastic surgery for men known as "beard transplants," which makes their facial hair look thicker and less "patchy." The price? $8,500 and up, according to Dr. Jeffrey Epstein, a Midtown-based plastic surgeon.

Epstein, who used to only perform the surgery sparingly, claims that he now performs the surgery two to three times per week. "Brooklyn is probably the nucleus of the trend, it's the hipster 'look' guys want. If you have a spotty beard, and you let it grow out, it looks sloppy. [Clients] want full beards because it's a masculine look. Beards are an important male identifier," he said.

The trend, according to The Today Show, began in Brooklyn -- specifically, in such gentrified neighborhoods as Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Park Slope.

Furthermore, the procedure isn't just popular with white guys who want to be "down" with the hipsters -- according to Dr. Yael Halaas, who performs the surgeries at least six times per month, the trend is also very popular with Hasidic Jews (well, yeah...) and female-to-male transgenders. "I absolutely agree that beard transplants have grown in popularity. Within the past three to four years, there's been a tremendous increase in patients coming every week to fill in patches in their beards, mustache or really just trying to grow a full beard where they had really little," he said.

But the most interesting part of this trend? It's only a regional trend -- not nationwide. And it may very well be that this trend is all for naught -- according to a 2010 study by the University of Michigan, the majority of heterosexual American women find men with "slight" stubble more attractive than their clean-shaven or bearded counterparts.