News

Two Ways to Achieve a More Proportioned Forehead

- Friday.July 10. 2020

Worried about your high hairline and the size of your forehead?

The concept of hairline lowering and forehead reduction may seem a little drastic, but there are two well established surgical procedures to address the problem.

The first involves transplanting hair follicles to create a new hairline lower on the forehead.

The second is the removal of skin from the forehead and moving the hairline forward.

Both treatments, with the advantages and disadvantages, are discussed so that you can make an informed decision about which is best for you.

Your scalp will still need to be examined by a medical professional to determine your suitability for your chosen treatment.

Hairline lowering/forehead reduction

1 Hair Transplantation

Individual hair follicles are carefully harvested from the back of your head to create a new, lower hairline.

There are two means by which to harvest the hair:

FOLLICULAR UNIT TRANSPLANTATION (FUT)– an ellipse of skin containing hundreds of follicles is removed from the back of the head. These are microscopically dissected by a team of technicians who make sure that the follicles are not injured. There will be a fine linear scar at the back of the head although covered by the surrounding hair.

In this procedure, 98% of the follicles are expected to survive.

FOLLICULAR UNIT EXCISION (FUE)– the donor area is required to be shaved as a punch of 1 mm or less penetrates the skin to remove one follicle at a time. It is more expensive as it is more time-consuming. The follicles are frequently injured/transected in the harvesting, and there have been reports from overseas of less than 50% survival. This is not a scarless technique, as many people perceive, but leaves hundreds of white dots through the area.

Advantages:

If you are looking for a particular hairline shape, this treatment can help you achieve it as the hairs are transplanted one at a time into the desired location.

It may be used as an adjunct treatment to cover any obvious scarring caused by the incision based forehead reduction treatment (see below).

Disadvantages:

It will take 6 to 12 months for the hair to grow in fully (compared with the instantaneous result described below).

This treatment rarely achieves the level of density expected by women.

A second procedure is frequently carried out a year later.

Hairline lowering/forehead reduction

2 Forehead skin removal

Excess skin is removed from the patient’s forehead and the scalp is moved forward to fill the gap.

Advantages

You will see immediate results with this treatment and the results are impressive. It can advance your hairline by 2.5 cm with just one surgical procedure.

Dr Martinick says that this procedure can be carried out in less than two hours, with a follow-up the next morning at the clinic, and returning after 10 days to have the sutures removed.

“It is one of the few cosmetic surgeries that can be carried out a fortnight before your wedding and look great on the day.”

Disadvantages

Intravenous twilight sedation is administered prior to the procedure.

Rarely, some temporary post operative hair loss occurs in the surgical area.

Although a trichophytic closure is used (the skin is cut on an angle to encourage the most forward hairs to grow through the healing scar), depending on hair direction and the genetic disposition to poor healing, there can be instances of some scar being obvious.

“This is why the practitioner needs to be proficient in following the patient’s hairline to ensure a natural looking result. They also need to be experienced at tricophytic closures to camouflage any scarring,” Dr Martinick says.

Whichever procedure you prefer, it is vital you use the services of professional consultants surgeons to assess the suitability of your chosen treatment and to ensure the procedure is carried out to the highest standards.

Something as visible as a hairline lowering/forehead reduction must be carried out carefully and sympathetically.

The benefits of proper treatment can be impressive and fulfilling.

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