It is a common hair loss treatment myth that hair restoration surgery can only help balding people. A forehead hair transplant can work as well to balance your facial proportions as it can to correct a receding hairline. This simple and effective procedure is less invasive than forehead reduction surgery. And if you opt for a FUE procedure, it leaves virtually no scarring.
This article will tell you all you need to know about what a forehead hair transplant is, how it works and help you decide whether it is a good option for correcting your high forehead. You will find the answers to common questions about the number of grafts you might need, surgery risks and costs and excellent hairline design techniques for each gender. And you will receive a transparent account of the risks and costs involved in this procedure.
Key takeaways:
Also known as a frontal hairline-lowering hair transplantation, this procedure makes hair grow lower on your forehead, narrowing it. While there is no generally established optimum forehead width, a rule of thumb says that it should make up one-third of your face [1]. Thus, men’s hairline should be around 7-9 cm above their eyebrows, while women’s should be 5-6 cm [2]. A skilled surgeon can not only reduce your forehead height but also help reshape your hairline for a more aesthetically pleasing appearance.
A hair transplant to lower your hairline is simple and painless, and you don’t need to spend any time in the hospital after your surgery. It involves harvesting healthy hair follicles from the back or sides of your head and implanting them into small slits, especially created below your hairline. After 3-4 months of hair transplant recovery, your implanted grafts start producing new hair on the top part of your forehead. However, you will need to wait about 9-12 months before seeing your final forehead hair transplant results. Since this procedure is performed on your hairline, it requires significant surgical skill and experience. The hair on this area of your scalp is normally finer and softer and follows a distinctive pattern. That is why the surgeon needs to precisely and artfully insert every graft in exactly the right spot and at the right angle to provide a natural-looking hair transplant on your forehead.
Getting a hair transplant on your forehead can help you reduce its height by 1-2 cm. Furthermore, it can change its shape to give your face a rounder, softer appearance. In men, it can also help fix a messed-up hairline caused by male pattern baldness.
Several types of patients can benefit from having surgical hair restoration to reduce their forehead size. Here are some of the most common [2]:
Unfortunately, this kind of surgical hair restoration is not a feasible option for every patient. You may not be a good candidate for a forehead hair transplant if you are in one of the following situations:
Both of these procedures can help you achieve your desired forehead height. However, discussing this choice with a plastic surgeon is best, as they can help you determine the most suitable option for your needs and preferences. Before you get a chance to do that, here are some of their pros and cons to consider:
The decision to opt for either a forehead hair transplant or a forehead reduction depends on many personal factors. These can range from the characteristics of your scalp and forehead to your health condition, budget, and expected results. That is why the advice of an experienced surgeon is always valuable in making the right choice.
We, at the Wimpole Clinic, offer free, no-strings-attached hair transplant consultations, to help our patients determine whether this surgery is the best choice for them. Our experienced surgeons will be happy to answer all your questions, so you can make an informed decision.
A skilled surgeon can maintain a fine balance between the facial proportions that people should have to appear aesthetically pleasing, and your own specific features and preferences. Factors such as age, gender, and current forehead height all matter in designing the perfect hairline [2]. Our experienced surgeon, Dr Umear Ahmad, explains what it takes to make a hairline transplant look natural:
In order to obtain the most natural-looking hair transplants, it’s really important, first of all, that we take good-quality grafts. We always do everything to ensure that we’re looking after the grafts so that they have the highest chance of surviving long-term. And then, of course, when I’m making my incision – when I’m doing that bit of the procedure – we always want to ensure that the hairs are inserted at the correct depth, at the correct angle, the correct direction. When we create the hairline, we do so that it looks natural in terms of shape, that we create some micro-irregularities, as we call them. So there’s a slight bit of irregularity to the hairline, to make it look natural – it’s not a perfectly straight line. So we do everything that we can to ensure that we get the best-looking aesthetic results.
Typically, men have a convex and rectangular or somewhat M-shaped hairline (bell-shaped). When healthy, it should be symmetrical, with the forehead corners slightly raised above the mid-frontal point. According to research, there are different types of male hairlines which also shape the forehead: round (27%), M-shaped (46%), rectangular (31%) and triangular (2%)[3].
This means the new hairline should be designed in a way that maintains that original shape, for natural-looking results. However, men with male pattern baldness often experience frontal balding that can make it difficult to tell what their original shape used to be. So if you want to maintain your pre-alopecia appearance, your surgeon might ask you for older photos of when your hairline was still intact to get a better idea.
Moreover, while some patients are hoping to regain the straighter, lower hairline they had in their youth, surgeons often advise against setting it too low on their forehead. That’s because once they reach middle age, most men’s hairline recedes a few centimetres and develops more irregularities than in their 20s. So what may look great in their early 30s may appear less natural in their mid-50s. It is often best to aim for 7-9 cm between the middle of the hairline and the space between the eyebrows [2]. Here is how our skilled surgeon, Dr Ismail Ughratdar, reveals the most important things to consider when designing natural-looking men’s hairlines:
Number one: making sure you don’t bring it down to where it doesn’t look appropriate or commensurate with your age. Number two: it has to be natural-looking, wavy, with micro and macro-irregularities all the way through. And then also your front-view rows of your hair transplant – we don’t want thick, coarse hair in there. We want fine hairs. So it breaks into the hairline and then it gets thicker as it goes further back.
Women’s hairlines are very different from men’s. It is softer, rounder and slopes a little downward to the sides, framing the face. However, women also have different forehead shapes. For example, one study conducted on 360 Caucasian women found they can have concave triangular (61%), concave oval (26%), convex (9%) and straight (3%) [4]. Moreover, 81% of the study population had a widow’s peak, and 98% had lateral mounds (slightly raised, rounded areas towards the corners of the forehead). Their average forehead height was 5.5 cm [4].
Thus, ideally, when a patient comes in for a female hair transplant to reduce her forehead, the surgeon’s goal is to bring her hairline down to around 5-6 cm above the point between the eyebrows (although that depends on her facial proportions and preferences) [2]. If the patient so chooses, they may also reshape the forehead corners to make them look rounder, giving her face more feminine features.
Since there are clear, noticeable differences between male and female hairlines, a larger, more rectangular forehead tends to give off a more masculine appearance [2]. Transgender women who are undergoing a facial feminisation process often choose to give their hairline a more feminine shape. A transgender hair transplant can lower their naturally higher-set hairline, effectively reducing the size of their forehead. It can also reshape the corners and sides of their forehead to appear softer and more rounded, resembling a biological woman’s features more closely.
The number of grafts you may need to lower your forehead depends on several factors, such as your gender, forehead size and your natural hair thickness and density. On average, people who undergo this procedure normally require a 500-2000 graft hair transplant.
However, only a surgeon can determine your specific graft needs upon examining you and learning more about your desired outcome.
The cost of a hair transplant on the forehead varies depending on the number of grafts needed and the clinic where the procedure is performed. On average, in the UK, you can expect to pay approximately £4,820 for this surgery, which is the equivalent of a 1500-graft hair transplant.
It may be possible to find offers of lower-than-average pricing. However, always be vigilant and make sure the providers are authorised, experienced and fully compliant with all health and sanitation codes. Keep in mind that you will still be enjoying your forehead hair transplant after 10 years or more, so treat it like an investment in your appearance and conduct your due diligence.
Generally speaking, hair transplants are safe, relatively painless procedures. The risks of a forehead hair transplant are the same as any hair restoration surgery (and the serious complication rate is almost non-existent if you have your procedure at a reputable hair transplant clinic). Here are some of the most common [5]:
Most of these mild adverse reactions will resolve in a few days with home care. However, if they persist or worsen over time, be sure to contact your surgeon. They will provide the most appropriate advice and treatment.
Extremely rarely, more serious complications can occur. This usually happens when the surgeon is inexperienced, the clinic cuts corners on patient health and safety and/or the hair transplant aftercare is improper. Here are some potential such complications:
If you are wondering whether your post-surgical side effects are a normal part of your hair transplant recovery or a sign that something is wrong, here are some guidelines to help. Look out for the following red flags during your healing process:
Our surgeons at the Wimpole Clinic encourage you to contact them anytime you have questions or concerns about your forehead transplant healing process. It is generally better to be safe than sorry; they will assess if you need to be called in for an examination. This being said, certain signs of complications should never be ignored and warrant an immediate call to your surgeon:
If you are experiencing a high fever that does not subside with medication, difficulty breathing or very intense headaches, do not hesitate to call emergency services.
There are several things you can do to make sure that you are giving your hair grafts the best chance to survive and thrive on your forehead. Here are some of the most effective:
Once your procedure is completed, your surgeon will provide you with detailed forehead hair transplant aftercare instructions. They range from avoiding touching or scratching your graft area for about 7 days after your hair transplant to recommendations of special shampoos and moisturisers to use on your healing scalp. Following this advice significantly reduces the risk of complications.
You may be aware that smoking can cause hair loss. But when it comes to surgeries, it is particularly important to forego cigarettes. Smoking can impact your forehead transplant results and endanger your graft survival [6]. So it is necessary to abstain from nicotine use for at least 2-3 weeks pre and post-operation.
Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) hair treatment involves drawing blood from your arm, extracting the fraction enriched with platelets and injecting it into your scalp. Usually, PRP has a good success rate in stimulating hair growth [7][8], as it contains growth factors that support the healthy functioning of your hair follicles and the production of blood vessels to nourish them.
However, research recently found that using PRP after a hair transplant on the forehead (or even during the procedure [9]) may increase graft survival rates and considerably speed up new hair growth [10][11].
The amount of downtime required before resuming different activities is among the most frequently asked hair transplant questions. They often relate to how soon it is safe to:
While some of these recommendations or suggestions may seem excessive or inconvenient, it is best to follow them to ensure a good outcome for your grafts. If you are unsure if you should wait longer before resuming more strenuous activities, don’t hesitate to ask your surgeon for advice.
If you feel that a hair transplant may be the best way to permanently solve your wide forehead problems, book a consultation today with one of our world-class surgeons. Once they determine that you can truly benefit from surgical hair restoration, your forehead will be in the most capable hands.
We at the award-winning Wimpole Clinic take pride in our 50-year legacy of hair transplant excellence. Our surgeons are always happy to walk you through the procedure, answer all your questions, and show you our extensive portfolio of before and after hair transplant photos.
If you’d like to know more about forehead hair transplants, check out the answers to these frequently asked questions:
A hair transplant is not normally necessary to treat traction alopecia. This condition typically resolves on its own a few months after you stop applying tension to your hair follicles. However, some patients can develop a severe form which does not go away over time, even with hair growth treatments such as Minoxidil. In this case, surgical hair restoration can indeed be the most effective solution to help you regain hair fullness around your forehead.
If you choose a well-reputed clinic and a skilled and experienced surgeon for your procedure, you have every chance to get a natural-looking hair transplant on your forehead. However, if the surgeon is inexperienced with this type of cosmetic surgery, or the clinic cuts corners when it comes to patient safety, you may end up having hair transplant regrets.
Hairline-lowering hair transplants are more delicate and challenging from a surgical standpoint, requiring a greater amount of practical experience. So be sure to ask your surgeon for their portfolio before scheduling your procedure.
Normally, successful hair transplants are permanent. The implanted grafts keep growing on your hairline just like they would have in your donor area. This means that once you have had this surgery, your hair transplant results should last forever. However, your hair may lose some of its fullness over time, due to ageing, genetic, lifestyle and environmental factors.
If you are not happy with the results of your forehead hair transplant, the best thing to do is ask your surgeon about some touch-ups. However, once you have achieved your final hair restoration results, the only way to permanently reverse this procedure is laser hair removal. So it is good to be very careful when your surgeon discusses your surgery goals and prospective future hairline appearance with you.
There are also some temporary solutions if you feel that your hairline is now too low or unnaturally shaped. You could try shaving some of your hairline off with a razor or plucking out the excess strands.
While any adult can theoretically get a hair transplant on the forehead, it is normally best to wait at least until your mid-twenties. That is usually when your hairline matures. Most men who opt for surgical hair restoration get it in their 30s, while most women have theirs in their 40s.
However, only a surgeon who has examined you can tell you for sure what the best age to get a hair transplant on the forehead is in your particular situation.
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Born in Yorkshire, Dr Ismail attended the prestigious University of St Andrews and Manchester where he qualified in Medicine with an Honours degrees in 2004. He then followed a very surgical based training pathway culminating in approved training in Neurosurgery at Nottingham and sub-speciality fellowship training at King’s College Hospital, London. He has been appointed as a fully accredited, UK-board certified Consultant Neurosurgeon in Birmingham for three years. Naturally, he is very familiar with procedures on the scalp having performed thousands of brain operations. This combined with his extensive experience of performing awake procedures for brain surgeries naturally makes him very comfortable in performing hair transplant surgery. He is certified to perform advanced hair surgeries including both FUE and FUT and uniquely is also able to combine both techniques to cover very large areas of scalp if required. He also has experience of harvesting hair from other parts of the body (e.g., beard) when donor hair may not be sufficient.
He is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons on Edinburgh and The British Medical Association and has a number of scientific publications and has run training courses in his speciality. Dr Ismail has been practising hair transplant surgery for many years now combined with his neurosurgery. The routine work he does with brains made him a very accomplished perfectionist doctor in hair transplants as marvelled by his 1,000’s satisfied customers. He is one of the only handful of surgeons in Europe who successfully combines FUT and FUE in the same session to get very large and ethical number of grafts for each patient without overharvesting.
GMC reference number: 6103427 since 2004. FRCS Neurosurgery Qualified 2013.
Dr. Ismail Ughratdar (FRCS) discusses his transition from brain surgery to hair restoration at the Wimpole Clinic and how hair transplants are changing people’s lives.
One of the leading UK neurosurgeons, as featured on the BBC.
