Hairline Lowering: Framing and Focusing the Features of Your Face
The hairline defines the stage on which the eyes, the nose, the mouth, and chin play their respective roles. Any or all of these features can look balanced, harmonious, and proportioned – or not – based on the location of the hairline.
Any art gallery owner can tell you that the way a picture is framed can make a real difference in how people respond to it. News photographers have known for generations the power of “cropping,” or narrowing the margins of their photo, to improve its composition and bring attention to its most meaningful features. The same is true of a person’s face.
The Wisest “Lift” Might Be Lowering
Hairline lowering surgery is a kind of unsung hero of plastic surgery. We think of the nose, the eyes, the neck, and so forth when we think of a facelift, but often people overlook adjusting the hairline. As part of a facelift, or even by itself, it can improve overall appearance powerfully.
Women have the procedure done at least as often as men, and hairline lowering is not a response to hair loss. In fact, women are often better candidates for the procedure because they are less likely to experience hair loss at a later age.
If “balding” is the concern, your facial plastic surgeon can recommend other steps other than hairline lowering to address it. Hairline lowering is all about creating a more effective frame for your other features.
The Advantage? Immediate Results
In the past, people thought mostly of “hair transplants” when they considered improving their hairline. Hair transplants are better known than scalp lowering for a couple of reasons. First, hair transplants have been around for more than half a century. In fact, a prominent network TV host and news anchor had transplants in the 1960s. He patiently appeared daily with his “plugs,” as the follicular unit transplants were commonly called. Not only is this approach highly visible, but it can take up to two years to get enough hair length and density to match the rest of the scalp.
That visibility is the other reason people are more aware of hair transplants than hairline lowering.
In sharp contrast, hairline lowering surgery takes effect right away, because the whole hairline is lowered at once. In two days to a week, the patients are usually presentable.
Beginning with Your First Appointment
As always, your comfort with a cosmetic surgical procedure begins and ends with how you feel about the surgeon. Your consultation with him or her can open doors you never expected and dissolve concerns that were until then quite real. One of the keys to having the conversation turn out that way is to get the talk going with some specific questions. Ask whatever is on your mind. You’ll find whether this is the right person for the job, not only by their answers, but also through the tone, manner, and understanding that comes across within those answers.
About Mike Majmundar, M.D.
Dr. Mike Majmundar has been named a Top Doctor by Atlanta Magazine, a National Top Doctor by U.S. News & World Report & Castle Connolly, a Top Beauty Expert by The Atlantan, Best Self, and Northside Woman, and Best Botox and Filler Injector by Jezebel. To read his patient reviews, visit RealSelf or Google+. Dr. Majmundar is also a member of the American Association of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS), the world’s largest association of facial plastic and reconstructive surgeons (with over 4,000 members) and the only organization dedicated to the advancement of plastic and reconstructive surgery of the face, head and neck, as well as the American Board of Facial Plastic Surgery. Dr. Majmundar is an expert in hairline lowering surgery.
