Question: Always hated size of my forehead- please note this is not due to hair loss. I am 23 and understand I will need to wait until I am 25 to be considered for a transplant. Is that the best option or should I opt for lowering surgery? I have been desperate since being a teenager to have a proportionate forehead. I do understand risk of having transplant too young.

-MMIG

Dr. Anderson Answers: Thank you for posting this question. If you don’t have hair loss, and you simply want to lower your hairline, then you don’t have to wait until you’re 25. Hairline lowering procedures were popular in the 80s and 90s because the hair transplant technology was not great, as the results were invariably pluggy due to the methods used at the time. Since about the year 2000, it’s been a 1-follicle-at-a-time transplant technique, and as such, hair restoration has supplanted hairline lowering procedures as the preferred method to lower hairlines. The main advantage is that it does not leave a linear scar across your forehead in your hairline. This scar is lighter than the surrounding skin, as scar tissue is composed mainly of dense collagen, which is white in color and does not have as many blood vessels in it as native skin. This scar can be up to 5mm in thickness, which is difficult, if not impossible, to adequately cover with future hair transplants. I have performed many hair transplants on people who have had a hairline lowering procedure, so in all likelihood you’ll be having a hair transplant anyway, even if you get a hairline lowering procedure. I hope this information is helpful to you.