You have probably met a person with a longer forehead and would have known how this feature of his body makes him annoying, insecure, or lowers his self-esteem. Why does that person have a longer forehead than the rest?
The anatomy of the human face can be divided into three portions, The upper face, the middle face, and the lower face.
- The upper face starts from the hairline and ends under the lower eyelid.
- The middle face starts from the lower eyelid and ends at the upper lip.
- The lower face starts from the upper lip and ends at the lower border of the chin.
When the lengths of all these portions of faces are appropriate, it provides a proportionate appearance to the person. But when the length of the upper face precisely exceeds the normal length of 5 to 6.5 centimeters then the person gets a longer forehead. His appearance becomes disproportionate. Longer foreheads can alter the confidence and self-esteem of a person. Therefore, they often think about how to get a smaller forehead. For that, they opt forehead reduction surgery. This cosmetic surgery can help the person to lower his forehead and can balance his face’s proportion.
Are you fit for Forehead Reduction Surgery?
There are certain prerequisites to undergoing hairline surgery. Your board-certified cosmetic surgeon will examine you. He will then decide whether you are a good candidate for forehead reduction or not. These requirements include the following,
- High forehead, the most important of all.
- Scalp laxity
- Low or heavy brows
- The upper face is considerably exceeding the limits.
- Surgical complications
And the list goes on. A high forehead is an essential requirement to proceed with hairline surgery. If you don’t have a high forehead that might not consider a good candidate for forehead reduction. A particular patient believes that he/she has a large forehead but according to the set limits he/she doesn’t have one.
Scalp laxity plays a vital role in determining whether the patient is good for the surgery or not. Because in this procedure, the elasticity of the scalp matters a lot. If the scalp stretches to a large extent that it might help in getting a better and lower forehead. If the patient does not have a good scalp elasticity then the surgeon will go for expanding the scalp.
Pattern baldness provides good grounds for not considering the patient’s fit for the surgery. Baldness may be a common reason for a large forehead. If still a person manages to get forehead reduction surgery with pattern baldness then there are chances of hair loss recurrence.
Lastly, surgical complications can hinder your surgery. Therefore, you should discuss your previously existing medical conditions with the surgeon thoroughly.
The procedure behind Forehead Reduction Surgery.
Your surgeon follows a certain procedure to get you to a hairline lowering surgery. Here are the steps that get you through the surgery,
- The first step follows the anesthesia. You are given anesthesia, so you can not feel the pain during the hairline lowering surgery.
- Then demarcation is done, and your new planned hairline is drawn.
- Subsequently, an incision is made that loses your skin. By doing so the skin will be moved forward and before closing the incision the extra skin will be removed.
By following these steps, your surgeon gives you the hairline you desired. The suturing of the skin is done carefully to prevent minimum scar formation. The minimum faded scars left behind after the surgery will be covered by the hair.
How long it will take for recovery?
The common interrogation after surgery is, “how long will it take for recovery?” The surgery lasts for 3 hours and after its completion, you can go to your home. But still, you have to come for post-operative medical checkups. This is to check whether an infection has not taken place on the site of incision or inflammation has taken place. These checkups vary from 2 to 4 weeks after the surgery. The surgical clips or the stitches are removed after one week by the team. You will be given anti-pain medications to reduce the pain after surgery. The incision takes a good time to fade away, in this time patient tends to use heat or a scarf to camouflage the incision.
Forehead Reduction Surgery cost.
Since it is a cosmetic procedure so your medical assurance won’t work here. The estimated cost depends on the clinic you are selecting or the experience of the surgery team.
Side effects of a hairline lowering surgery?
As mentioned above, an incision is an important step in this surgery. Therefore, the major effect associated with a hairline lowering surgery is post-operative infections. Swelling, pain, redness, or bleeding can or also occur at the site of the incision. That is why routine post-operative medical checkups are scheduled. There are possible chances of getting a scar where the incision was closed. However, you can hide it in your hair. Moreover, there are chances of developing an allergy to the anesthesia used or bleeding during the surgery. Possible nerve damage can also be expected while the incision is made by the surgeons. Of all these, infection is the most concerning to the surgeons, and patients are also warned about it.
Alternatives to Forehead Reduction Surgery.
If by any chance, you are considered not a suitable candidate for the surgery then you can opt following options as an alternative to this surgery.
- Hair grafting.
- Brow lift.
- Minoxidil 5%
Hair grafting is hair transplantation. Where hair from the back of your head is taken and implanted at the site needed for the grafting. This procedure can help you in lowering your forehead.
A brow lift is a technique where the skin of your eyebrows is lifted upwards to give a shorter forehead and higher position to the eyebrows.
Minoxidil is proven to be an agent promoting hair regrowth. It can be applied to the parts of your forehead or near the existing hairline to promote hair growth in that region. By doing so, you might be able to get a shorter forehead.
