How to Create a Natural Hairline with Hair Transplantation

This insightful article was written by  Dr. Michael Meshkin  of Newport Beach, CA who is one of our recommended hair restoration physicians.

Some consider hair to be the most aesthetic part of the face. As such, baldness can dominate one’s appearance, drawing attention from a beautiful face. The hairline is where your scalp hair borders your forehead and frames your face, thereby bringing out the beauty and richness of one’s features. When the hairline starts to recede, one’s facial features also recede into the background. A primary reason for seeking hair restoration is to restore your appearance to the condition before hair loss. One of the more critical decisions in hair restoration is determining where your new hairline should be, which should carefully be discussed with your physician. The physician should follow several cosmetic rules to design the hairline.   The doctor should place the hairline in correct position. The doctor should use all of the cosmetic guidelines, rules and tools available for creating the hairline such as the following:

• Rule of thirds- dividing the face in three equal proportions(described by Leonardo De Vinci)
• Measuring more than 8 cm from the mid-glabellar point
• Hairline not lower than the original hairline before hair loss  began
• Customize the correct shape of hairline individually such as:   widows peak, and correct flaring
• Creating different shapes of forelock for people with limited donor area
• Irregular soft and subtle hairline

The best hairline recreated by hair transplantation is one that is natural and blends with your other facial features. The physician should take into account the facial contour, ethnicity, gender, age, hair characteristics, patient desire, expectations, type of donor hair selected, graft placement, size of grafts and overall transplant technique to ensure a natural appearance.

Before you proceed with a hair replacement procedure, you must be certain that you are fully informed and understand the physician’s recommendations and likewise, that  the physician understands your wishes and concerns. The best results of hair restoration require complete physician/patient agreement. Although a hairline can be reconstructed surgically, it is always better to get it right the first time. The physician should assess your hair restoration with an open mind. While you have firm ideas of how you perceive yourself the physician may have other recommendations based upon the likelihood of need for future procedures as your hair loss continues. It may be necessary to consider the need for future revisions in hairline to accommodate progressive balding. Age is a factor as the earlier one starts to bald the greater his hair loss may be as he grows older. The physician needs to have the patience to properly explain his recommendation of a proper hairline which should be based on patient’s age, shape of face, donor availability, texture and hair color to reach a satisfactory compromise.

Dr. Michael Meshkin

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Bill Seemiller
Associate Publisher

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