‘How will my new hairline look?’ is one of the most important questions patients ask us when they begin our consultation. ‘Will it look rounded, symmetrical, asymmetrical, more defined or less defined?’ It is a deep desire to want to know how the cosmetic procedure will look finished before it starts. People have a strong opinion and idea of how they want their new hair to look and move.

The truth of the matter is there is no one size fits all hairline that Dr. Yazdan, or any top hair transplant surgeon for that matter, tries to create. What looks good for one patient may not look good for another – what makes sense for a young patient with progressive loss may not make sense for an older patient with more ‘stable’ and limited hair loss. In other words, hairlines must be carefully considered and customized for each patient. 

A close examination of the direction, sway, swirl and grouping of a patient’s hair will tell us how most naturally to design the new hairline. Let’s look at a few case studies which show the quite different, but equally successful, ways in which hair restoration manages to rejuvenate a person’s hairline. All examples are done by the careful and skillful hand of Dr. Yazdan himself.

For this patient, who likes to wear his hair short and based on his age, level of hair loss, hair-type and forehead shape, we decided to design a flatter, more defined, less irregular hairline. Dr. Yazdan use a very calibrated small punch during the FUE procedure to minimize scarring and maximize a natural look.

For this older patient, with lots of wispy strands and excessive hair loss who wears his hair longer, Dr. Yazdan decided to design a slightly more conservative, soft, broken-up, irregular, and feathered hairline. Patient had arrived at Modena Hair Institute more than a year ago with a poorly performed punch surgery and lots of scarring. He had also received scalp micro pigmentation work which turned blue. A notorious problem among inexperience or purely cosmetic clinics, SMP pigments can turn blue if it is too dark and the wrong pigments are used.

Conclusion

As you can see, these patients were about as different in hair type, age, density and shape as you can get. The first patient had coarser, darker, denser and a more limited hair loss experience. The second patient had softer, wispier hair and a greater degree of hair loss. Designing a hairline shape for both patients requires a very different aesthetic and scientific approach.

Patients must visit clinics who are able to showcase a wide variety of hairlines, not a ‘stock’ hairline done time and time again on each patient. The hair transplant doctor must take your entire history and shape into account, digest the information, and create a plan that fits you and you alone. If you do this, your hairline will look like one thing and one thing alone: a natural hairline which fits you.

When considering clinics, make sure to ask the doctor what they plan to do for your hairline specifically, why they recommend this approach, and to see examples of other, similar hairlines. Otherwise, you may end up in a situation where you are asking a second doctor what your hairline should have looked like, and whether or not they can make it look like this with a second procedure.

Dr. Amir Yazdan, MD, is an internationally renowned hair transplant surgeon, expert guest on Dr. Phil and The Doctors, creator of the GroMD hair restoration product line, ISHRS member, accredited member of the IAHRS and a visceral advocate for patient care. Learn more about Dr. Yazdan or read rave reviews from his patients.