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I have a high forehead but I don’t want a hair transplant surgery. I found on the Internet that Dr Gal Aharonov in Beverly Hills California is offering hair line lowering or forehead reduction surgery. His results look impressive and I saw him on the Doctor show. It seems great for women with a high forehead but what are your thoughts on men?

I have seen Dr Aharonov’s patients personally and the results are indeed impressive, but there will always be a fine scar at the hairline if you look close enough. Most of the time, the scars are well hidden and are difficult to pick up. There is also an option to take the extra scalp (from the surgery itself) and use the hairs for a limited hair transplant surgery in front of the scar. This will maximize the aesthetic value of the surgery and softens the hairline.

This sort of procedure is more commonly seen in women (that don’t have that same risk of MPB that men have), but with respect to hairline lowering surgery in men, we must first establish that there is no risk of male pattern hair loss or hair recession.

You can find more on Dr. Aharonov’s site here.

I noticed that the hairline matures between the ages of 17 and 29, according to this site. I’m just curious as to how you came to that conclusion. I’m 23 and while my hairline has matured, I’m not thinning at all at top. Does that mean if I’m not showing signs of hair loss at 30, then I probably won’t?

If you are worried about losing hair, then you should see a doctor for an objective examination. Some people may just have some front hairline recession and that is it. It’s possible your hairline can mature and then you won’t see any further loss, but I couldn’t say what your loss pattern might be just based on your age. Everyone is different.

Hello Dr. Rassman

In one of your latest replies you suggested that transplanting grafts just to thicken the regions close to hair line is not advisable as it can damage existing original hairs. Also you said you have applied this to some actors. Didn’t their existing hairs get damaged as you said? Could you supply us some further information?

There are judgments that are made based upon experience. If a hairline is eroded or eroding and the person is on finasteride (Propecia), I would treat the hairline that has hair present in it, provided that the patient understands the nature of progressive hair loss. In the young man, the erosion of the hairline is just the beginning of the balding process, so keeping a fuller hairline with transplants and following the loss as it goes back is not unreasonable.

What I avoid is someone who has miniaturization in and behind the hairline, but the hairline is still normal. Getting to know the patient has a lot to do with what I do and I tend to be more conservative than most doctors are protecting the patient from unnecessary surgery.

From time to time, I see a person with a Norwood Class 2 pattern that received 3000+ grafts in the frontal hairline. As a Class 2 patient, unless the hairline is eroded I do not usually transplant these patients… but if I do, just a few hundred grafts usually work. To give these patient 3000+ grafts means that the doctor is money hungry, pushing aside ethics to get as much of the patient’s cash as possible.

Hello. I needed to know if you have any high resolution before and after photos for male patients who have had transplants at NHI to restore their juvenile hairline with a high density. I was trying to find some on the newhair.com site, but couldn’t. I know that this is not a common procedure in men as many guys do not commit to taking propecia early on in the balding process and come in when the hair is only restorable to the mature position, but I’m sure juvenile hairline restoration has been done as for certain modeling/acting careers the thick Juvenile hairline is the aesthetic-standard.

The mature position is unacceptable for some of us, especially with how the aesthetic standard is becoming more stringent in 2011 due to many popular icons who lack the balding genes. I am considering doing hair transplantation for my career at your practice and was recommended to have FUE by my doctor (if I really wanted it). I do not have advanced balding or miniaturization beyond the hairline.

In general, we do not restore juvenile hairlines or any hairline with high density, especially with one surgery for most patients… perhaps with the exception of young male actors or models that have careers dependent on a specific look. You probably will not see these patients at our website, because many are convinced that their hairline will put them at risk for recognition if shown online. We don’t force patients to sign a photo release, so we can only post what we have permission for.

We don’t recommend transplanting a low hairline in men, because you are setting yourself up for disappointment if you develop a more advanced balding pattern over time. More specifically, I do not know what your expectation of “high density” and your desire for a “juvenile” hairline is.

If you want to see examples of hairline density, just attend one of our open house events in Los Angeles and see some of our patients in person. A few of them who regularly attend do have high density, and meeting them to see for yourself in person is a great way to get an idea of what can be done. Our next open house event in Los Angeles is this Saturday the October 1st, and you can find our upcoming free open house events listed here.

Have you ever transplanted grafts along a non balding person’s hairline not to lower, but to thicken the hairline so that they could grow a fuller fringe if they had fairly fine hair?

In dealing with hairlines, transplanting a normal hairline just to thicken it is not advisable, as the transplant could damage the existing hair. I have fixed defective looking hairlines on male actors and models who need perfect frontal hairlines for their careers, so I have worked to keep their juvenile hairline intact.

For women who have normally high, non-balding hairlines, these can also be addressed with either frontal hair transplants to bring the hairline down or hairline lowering surgery. Many women have these procedures done.

Hi Dr. Rassman.
I wanted to ask your opinion of Kelsey Grammer’s hair - maybe it’s my imagination but he seems to have more hair lately than he used to. Do you think he may have had a transplant? If so, how many grafts would you estimate?

Recent photo and Older photo

The comparison photos do look like Kelsey Grammer (known for his work in sitcoms Frasier and Cheers) has more hair in recent years, but I cannot determine if he had a hair transplant.

But assuming that he did, if I had to make a guess of how many grafts he may have received to attain the look in the photo… I’d say more than a 1000 but less than 3000. Yeah, sort of a wild guess. The photos I’ve found make it difficult to really see his hair perfectly without image compression or different lighting conditions.

Is there absolutely no way for an 18 year old to lower his hairline. I am a performing musician so my image is fairly important. Whether I am on the way to a fully bald head I don’t know but I have always had a very high hairline and thin curly hair which is really hard to manage and maintain. Messy hair just doesn’t look cool with a 4 inch forehead.

I do not know anything about you and certainly do not know what you look like. Yes, hairlines can be lowered a number of ways… but would I do it on an 18 year old that wants to look cool? Probably not.

If there is good reason to do it, I would consider it, but a doctor-patient relationship is critical and that starts out with a face to face meeting.

Dr. Rassman, first off I love this blog and it is really informative. I just had a question about the NBA player Deron Williams. In 2008 his hair looked really thin and now if you search on in 2011 or with Nets his hair seems to have drastically improved. What do you think he did?

I used Google Image Search to find some photos that highlighted the difference in Deron Williams’ hair over the past few years. Here they are:

Usually photos will show what the photographer wants to show. There could have been Propecia used over the years to see regrowth, or it could just be hair styling, a camouflaging agent (Toppik / DermMatch), more flattering lighting in the 2011 photo I found, or even just letting his hair get a little more length. If I had to guess just based on a couple photos, it looks like it could be a combination of styling and something like Toppik… but I really have no way to know that for sure. I couldn’t find anywhere that Mr. Williams himself mentioned if he did anything with his hair.

Sources: 2008 photo, 2011 photo

I have compared my hairline situation to a previous description you posted of how a mature hairline should look. I seem to match up perfectly, both corners just settling at a little less than an inch above the centre of the hairline, which has not moved at all since the age of eleven. My hairline was already 3 and a half inches above my brow so I have been worried about going bald at a young age.

Anyway I was just wondering, will a receding hairline be identical to a mature hairline at SOME point of the recession, or will it move back in a different pattern? I’m just wondering because the right side seems to have been fairly stable for a couple of years, and the left has almost caught up. I’d be over the moon if this was just a mature hairline after worrying for so long.

You should read through this post, which should answer your question — Maturation of a Hairline. Yes, I suppose that some men in the balding process may go through a stage looking like a mature hairline and then continue receding.

I have a question about an actor’s hairline. The actor is named Robert Sheehan. After watching a few of his movies and shows, I looked him up and am quite curious of his hairline as he often sports a big curly afro. I am wondering if he is showing signs of a maturing hairline.

A few pictures of him are below:

Photo 1, photo 2, and photo 3.

I think most people outside of the UK are saying “Who?” in regards to this young Irish actor, but I looked up his career and he’s been on a few UK television series. For those curious, here’s his IMDB profile.

It’s difficult to tell what his hairline looks like, since those photos you linked to show his hairline corners covered. I don’t know if that’s a hairstyle used to cover his hairline on purpose or what, but he’s an actor, so it wouldn’t be uncommon to try to hide hair loss to prolong access to more youthful roles.

In the photo 3 (which is posted at right), it appears like he might have a high hairline or early loss, but I couldn’t say that with any certainty unless I saw some better photos or was able to examine this young man’s hairline in person.