Hair Transplants or FFS

[Anna_81]

Hi all,
I'm in a bit of a situation where I can't really decide what path is best for me at the moment, I guess you could call it a bit of a cross roads!!

I have the typical male 'M' type hairline which really bugs me, it especially dos'nt help that I have quite a large forehead too!! lol. I wear my side bangs down across the side of my face on a daily basis to try and cover it as much as possible,  but one gust of wind, and bam!! it all falls out of place, and I find I'm constantly playing with them to get them sitting right again, so annoying!! I have a physical job too, which dos'nt help. Ideally I would like to wear a head band or at least be able to  have my bangs tied back, but it just exposes to much of my male type hairline, and sort of gives me away, which is a real pain, as apart from this I pass quite well.

I was originally thinking of getting hair transplants in the corners of my forehead and across the top to fill it all in, but then learnt about forehead re-constructions that can lower the hairline to a more female level.
Anyway, my question is, do I get hair transplants or opt for FFS?
I have enough money for hair transplants at the moment, but if I got a forehead reconstruction, I would also like to get a few other facial surgeries done at the same time, so would need to save a bit more money.

I would be interested to hear from anyone else that was in the same situation, and to see what path they decided to go down and if they were happy with the results, or anyone else that has a bit of knowledge about these sorts of things!!

Many Thanks,
Anna.

[JoanneW]

From what I gather, hairline restoration can have better results shortly after FFS (or even as part of the same procedure).

I totally get the annoyance of the typical M pattern - I have the same. My FFS will likely be a little while away so FUE hair transplants are coming first.

[anjaq]

If you go for the hairline incision, make sure they really clearly adress the shape of the hairline. With regular hairline incision, the whole hairline is pulled to the front, possibly a bit more at the sides if that is possible, but generally the shape of the cut demands that the center part also is advanced. Your goal however is a more rounded hairline, not M shaped. The surgeon has to specifically adress this by either doing some extra work at the corners or by making a mixed cut. I had one surgeon suggest to me to do the incision in front of the hairline at the temples, cut out triangles of low density or bald spot there and then continue the incision behind the hairline at the top. That way the scar would be visible at the sides and not so much on the top, the center part would remain almost unchangedand the corners would be rounded. Other options are of course hair transplants which allow precise reshaping of the hairline but only limited hairline advancement.
Be aware that an incision at the hairline leaves a scar there - it can of course later be treated, maybe covered with hair transplants, but its there and I can see it in quite a few post FFS faces, often the result is that people then wear their hair in bangs or sidebangs to cover up the scar. So this might not be a real gain for you then. With transplants, the hairline also is not ideally natural because its a bit different hair at the front, also not as dense as naturally, but it takes a bit more of a trained eye to see that it is not natural, most people will not notice that, I believe, while a scar is more obvious in my opinion, which is why I decided to rather do it with hair transplants and have FFS incisions done behind the hairline to hide them in the hair.

[Debra]

Well I did it backwards. I did my hairline transplants in 2014 and then FFS in 2016.

My regret is not going the other way because I ended up with a hairline scar that is very noticable now.

Because of that I'm headed back in to get hairline transplants AGAIN just to cover up the scar.

So my suggestion is FFS, then Transplants.

[tarabel]

If you choice is between a hair transplant or scalp advance, the clear winner is a transplant. 

There is no guarantee that a scalp advance would get you a perfect hairline - at most you can expect 1-2cms of advance whereas you have a lot more control and a guaranteed result with a transplant as well as having no visible scar afterwards.  With a transplant, you can exactly draw out what the hairline will look like and work backwards from that.  it will take some months for the hairs to grow in after the transplant but once they do, you will have a really great result.

[JoanneW]

While I agree with what you write, it only really applies if the choice is mutually exclusive and only one of the procedures will ever happen.

With FFS, especially the forehead / brow work, you're likely to have an incision in the hairline anyway which may or may not need hair transplants to cover. So if you CAN have both at some point, it would make sense for the hair transplant to occur after FFS. You can "fill in" the gaps that scalp advancement couldn't and you can cover any potential scar.

[Rachel]

I did FFS first then hair transplants. My forehead lowering scar is 1 inch behind my hairline. If you do transplants first you can do transplants later to hide the scar. I have had 2 hair graph sessions (first 3500 and second 2500 grafts). I can do 1 more hair transplant session of 1100 graphs.

[Anna_81]

Awesome advice everyone, very much appreciated!!
Looks like I'll be heading down the FFS path first ;-)

[Anna_81]

Also, is it possible to get both FFS & Transplants done at the same time?
I think I recall that someone may have had this done through 'Facial Team'. Otherwise it's just wishful thinking on my part!! lol.

[anjaq]

Facialteam will do transplants at the same time as FFS, but the FFS part is not advancing the hairline b itself in that case, the incision is done in the hair to hide the scar and the hairline is changed with transplants from the incision site

[Debra]

Yeah doing them together seems like the best. All one recovery at once.

[ForeverLacey]

I had my female hairline transplant surgery two and a half years ago and cannot say how much of a confidence booster it was for me. I can now wear my hair back in a tight pony tail and wind is no longer my enemy. Well, it is but for a different reason now lol.

Anyhow, I recently seen Dr Spiegel for a consultation this past September. He said that for my brow bossing incision he would cut about an inch behind my hairline and that there would be no visible scar. So if you go for a hair transplant now I would guess most surgeons would do the same.

[Kendra]

This is exactly why I say there isn't an automatic answer for which surgeon is the best answer for us.  Depends on our genetic background, age, resources, goals. 

I recently had in-person consultations with my two top choices, Dr. Spiegel in Boston and Dr. Simon at FacialTeam knowing they have different approaches.  For someone else I may have suggested different surgeons than the two I met with.  I made my decision last week - I'll be going with FacialTeam, but if my goals were different I would have chosen Dr. Spiegel.

Since you're talking hairline I recommend spend time with Alexandre's VirtualFFS 🔗 [Link: virtualffs.co.uk]site - she has been doing that work for many years.  One thing she explains and illustrates is the common misconception 🔗 [Link: virtualffs.co.uk/My_​Facial_​Feminisation_​Thesis_​Part_​1_​Common_​Misconceptions.html/] of cisgender female hairlines always being low in front.  The average middle aged cisgender female hairline is quite high in the center, but being arc-shaped instead of M-shaped causes the perception of a lower hair line. 

[anjaq]

The funny thing is, I just saw again a documentary about beauty from 2013, so several years back and I know there were also articles on this around at least here in Germany - they basically were going on about scientists trying to find what makes womens faces beautiful and it was mentioned that a symmetric face was important, smooth skin was important and basically the best is a combination of baby face traits with mature female traits. Mature female trait is for example high cheekbones, considered rather beautiful at least in the West where people are looking for young adult women as beauty ideal, not the preferrence for child-women as it is common as a beauty ideal in parts of Asia. And interestingly they also said a high but rounded hairline is ver beautiful female - apparently this is also somehow more one of the baby-face traits - together with larger eyes.
So I am not sure where that "low hairline = female" comes from , really. Obviously if you have a receding hairline and clearly hair loss or baldness its a different thing, Also obviously if the shape is not rounded anymore but square.
My personal theory is the Alpha-Omega theory 😀 - The typical male hairline is that of the "alpha males" - strong widows corners, very square or M shaped, symbolizes strong masculinity (gets weakened when the hair loss reaces the back of the head or center part of the hairline, then it looks old). The opposite is the Omega-Hairline, shaped like a greek Omega Symbol Ω - I almost misgendered a man because of it once because its something almost exclusively seen in women. The center of the hairline is high, actually, but the sides are lower - so in a way its "inverse widows corners"... so its a bit of an expansion of the VFFS concept in that the center hairline is indeed the same in all cases except the ageing man. but the hairline at the sides can be rounded - which is neutral or female , usually considered female then, square or even M shaped, usually considered masculine or Omega shaped, making it a more stronger female gender marker if the rest of the face matches it. I saw this especially in Indian and Polynesian women though, so I am not sure how well this applies to caucasians - it seems for caucasians a high at the center but oval hairline is feminine. For women of african descent, it seems an overall high but perfectly rounded hairline is favourable and culturally often enhanced with braids, exposing the hairline and forehead.

Did you know that some women actually shave the center of the hairline to make it move up? Weird, huh? I tried that once as well, experimenting a bit on myself - since it made my hairline rounder instead of that Mc-D M shape, it feminized my face overall to a degree. Which was very interesting. It helped me decide to get a coronal FFS incision for sure, no hairline incision. 

[Dani]

I had FFS with brow work and a hairline advance. The incisions healed well, but the scars are noticeable. I am planning on hair transplants in the next few months.

Too much surgery in the same place all at once may make healing more difficult. Use a little caution when working on your face.

[Kendra]

Occasionally some women find interesting ways to cover their hairline.

[Debra]

I had FFS with brow work and a hairline advance. The incisions healed well, but the scars are noticeable. I am planning on hair transplants in the next few months.

Too much surgery in the same place all at once may make healing more difficult. Use a little caution when working on your face.

True that. Thankfully the hair transplants I did to cover my scar seem to have gone pretty wel....better than expected. Course it'll be 3 months before the hair starts really re-growing there again