One of the most important aspects of hair transplantation is pre-procedure planning. Hairline design is a critical piece of that planning process and involves determining where the transplanted hairs will be placed. Since hair transplantation is permanent, identifying the correct “new home” for the transplanted hair follicles is as vital as having the correct techniques in harvesting and placing those follicles.
Dr. Ratushny understands this critical part of the process and has a thorough discussion with his patients about how to optimize the hairline. Although many patients would love to bring their hairline down to where it was when they were 17 years old, that is not always in their best interest for long-term results. Dr. Ratushny makes sure to communicate with his patients that the goal of hair transplantation is not to only look excellent one year from the day of the transplant but to continue to look natural many years down the road. Trying to lower a hairline too low may result in having to chase the hairline back if there is further hair loss of the non-transplanted hairs. This is because most pattern alopecias (male pattern and female pattern) are progressive and thus finding someone like Dr. Ratushny who specializes in both medical hair loss management as a dermatologist and surgical hair loss management as a hair transplant surgeon is key to achieving good outcomes through proper planning and execution.
A good hairline design for hair transplantation also has natural irregularities, similar to the natural irregularities found in a natural hairline of someone who has not had a hair transplant. It’s always helpful to identify the patient’s natural hairline and base the design of the transplanted hairline on their natural hairline. However, a hair transplant surgeon needs to make a mutual decision with their patient about where it makes the most sense to place the transplanted hairline in a way that will yield long-term natural-appearing results.
Hairline design will vary between males and females. A hair transplant surgeon has to be careful in the design of a male hairline to include some natural fronto-temporal recessions (areas of the “widows-peak”) since eliminating these completely can lead to femininization of the male hair line.
There are many considerations that Dr. Ratushny takes into account in hairline design. Most importantly, Dr. Ratushny provides his expertise to his patients and works together with them to determine what would be the most realistic hairline that will stand the test of time.