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By Marc Meisfelt
Bangkok , December 2007 (1.0)
A reclining hairline is a genetically programmed event for most men as they age. Which does not mean that we would have to accept it.
Hair growth medications have been a mainstay of quacks for centuries, largely because serious medical science has not been able to move into the field. Fact is that no medication, neither pharmaceutical nor herbal, can regrow hair on bald areas.
But while medications, both pharmaceutical (Finasteride) and herbal, can avert baldness from progressing, the systemic effect of such medications is too high a price: they heavily interrupt hormonal pathways and awkwardly interfere with sexual desire and sexual function.
The way to go for a youthful appearance with respect to one's hair is hair transplants. The current state of the art is follicular unit implants, with hair harvested from donor sites where follicles are not genetically programmed for an early death (the back of the head).
Good results can obviously only be achieved with patients who have sufficiently large areas of hair that is not genetically programmed to fall out at a certain age. For those who suffer from excessive baldness, the future may bring the option to have own hair cloned, but as of this time, medical technology has not sufficiently advanced to turn this idea into a treatment.
For those who are not genetically programmed for excessive baldness, current technologies make it possible, and quite easily so, to have a head hair appearance that by and large is that of a man in his twenties.
While most interventions through cosmetic surgery (such as facelifts) require repetitions in order to achieve a lifelong youthful appearance, results from hair transplants will be lifelong. It therefore makes good sense to plan these wisely.
My recommendation is that those men who go for an overall maximal improvement of their physical appearance will do a forehead lift before hair transplantations.
While the impact of a forehead lift usually is not as dramatic as that of a facelift, a forehead lift can result in substantial savings on Botox when a long-term calculation is done. But because the scars from forehead lifts are hidden within the haired area, a higher hairline is an inevitable consequence.
My own experience with forehead lifts has been that the scars (if they are not hidden within a haired area) are quite visible for many months. Because the area where they occur is not fleshy, the post-operative swelling, as well as post-operative redness persist for many months. And the scars, when they are fully healed are also quite recognizable as scars.
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