My forehead has been one of the greatest insecurities my whole life. I did not know hairline lowering / forehead reduction surgery was a thing until about 2 years ago. Since then, the procedure has certainly been on the back of my mind. I waited until now more so to do more research on the procedure and to really take the time to see if it is truly something I wanted to move forward with. Surgery is never an easy decision so I definitely felt like I needed to think it through without being impulsive.
I initially was going to travel in order to get the procedure done. I considered Dr. Cengizhan in Istanbul, Turkey. The cost is great in Turkey (quoted $3700 w/ transport provided). The downside is they ask that patients be there for 9 days (11 days preferred) from beginning to end of the process. I spoke to his assistant and she roughly went over the timeline:
Day 1 Arrival
Day 2 Test / Pre-op
Day 3 Surgery
Day 4 Discharge
Day 8 Suture Removal
Day 9 Free to fly home.
In additional to Turkey, I also inquired with multiple doctors in San Francisco, Texas, and also considered other plastic surgeons in LA since flying there from the SF, Bay Area would be much less tedious than flying halfway across the world. I almost came to the decision of locking in a doctor in Beverly Hills for the surgery when I stumbled across a photo that Dr. Roy posted of a patient who he did a forehead reduction on. I ran across the image as I was browsing the forehead reduction hashtag on instagram and to my surprise, he is located in Los Gatos which is just 12 minutes from where I live. Automatically, I felt like I needed to reach out to his office since I personally find it to be the most ideal if I were to do the procedure locally. The thought of my home being just a short drive from here already makes me feel more at ease. No added expense such as flights/hotels and being able to recover in my own bed all the while of knowing Dr. Roy and his team is just minutes away takes away a lot of my anxiety. So on February 3rd, 2022 I contacted Dr. Roys office. His assistant Christine was away from her desk so my information was left for when she'd return. She called me shortly after and she was one of the sweetest assistant I've spoken to out of all the offices I've contacted in regards to this procedure. Off the bat, I really appreciated that she returned my call promptly because timing was everything since I was looking to make my decision with another doctor that day. I held off on the decision once Christine returned my call and she was able to schedule me for an in-person consultation the following Monday February 7th, 2022. Monday came and I went in for my pre-op. The front desk staff was friendly and professional, Christine was just as sweet in person as she was on the phone. Dr. Roy was also very friendly and he always had a big smile on his face. His personality was definitely bright which helped me to feel more welcome and at ease. The consultation went great! He set me up to have realistic expectations which I appreciate because I do understand sometimes people go into these type of procedures with unrealistic expectations but can you really blame them? Having had this large forehead for 31 years now, one of my worst fear is doing all this in vain. I am indeed very scared of waking up from the procedure and still having a large forehead. Anyways, back to the consult. Dr. Roy examined my forehead and scalp and told me he'd be able to remove up to 2cm from my forehead which measured around 8.5-9cm. With 8.5cm being where the hair started and 9cm being the more dense/full part of my hairline. He asked me to ask myself if I would truly be happy with the 2cm reduction. To be honest, I really went in hoping to have a 3cm reduction promised to me but of course as Dr. Roy stated, he would never want to over-promise something and under-deliver because then the patient will be upset and disappointed. So I went home and thought about it for 2 days before moving forward. Do I want to find another doctor that can perhaps promise me a 2.5-3.0cm reduction? I'm sure I'd be able to but at what cost? Of course more money spent on consults and additional time and effort to take in consideration for the travel to get the procedure done. I stared at my forehead for the next 2 days after my pre-op appt. and decided that I would accept the 2cm, now if during the procedure Dr. Roy can manage to get me to 2.5cm then I would be very forever grateful but it is important for me to move forward accepting that it may not happen. In the end, I told myself having a 7cm forehead is still better than a 9cm.
On February 9th, 2022 I called the office for Christine and made my $1000 deposit and we were going to schedule my pre-op for the following week but to my surprise she had an availability for the following day. I figured shoot why not just get it over with so I know what to expect sooner. So I came in for the pre-op the next day February 10, 2022. The appt. lasted about an hour which includes us going over the surgical quote, the printed list of instructions to take prior to and after surgery, and another pre-operative instruction sheet. After paying for and signing every thing for the procedure, Dr. Roy took me in another room to take photos of my forehead in various angles and that about sums up the entire appt. I am extremely nervous knowing that my surgery is coming up just 3 weeks after this pre-op appt. so my anxiety is very high. However, this is something I've only dreamt of doing so I try to focus on the excitement and how much more confident I will feel to be able to show my entire face without hiding behind my bangs and all the hairstyles I will no longer be limited to once this is done and I am healed. I'm thrilled just thinking about that for this upcoming summer. No more sweaty bangs!!
I truly hope the staff here at Refined MD knows how much this means to me and that they will take great care of me. I will certainly be back to update this review post-op. That would be very soon as 03/03/22 is now just 9 days away!!!!
Updated on 24 Mar 2022:
As instructed, I received calls from the surgery center, the anesthesiologist, and Dr. Roy the evening prior to the procedure. Aside from that, I spent most of my day trying to relax as much as I could, indulge in great food, and visited a cryo spa for an epsom salt float therapy session. I was so tense and nervous so I knew I needed to wind down a bit. Nevertheless, I was still unable to get much sleep since I was so nervous for the procedure the following morning. Per the instructions, I was not allowed water/food past midnight and it made me all the more thirsty which also contributed to me not being able to fall asleep. You always seem to want more of what you can’t have haha.
Updated on 19 May 2022:
Date: March 3rd, 2022
Finally, the day I've been anticipating has arrived. I arrived at the surgery center at 9:30 AM to fill out a few forms. After completing the forms, the nurse swabbed my nose to proceed with a covid test. Once that was completed, I was taken inside to a room where I was instructed to get undressed and into a gown. The nurse then checked my blood pressure, took my weight, etc. and once I was settled they proceeded with putting the IV in. The sweet nurses also gave me a blanket + socks to keep me warm. While in the room, the anesthesiologist came in to introduce himself and asked me just a couple general questions. He was very kind and reassured me not to feel nervous since this was my very first time being put under general anesthesia. Dr. Roy came into the room last with a big smile on his face and he was just as ecstatic for me as I am for this surgery to finally happen. He made sure I was good to go and then instructed the nurses to take me into the operating room just right across the hallway. Everyone made sure I was comfortable once I was on the operating bed, they even have this thing to keep my legs massaged while I'm out. As soon as I was settled, the anesthesiologist came over to place a breathing mask on me and it was lights out.
I think it was about 2:00 PM when I finally woke up. I remember feeling very woozy but yet still grabbed my phone to take a selfie with my head wrap on lol. Everything felt fine even after I was discharged, I was picked up by my boyfriend and we even went to pick up food for me. Once I arrived home, I ate my entire meal. I would say about an hour or 2 after I ate, everything went downhill. The nausea started to kick in and it was so bad that the anti-nausea meds didn't do anything to help. I just accepted my fate for the day and tried to ride it out. I threw up roughly 4-6 times from that evening on towards night time. I would say the nausea was the worse part because vomiting took up a lot of my energy. I couldn't even keep water down that evening. Just getting over the first night was truly a relief.
Updated on 19 May 2022:
Date: March 4th, 2022
It is the morning after my surgery. I went back in to see Dr. Roy at 9:00 AM to remove the head wrap and was finally able to see the reveal of my new forehead. I was just in awe of how much smaller my forehead looked and Dr. Roy told me that he was able to remove approx. 2.2 cm. This 2.2 cm made such a huge difference on my face and I can already tell. Despite the crusty disgusting dirty hair on my head after removing the bandage, I couldn't stop staring at my forehead all day. Obsessed to say the least!
Updated on 19 May 2022:
Date: March 5th, 2022
The swelling was in full gear for me 2 days post-op. I looked like the alien emoji lol but that was expected since I did not ice as much as I should in the first 24 hours after surgery. So make sure you ice ice ice as instructed if you want to avoid as much of the swelling as possible. As far as the bruising, I only had slight bruising on my right under-eye area. Nothing too crazy.
Updated on 19 May 2022:
Date: March 7th, 2022
By the 4th day post-op, most of my swelling have completely diminished. The swelling was at its peak for about 2 days. I was still a bit puffy at this point but it wasn't as noticeable and it was 1-2 days prior. I didn't let the swelling stop me from stepping outside. I still went out to dine and still went about to enjoy my weekend. Of course I did cover my incision with lint-free gauze, followed by a soft elastic headband to secure the gauze in place, and to top it all off I wore a silk head band/wrap over everything.
I totally forgot to mention, I was given the green light from Dr. Roy to wash my hair 2 days after the operation with baby shampoo. He instructed me to obviously be as gentle as I could since it is the first wash and the incision is still very fresh. As far as ointment, I was instructed to use polysporin over the incision twice a day. The only downside to using the polysporin is that your hair is just a goopy greasy mess. However, it didn't matter much to me anyways since I wore a headband over the greasy part of my hair when I do step out.
Updated on 19 May 2022:
Date: March 11th, 2022
I've been very happy with the result of my forehead reduction / hairline lowering so far. I am now 1 week post-op and I just can't stop staring at myself in the mirror. The incision is quite hard to detect with the camera / naked eye unless you look very closely.
Updated on 19 May 2022:
April 2022
My forehead is looking better and better with every week. As the days went by, I forgot what it felt like to be self-conscious of my forehead. I no longer have to worry about covering it up nor deal with my greasy bangs every morning. Being able to have my hair styled in a middle part was something I wanted to do for so many years but never had the confidence to. It is such a relief to not have to deal with that anymore.
Updated on 19 May 2022:
Date: May 19th, 2022
Living my best life with my new forehead. I just came back from my trip to Paris this past week and went in today to see Dr. Roy today for my 3 month follow-up. Everything looks great except for a minor few in-growns that I thought were scabs haha. Luckily, Dr. Roy took a look at it and relieved the area with those pesky in-growns. He quickly sent over an ointment for me to pick up at my pharmacy after my appointment to apply to the area. I have to say, I have been quite fortunate to have such a smooth sailing recovery after my operation. Nothing major besides what's to be expected and a few in-growns. I couldn't have hoped for more.
I haven't taken much photos of my progress lately since there are no major changes but I will try to drop in here and there with some new photos because I remember how the photos on RealSelf helped me so much to visualize what my results would ultimately look like. I remember I would only read reviews that were posted with images. I mean, who here wouldn't want to see before & after pictures. Photos just make everything better! Words are a dime a dozen but one photo is certainly worth a thousand words here on RealSelf ;)