How old do you have to be to get a hairline lowering? I’m 17, going on 18 on January

Hairline Lowering is meant for patients who were born with a high hairline and have no visible signs of hair loss.  16 years old has consistently been the age where patients start contacting our office about this procedure.  With parental consent, many patients have undergone this procedure under 18 years old.  

From a legal point of view you can be any age to have surgery but if you are a minor you need your parent or guardian's permission.  From a medical point of view, you would need an examination to determine if such surgery is even possible.

There is no absolute minimum age required to have a hairline lowering, but most surgeons would recommend a patient wait until at least 18 years of age so that they can make an informed adult decision.  If there were an extenuating circumstance, such as severe teasing or bullying at school, surgery on a teenager could be considered.  For male patients, it’s important to defer hairline lowering as long as possible in case there is a hereditary tendency toward male pattern baldness.

You did not state if you are male or female, and
that is important. Forehead reduction surgery comes in two types, the
first is a surgical procedure that gives you same day results, the second is a
hair transplant that takes 6-7 months to see. For men, my only concern is in
the potential balding that may occur as most balding starts about your age and
advances until the mid-thirties. If that happened to you (your risk) then you
will have to get a hair transplant to cover it as the frontal area is the place
that genetic balding starts in the young man. On my website, there are great
pictures of hair transplant lowering procedures in women on our Home Page and
in our gallery on our website (see below), you can see hundreds of men who had
their hairline replaced, lowered or improved.  

I have done this operation on females as young as 16 with parental consent. If you are male you should not be considering this type of surgery under most circumstances.