Is hairline lowering or transplant grafts to the hairline best for reshaping a hairline?

In general, forehead reduction surgery involves an incision along your hair line and pulling your scalp forward and cutting out any overlapping skin then sewing back the skin. This obviously requires an exam to make sure your scalp is loose enough and you do not have other un-diagnosed cause of hair loss.**Limitation of a foreahead reduction is that sometimes you will see a scar on the hair line (no matter which technique or doctor you choose). Another limitation is that you will not get the rounding on the side corners (oval shaped hair line which many women have).Other surgical option is hair transplant surgery. Hair transplant surgery involves harvesting hair from the back of your head and relocating to the front (one by one) to create a new lower hair line. This also requires an exam. Hair transplant surgery can give you a great soft natural hair line and a more rounded temple that a forehead reduction surgery cannot give you.**Limitation of a hair transplant surgery is that you will have to wait for the hairs to grow and it will not be as full as a hair line lowering surgery (no matter which technique or the doctor you choose). Some patients decide on BOTH surgeries to take advantage of what each surgery can provide.

For both men and women, hair transplantation is the best way to lower a receding hairline. The hairline is a highly visible area so therefore care must be taken when designing an appropriate shape. Male hairlines are different than female hairlines, for example. Everyone has a unique shape that "fits" aesthetically. Keep in mind that ARTISTRY--the size, angle, orientation and position of each transplanted graft--is critical for a 100% natural look in the end. Less invasive Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) techniques avoid the linear scar and heal more comfortably and quickly, but the key ingredient is a surgeon with experience and an "aesthetic eye."

grafting is the simple solution.   If you are a male, i would graft because male hair loss could create a problem later on behind what is lowered.  If you lower the hairline and later decide you don't want to continue chasing the loss, it may be impossible to hide the hairline scar.  Alternatively, with grafting, you could always take the grafts out later on.  If you are a female with no family history of hair loss, you can probably safely do either one.  

A hair transplant is the best way to fix asymmetrical receding at the hairline. Surgical hairline lowering works better when the whole hairline needs to be advanced equally although even in this case a hair transplant may be preferred.

There are two types of procedures for lowering a
woman’s hairline. One, is a surgical excision of the upper forehead followed by
the downward advancement of the hairline up to an inch from where it was prior
to the surgery. To accomplish this, the entire scalp from the frontal hairline
to the very back of the crown, is lifted up and pulled forward. When this is done
by an experienced surgeon, the hairline can often be advanced about 2/3rd – 1
inch if there is enough looseness when this lifting process is done. This
procedure is often complete in one surgical session; however, it may not
address receded corners of the hairline if the corner recession is significant.
A great advantage of this surgical approach is the immediate impact of the
procedure on hairline location with healing usually complete in a week or so.
Sometimes this procedure produces a scar in front of the hairline, and if this
is this is the case, a hair transplant in front of the hairline can address the
scar. If there is corner rounding that is not addressed by the surgical
lowering, then hair transplants can address this very well. Hair transplants
take 7-8 months to fully grow out.The second type of hairline lower procedure is
done through hair transplantation. The number of sessions varies by the
thickness of the hair. For women with other than fine hair, they might do this
in a single session. With finer hair, it often takes two sessions. The time to
see the impact of a hairline lowering hair transplant procedure is 7-8 months
and if a second session is required, it will take another 7-8 months to wait
for full growth. See web-references below for four excellent sets of photos of
this process on four women.