Life-changing, So Happy So Far

In the last couple of years, I’ve been getting increasingly more insecure about my forehead. I’m not sure what happened but I started avoiding going out and taking pictures altogether because all I can focus on is how big my forehead is. I absolutely couldn’t stand it. Even if I did my makeup and felt confident, I would think about my forehead and instantly feel depressed. I obviously never put my hair into a ponytail and avoided swimming dates like the plague. It definitely made me feel masculine. I have a smaller face and my face is kind of wide, so I felt like my forehead completely dominated half of my face. I’ve had bangs a couple times, but it just didn’t suit my face. I started developing wrinkles from subconsciously raising my eyebrows all the time, trying to make my forehead appear smaller. I found out about this procedure a couple years ago and backed out of consultations a couple times, thinking maybe I could learn to be happy with my forehead. But I really felt like it was something that affected my daily life, my self-confidence, my relationships, and how I even interacted with people. I mean, how can I be in a relationship if I don’t even love myself? It sounds silly but this is how much my forehead affected me.

I was thinking of flying to get this procedure done, but found a surgeon in my area who had amazing reviews, so I decided to go through with it. I had to wait about four months for a consultation date and another four months after for the surgery date, so I had plenty of time to research and prepare for the procedure. The surgeon gave me the option of doing it under local anesthesia and I declined and opted for general anesthesia instead. I have had a breast augmentation done before so I felt comfortable undergoing general anesthesia again. The thought of being awake while getting this done absolutely freaked me out!

I chose this procedure over a hair transplant because I really don’t like the idea of waiting 9 months to a year for hair to grow in. I also was not overly concerned with a straight hairline or losing baby hairs, as this seems to be the most obvious complaint with this procedure. My hairline before was kind of straight and wide anyways and my baby hairs were annoying.

Luckily, I decided to take a break from working and could take as much time as I needed to recover. I thought I had somewhat of a high pain tolerance, but the first 3 days post-op were an absolute doozy. I had a drain placed which I wasn’t really expecting and had to get it taken out a couple days later, which HURT! But glad to get it out. I also vomited the day of surgery because of the anesthesia. I also have a tendency to get headaches, and so having a compression bandage wrapped around your head for 3 days is also not comfortable. I absolutely hated it because it compressed my ears down and my ears kind of stick out lol. But once I didn’t need to wear the compression bandage, I felt better and each day got better and better in terms of pain. One thing I didn’t really realize is how much your neck and back of head will be sore. I got a NeoTech reusable ice pack which was really helpful in terms of pain and swelling.

I was given 5 day course of an antibiotic, PRN Norco for pain and Zofran for nausea, and Scopolamine patch for day of surgery. I pretty much stayed in bed all day not really able to do much for the first 3 days. I also feel like my gut got messed up from the antibiotics because I was starting to get diarrhea, so remember to continue taking your probiotic! I stopped taking prescription pain medicine on day 5 and switched to regular Tylenol. After I got the bandage off, I was able to wash my hair and boy was it crusty, like it felt I could literally cracked it in half it was so caked with dried blood. I tried to get most of it out with coconut oil and that worked okay.

My wound care was pretty minimal. I mostly just applied aquaphor and alternated with bacitracin. My surgeon recommended a solution made of vinegar and water (1 tsp of vinegar, 2 cups water) if it was looking crusty which I did like once every 2 days maybe. I did not use hydrogen peroxide and I don’t really believe in using hydrogen peroxide either for a healing wound. My actual incision line looked amazing from the start and there was very minimal blood and crusting.

On day 8, my stitches were removed. Upon writing this I am 10 days post-op and feeling great. I’ve been really careful of washing my hair and never put direct pressure on the incision, especially when my stitches were in. I was able to wash my hair a little bit better today but there is still a lot of aquaphor and bacitracin in the front of my hair. My scar looks really good and I had trouble figuring out where the actual incision line was. It’s starting to turn a little red which is normal. I’m really hoping I don’t get hair loss, so I’m still crossing my fingers I don’t get any. I will literally be so sad if I do. I’ve had just a little bit of hair coming out from where the incision was and the stitches coming out. I also had kind of a weird hairline on the sides too so I can’t tell if I actually have some hair loss there or if it was just my hairline before lol. I might try to use rosemary oil or minoxidil in that area to try to fill in some of my temples after it’s healed.

But so far, this procedure has actually been the best decision of my life. I can’t wait till I’m all healed. I feel so much more confident now and my face is so much more proportional. I honestly couldn’t be happier at this point in my journey. The pain was worth it and cost was worth it. No one can put a price on happiness. I wish I would have gotten it done sooner because I’m turning 30 next year and, I don’t know, I feel like I wasted some of my 20s feeling so self-conscious.

I will continue to update as the year goes on. Feel free to ask any questions. :)

I'm almost 3 weeks post-op. My scar is healing really well but I have noticed quite a bit of general shedding in the last week. I also have lost some hair on the sides of my incision which I expected, but also in the center of my hairline which I just saw this morning. I didn't have much density there beforehand either so it worries me. I'm trying not to be stressed out about it but it's hard. I have asked my surgeon if I can start using Rogaine, so we'll see what she says!

Since posting that last update, my hair shedding has definitely lessened. I think it was because I started using this rosemary shampoo but I think it had a bunch of chemicals in it so I'm dumb. I think it's what caused my little bald spot ): It's funny because when I was little, my mom used this lice shampoo on me and I legitimately lost all the hair in front of my head (obviously it grew back) I totally forgot this happened so I think I have a very sensitive scalp as-is. I switched to Vanicream Free and Clear and my small little bald spot has not gotten any worse. I see some tiny hairs in the spot too. I've been doing a lot of research on if I should even do rogaine or rosemary oil/water at home and I think I might let the spot grow naturally. All the chemicals in rogaine make me nervous and I am prone to irritation. I might do a rosewater spray or castor oil, if any. I'm fairly confident my hair will grow back.

I've also been using silicone strips on my scar and trying to wear them as often as possible but it makes the area a little itchy so I wear it on/off like 12 hours a day. I'm gonna need to get a job soon and I'm worried that my hair loss might all of the sudden get worse but I guess I'll have to cross that bridge if/when I get there... Still super happy I got this done. My face is way more proportional! My family thinks it's kinda subtle but not to me!