Reviews you can trust, from real people like you.
How it works
- Our highly-trained Review Moderation team evaluates all reviews before they're published to ensure they're written by people like you and not a member of a doctor's office.
- This multi-step process takes up to 24 hours from review submission to publication.
- Doctors can't pay to have reviews removed or hidden.
- Reviews are only removed at the reviewer's request or if they violate our Terms of Service.
If you have questions or believe we should re-evaluate a published review, let us know.
Sort by:
*Treatment results may vary
Part 3
Recovery has been generally smooth and quick. I was able to work from home 4 days post op and went into work 2 days later. I concealed the stitches with a cloth headband, although I don't think the stitches would have been visible without it since they were laying so close to my hairline. There have been a few challenges/complications. For the first week I was unable to remove the vaseline-like ointment from my hair so I had to deal with perpetually greasy/wet looking hair. I tried soap, shampoo, clarifying shampoo. It turns out the one thing that worked was conditioner and it was the one thing I didn’t carry in my bathroom at the time. I was relieved to finally be able to get my hair clean.
When I wash my hair, I use a fine tooth comb to help remove dead skin and loose hair. Normally, I do shed a lot of hair, but I have been experiencing shock hair loss. It’s a little terrifying to experience because I didn’t have that much hair to begin. I do believe this is temporary and if it were to happen anyway, I’d rather have the hair shed sooner rather than later. I remove loose hair regularly throughout the day, but most of it comes out during and after washing my hair. The hair falls out in clumps and this seems to go on for 5 min. Some bald patches have begun appearing. I hope to see the hair return by the end of the year.
Finally, the top of my head is still numb. It’s not a big deal, but it does get annoying after a while. I’m just looking forward to getting feeling back on top of my head and I know this can take several months. My forehead is fine. I never had numbness in that area.
I will be posting photos as soon as I figure out why I have not been able to upload photos!
When I wash my hair, I use a fine tooth comb to help remove dead skin and loose hair. Normally, I do shed a lot of hair, but I have been experiencing shock hair loss. It’s a little terrifying to experience because I didn’t have that much hair to begin. I do believe this is temporary and if it were to happen anyway, I’d rather have the hair shed sooner rather than later. I remove loose hair regularly throughout the day, but most of it comes out during and after washing my hair. The hair falls out in clumps and this seems to go on for 5 min. Some bald patches have begun appearing. I hope to see the hair return by the end of the year.
Finally, the top of my head is still numb. It’s not a big deal, but it does get annoying after a while. I’m just looking forward to getting feeling back on top of my head and I know this can take several months. My forehead is fine. I never had numbness in that area.
I will be posting photos as soon as I figure out why I have not been able to upload photos!
Part 2
So I was determined to proceed with the surgery and I was happy to finally secure a surgery date 2 months after the first video consultation. I visited the office two times and the last consultation was 3 days before the surgery. I think it's very important to have the highest level of confidence in your surgeon. For that reason, I didn't have too many concerns or questions prepared. My natural hairline is M-shaped with a lot of baby hairs and low elasticity so I didn’t know exactly how my new hairline would appear, but I knew that Dr. Taylor would do her best with what she had to work with to create a more rounded, feminine hairline. During this time, I also received Covid testing and it was a big relief when the results came back negative. (It would have been a big bummer to postpone surgery after all the planning!)
My surgery was scheduled early in the morning, which was nice because that gave me a whole extra day to recover. The day before surgery, I prepared some meals and picked up my pain medications. I also showered the night before since I thought I might be incapacitated for a couple of days. I had no anxiety regarding the surgery itself since I would be asleep. My biggest concerns were receiving the IV (I hate needles!) and waking up feeling like shit. I received my surgery in a hospital so I was surrounded by many people in the surgery room and that was comforting in a way. The surgery went smoothly and a few minutes after waking up, I was wheeled out of recovery. I was unable to walk without assistance so I had help getting home and into bed, where I fell asleep immediately.
When I woke up 6 hours later, I didn’t feel pain but my throat was scratchy so it was nice to have some cut up fruit and vegetables to eat. I slept with my head elevated for first week or so, before it became too uncomfortable to continue. And for a couple of days, my incision site was oozing a little blood. I used the absorbent pads the hospital sent home with me to protect my pillows. The next morning, I was able to walk unassisted. Some days my vision was blurry and later I found that this a side effect of one of the pain relievers. I kept the stitches clean everyday by washing them with shampoo or soap and applying the antibacterial ointment. I removed some bloody crusts in the process.
Occasionally, I placed ice on my cheeks to keep my head cool and fortunately didn’t experience any bruising. The first week I did have some swelling on the forehead, which actually filled out them out in a nice way. I think the swelling reached its peak 2 days post op because my forehead became shiny but completely went down 3 days later. Other changes that I experience was my eyes/eyebrows lifting. When I came home from the hospital, I looked like an insane cat lady. But as the skin relaxed, these changes became more subtle or returned to normal. (I’ve always had high eyebrows so it would be hard to notice lifting.) I did receive a comment that I looked refreshed so some sagging around the eyes may have been temporarily improved.
Overall, pain was very minimal. Initially I didn’t take the pain relievers regularly, but I found that I was able to “feel” more activity when I skipped doses the first week. For example, sometimes there was a quick passing pain near the stitches, but nothing bad as long as I maintained the medication schedule. As the incisions continued to heal the 2nd week, I reduced the dosage and I’m no longer taking them. Stitch removal was pain-free, but staple removal did cause some discomfort. This happened 1 week after surgery. The incisions on the sides of my head were closed with staples and extended pretty far down, reaching near the top of my ears. There was a little tugging and some bleeding, but completely tolerable. I would rate the pain 4/10.
My surgery was scheduled early in the morning, which was nice because that gave me a whole extra day to recover. The day before surgery, I prepared some meals and picked up my pain medications. I also showered the night before since I thought I might be incapacitated for a couple of days. I had no anxiety regarding the surgery itself since I would be asleep. My biggest concerns were receiving the IV (I hate needles!) and waking up feeling like shit. I received my surgery in a hospital so I was surrounded by many people in the surgery room and that was comforting in a way. The surgery went smoothly and a few minutes after waking up, I was wheeled out of recovery. I was unable to walk without assistance so I had help getting home and into bed, where I fell asleep immediately.
When I woke up 6 hours later, I didn’t feel pain but my throat was scratchy so it was nice to have some cut up fruit and vegetables to eat. I slept with my head elevated for first week or so, before it became too uncomfortable to continue. And for a couple of days, my incision site was oozing a little blood. I used the absorbent pads the hospital sent home with me to protect my pillows. The next morning, I was able to walk unassisted. Some days my vision was blurry and later I found that this a side effect of one of the pain relievers. I kept the stitches clean everyday by washing them with shampoo or soap and applying the antibacterial ointment. I removed some bloody crusts in the process.
Occasionally, I placed ice on my cheeks to keep my head cool and fortunately didn’t experience any bruising. The first week I did have some swelling on the forehead, which actually filled out them out in a nice way. I think the swelling reached its peak 2 days post op because my forehead became shiny but completely went down 3 days later. Other changes that I experience was my eyes/eyebrows lifting. When I came home from the hospital, I looked like an insane cat lady. But as the skin relaxed, these changes became more subtle or returned to normal. (I’ve always had high eyebrows so it would be hard to notice lifting.) I did receive a comment that I looked refreshed so some sagging around the eyes may have been temporarily improved.
Overall, pain was very minimal. Initially I didn’t take the pain relievers regularly, but I found that I was able to “feel” more activity when I skipped doses the first week. For example, sometimes there was a quick passing pain near the stitches, but nothing bad as long as I maintained the medication schedule. As the incisions continued to heal the 2nd week, I reduced the dosage and I’m no longer taking them. Stitch removal was pain-free, but staple removal did cause some discomfort. This happened 1 week after surgery. The incisions on the sides of my head were closed with staples and extended pretty far down, reaching near the top of my ears. There was a little tugging and some bleeding, but completely tolerable. I would rate the pain 4/10.
I Just Wanted to Feel Normal
Today I'm day 9 post-op. This morning, I decided to make a run to Target. I got dressed and tied my hair into a low ponytail. My bangs that I’ve been growing out was parted to the side. It was a cool and windy day. I didn’t care how the wind was shifting my hair or feel self-conscious about about my forehead. Normally, it would be a huge deal to expose all of my forehead, but I was struck by how normal I felt. Before my surgery, my days always started with a shower and blowdrying my bangs with a round brush because oil from my skin weighed down my bangs, exposing my forehead. A blowdryer and round brush were as essential as my toothbrush whenever I traveled. When I couldn’t bring myself to wash my hair for whatever reason, it meant I would be shutting myself inside for the day.
Some background: I first learned about forehead reduction surgery several months ago after searching for new hairstyles to better conceal my forehead. I had a new hairstyle with a side parting and side-swept bangs, which looked great at first, but my bangs were growing longer and I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep them. There’s a kink in my bangs that causes them to automatically curl up and then the summer humidity, wind, and rain would ruin them. I was constantly fidgeting with my bangs, which I know is not the smart thing to do during this pandemic.
I’ve had bangs on and off growing up, but for the last decade (I’m 33 now) they were a permanent fixture on my head as I became more aware that my forehead was detracting from my face. I didn’t understand why anyone would choose to cut their bangs if they didn’t “need” to. Now I understand that some people have options, whereas I didn’t feel like I had a choice. At the same time, I could never seem to get my hair to harmonize with my face. Needless to say, I was very self-conscious of my hair and forehead, but I was tired of hiding behind my bangs.
During the beginning of my research into forehead reduction surgery, I assumed that I would have to travel far to find a specialist in California or even Korea, where plastic surgery is more accepted. Choosing the right surgeon when you don’t know where to begin is very daunting. I didn’t think about getting plastic surgery locally because I didn’t think it would be available, but it made the most sense especially if I were to get this done during Covid. I found Dr. Taylor through simple search for plastic surgeons in my area. For me, the hardest part of this whole process was initiating the call to set up the first meeting because I felt like I was doing that was meant to be secret.
Understandably, I didn’t receive much support from the few people I told in the beginning, with hesitation. But it can be discouraging to hear things like “don’t be ridiculous, everyone has a forehead!” or “you don’t need it!” or “you’ll become addicted!”. I suppose it’s true that one thing can lead to another and there’s more than a few “flaws” I would fix about myself if I could. But I’ve never been so sure that my happiness was so dependent on this one procedure, that I knew it had to be done and nothing could have stopped me from pursuing it once I had found the right place to do it.
To be continued. I will be adding more updates with photos soon.
Some background: I first learned about forehead reduction surgery several months ago after searching for new hairstyles to better conceal my forehead. I had a new hairstyle with a side parting and side-swept bangs, which looked great at first, but my bangs were growing longer and I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep them. There’s a kink in my bangs that causes them to automatically curl up and then the summer humidity, wind, and rain would ruin them. I was constantly fidgeting with my bangs, which I know is not the smart thing to do during this pandemic.
I’ve had bangs on and off growing up, but for the last decade (I’m 33 now) they were a permanent fixture on my head as I became more aware that my forehead was detracting from my face. I didn’t understand why anyone would choose to cut their bangs if they didn’t “need” to. Now I understand that some people have options, whereas I didn’t feel like I had a choice. At the same time, I could never seem to get my hair to harmonize with my face. Needless to say, I was very self-conscious of my hair and forehead, but I was tired of hiding behind my bangs.
During the beginning of my research into forehead reduction surgery, I assumed that I would have to travel far to find a specialist in California or even Korea, where plastic surgery is more accepted. Choosing the right surgeon when you don’t know where to begin is very daunting. I didn’t think about getting plastic surgery locally because I didn’t think it would be available, but it made the most sense especially if I were to get this done during Covid. I found Dr. Taylor through simple search for plastic surgeons in my area. For me, the hardest part of this whole process was initiating the call to set up the first meeting because I felt like I was doing that was meant to be secret.
Understandably, I didn’t receive much support from the few people I told in the beginning, with hesitation. But it can be discouraging to hear things like “don’t be ridiculous, everyone has a forehead!” or “you don’t need it!” or “you’ll become addicted!”. I suppose it’s true that one thing can lead to another and there’s more than a few “flaws” I would fix about myself if I could. But I’ve never been so sure that my happiness was so dependent on this one procedure, that I knew it had to be done and nothing could have stopped me from pursuing it once I had found the right place to do it.
To be continued. I will be adding more updates with photos soon.
Provider Review
