Hairline... What would it take?

[Naltima]

I like the design of your current hairline, you could probably thicken it up a bit, if it was me i'd keep the general shape of the hairline. I think a man looks a lot sharper with a v shaped hairline than with a straight one, especially when he gets older and dresses well.

 

Think Roger Sterling from Mad Men.

 

Plus it saves you those extra grafts for the crown and midsection down the road.

[OtherSyde]

I like the design of your current hairline, you could probably thicken it up a bit, if it was me i'd keep the general shape of the hairline. I think a man looks a lot sharper with a v shaped hairline than with a straight one, especially when he gets older and dresses well.

 

Think Roger Sterling from Mad Men.

 

Plus it saves you those extra grafts for the crown and midsection down the road.

 

Oh I definitely want to keep the shape; I would just look weird with a straight-across hairline.

[OtherSyde]

OK. I re-did the lines, and now they run right along the forward-most limit of my hairline (where there are actually already hairs, just sparsely arranged), and brought only the temples forward, and only just a bit; they'll still be slightly recessed behind the forward-most points of hair above my side-burn area. This retains my window's peak, but thicken up the hairline a lot and will frame my face well, I think...

 

 

 

 

 

I love Jotronic's rendition here, I think it's kind of what I'm shooting for...

 

 

 

 

Although I wouldn't mind if the hairline just behind the widow's peak stayed just a slight bit higher, as long as it's solid, and the tip of the widow's peak is nice and extra-dense so I can grow it out and style it like Sean William-Scott's hair in the big baldness-level chart I posted previously in the this thread:

 

 

 

Does this seem a bit more doable with 1,600 to 1,900 grafts? Then I will save the rest for the future.

[OtherSyde]

OK it's Saturday night and I'm being a hermit because I have to do homework and not go spend money partying in Waikiki (blew over $250 on drinks and taxis last Saturday night... Ouch), so I threw together a few GIF images...

 

 

 

 

This hairline is way more reasonable than the craziness of my first idea, and it's even significantly more frugal, with the widow's peak being higher on both sides, than Jotronic was in his photo-chop suggestion:

 

 

 

 

I think Jotronic said around 1,900 to 2,000 graft for his version? Maybe I could do this revised version with 1,600 or so (give or take), since the hairline barely changes, save for filling in the scraggly areas that are bugging me and only the temples are brought forward. I think I've reached a feasible course of action; what do you think guys?

 

[EDIT] - BTW, I just figured out how to make animated GIFs (almost 20 years on the internet and I just figured this out... Wow...) and this was pretty fun, so if anyone wants a photo-chop animation to see what their hair plans could turn out like just PM me and I'll see what I can do

Edited February 3, 2013 by OtherSyde

[Cant decide]

That looks reasonable but I would bring the corners forward a little less, maybe 0.25 cm less.

[bloodshoteyes]

I much prefer the hairline you did above with your fancy photo chop skills...

 

 

I like the way a M shaped hairline, can save grafts but still frame your face. Waikiki sounds good but expensive.

[MAGNUMpi]

I like your hairline where it is. Maybe a bit more density and that's it. Save those grafts for a rainy day.

p.s. nice gif's!

[OtherSyde]

I much prefer the hairline you did above with your fancy photo chop skills...

 

 

I like the way a M shaped hairline, can save grafts but still frame your face. Waikiki sounds good but expensive.

 

Thanks, I like the M shape better as well, at least on my face.

 

Waikiki is... an adventure. Not what I expected it to be. It's like a never-ending party filled with locals and tourists from everywhere from Japan to Russia to Sweden. There's not much crime because the city patrols it very well in order to protect its primary money-maker (the tourism industry), meaning about every minute or two a cop car with its solid blue lights lit up on top slowly cruises by every block.

 

The most hilarious thing to see is when you stay out till 4am (when the bars close), and all the angry dude-bros are forced out onto the streets from the clubs. Most of them, despite their young good looks, good physiques, and expensive designer jeans and button-up shirts (with the collars popped to show how hard they are), have utterly failed to get laid because they are all retarded douche-bags. Now they are angry and drunk and hopped up on unspent testosterone and Red Bull, and ready to take it out on each other. They can't fight in the streets when the cops are near, so you will see them talking crap to each other; then they all see the cop car cruising by and they all just shut up in unison and wait, and a few seconds later they're right back at it.

 

It inevitably escalates, and pretty soon, for 30 second intervals, they clobber each other in the streets like drunken morons, flailing about as their stupid over-sized VOLCOM® hats and overpriced TAPOUT® shirts go flying everywhere as though a dancing whirlwind contrived of pure testostero-idiocy is causing them to levitate and swirl in the air. Then, in a flash, they all snap back to the sidewalks and act like nothing is going on as another cop car glides by. Seconds later it's drunken pandemonium again. It's even safe to watch them, because they're careful not to involve any tourists or passers-by, as that would anger the police. It's like a well-timed ballet of angry, blue-balls-inspired aggression, and this comical expression of immature sexual frustration happens almost every night, and it really kicks into high gear on the weekends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways, here's few pics of me wasting that $250 in Waikiki... It was a blast, I hafta say that at least

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comically, although no younger women were really looking at me as everyone mostly dresses in much less formal attire while "up in the club" so I didn't really fit into the aggressively pop-culture motif, but with that dress shirt and vest on, I had older cougars checking me out left and right lol

[MAGNUMpi]

all the angry dude-bros are forced out onto the streets from the clubs. Most of them, despite their young good looks, good physiques, and expensive designer jeans and button-up shirts (with the collars popped to show how hard they are), have utterly failed to get laid because they are all retarded douche-bags.

HA!

I used to live there and back then the fights would go on until they finished. I saw some crazy ones. It takes a while to get the hang of things out there. The girls eventually come around but you need enough time to really understand how things work out there and basically "fit in" once you get that it all starts to flow. It's a bit hard being a tourist out there but the food is good and the waves are great.

[corvettester]

Man, I would not even consider lowering the hairline. Maybe beef up what you have and blunt the corners, but to lower your hair that much would be 3500 grafts. Think Corvettester.

 

I'm sorry... did someone say my name?

 

You're second rendition is much more realistic and doable in just one pass... I'm thinking 2,000 grafts. The first rendition, though possible, is probably a two pass job, but also a serious hit to your donor bank... I'm thinking 3,500-4,500 grafts.

 

If I were you, I'd focus on aggressively closing the corners (widow's peak) with a much straighter line, as opposed to the more curved one you drew in both renditions. Since you have such pronounced temple points, close the corners sharply because it's the indention between the hairline and temple points that is making your hairline appear so high in the first place.

 

Remember that everything is relative. It's not how low your hairline is, but rather how low it is relative to the indention of the corners and the temple points. So you close the corners and suddenly the high hairline is less of an issue. It's what I did and it solved 90% of my issues.

 

This is why I've written so frequently about the importance of strong temple points (which you fortunately already have), because they put everything else into relative perspective.

 

 

Corvs

[corvettester]

One more thing...

 

Your crown is a non-issue. I think your problem is with the styling product you're using. It's greasing it down which causes it to separate in certain areas. It's not helping your hairline and frontal third either, in my opinion.

 

You and I have very similar hair. You shouldn't use any gel, mouse, pomade or anything with a gloss finish. You should use a paste with a matte finish. This way, it will give you're hair volume, shape and the ability to style, without giving it the "wet" or "greased" look that actually spreads hair out and makes recession and hair loss more evident.

 

Might I suggest trying Fat Boy, Shu Uemora Sculpting Paste, or Spice Sisters... They're not cheap, but they do wonders for guys with hair like ours. Report back and good luck!

 

 

Corvs

[Spanker]

That looks reasonable but I would bring the corners forward a little less, maybe 0.25 cm less.

 

I'll second that. Think about it, you will be 50 and 60 one day.

[bloodshoteyes]

I think I would travel to Waikiki just to watch the dude bros knock lumps out of each other..

[OtherSyde]

I wouldn't touch your hair right now. Your hair looks great. Your over-thinking it. Keep in mind that even though you are probably on meds, eating right etc, you will probably continue to thin out over time real gradually. You were receding at age thirty and Propecia and Rogaine really doesn't cover this area. Some previous posts are correct in saving the donor bank for this.

 

Propecia and Rogaine affect the mid-scalp and, most of all, the crown, right? Still, those places will eventually fall out, which is what I will save most of my donor bank grafts for. But when you say "You were receding at age thirty and Propecia and Rogaine really doesn't cover this area" I'm assuming you were referring to the frontal hairline area?

 

That's perfect, because my current hairline (and the entire frontal region of my scalp) is actually almost pure grafts; look at my Before pics on the first page and in my blog. The hairline has become more scraggly because, as you said, Propecia doesn't help the frontal hairline and frontal scalp much, so it kept receding; what happened was, my doc placed a moderate amount of grafts (instead of super-density) because there were a lot more original hairs still there 2-3 years ago that filled in the space between the grafts. Now those are largely gone, leaving only the grafts remaining, which is why it now looks sparse and needs some touch-up work. However, the hairs you see at the hairline and most of them on the frontal third of my scalp are permanent grafts that won't be falling out anytime soon, which is actually how I'd prefer it: Knowing exactly where I stand.

 

My crown has scarcely changed at all (if any) since then, I imagine due to my steady Finasteride use. Just the same, I will save most of my grafts for that area later on, in case I hit a land-slide point where it all just goes in the back.

 

We've all seen guys have three or four mega-sessions of 3,000 or 4,000 or more at a time, and I've got good donor density, meaning I probably have a couple more big HT's in storage for later; I'm not really in any imminent danger of running out anytime soon. I've only used about 1,700 grafts so far and got my whole frontal area covered; using another 1,500-1,800 for one final frontal hairline round (the last) would only put me around 3,500-ish total grafts used, which seems to be right about on-par with the average number that most Norwood-3A or Norwood-4 guys use to cover their entire frontal area, and leaves plenty for the future.

Edited February 5, 2013 by OtherSyde