Big Forehead vs. Receding Hairline: What is the Difference?

One of the most common misconceptions I hear relating to hair loss is people mistaking a big forehead or a high hairline for a receding hairline. It’s incredibly important to understand the difference as it means two completely different things! In this article, I look at the bad hairline vs big forehead men debate, explain both phenomena, and what each means for your long-term follicles growth.

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Understanding the Large Forehead

Many people may think that they have a hairline regression edge and are succumbing to alopecia when in fact, they simply have a big forehead or a high hair boundary, or indeed a matured scalp border. These are common occurrences and should not be confused with a receding hair boundary.

What Constitutes a Large Forehead?

A large forehead or high hairline is simply when your follicles sit higher on the top of your scalp. It’s not always a sign of thinning and the main difference is that if you just have a long forehead, you shouldn’t notice any thinning or balding in other parts of your coif.

If you think that you have a high forehead, but you notice your hair thinning on the top of your head, this could actually be a sign of a receding hairline and an alopecia condition.

Genetics and Big Foreheads

Generally, high hairlines and long foreheads are genetic and they are just a part of your genetic makeup. Here’s a simple tip – just go and look at your parent’s and siblings’ coif! Regardless of hair color and styling, you should be able to see similarities between your scalp border and thickness.

For example, my dad, and brother have a higher V-shaped forehead edge and I can just tell that my tresses are shaping in the same way as them both! So, a long forehead is oftentimes just the way you were made and your genetic disposition!

Hairstyles for High Foreheads

If you are conscious of your forehead and want to conceal it or minimize its size you can wear your coif in a range of different styles including:

• Side-swept fringe
• Choppy front fringe
• Curly fringe

Letting your fringe grow is a great way to disguise a high hairline but that doesn’t mean all your tresses have to be long. You can have a fade, or shave the sides, or even have a flick-back style that makes your coif taller to offset your forehead.

Understanding the Frontal Hair Loss

Compared to a big forehead, a bad hairline is something quite different and is often a pointer towards a potentially larger looming thinning problem.

Definition of a Receding Hairline

A bad hairline is when your follicles start to thin or fall out on your scalp – mainly at the front and top of your scalp from your temples. You may notice that you have developed a V-shaped scalp border with “indents” forming where your follicles are receding.

Causes of a Bad Hairline

Bad hairlines are usually genetic and a result of different types of hair loss. They are more common in men and the most common cause is male pattern baldness.

This starts with a hairline regression where you develop a noticeable V or M shape on your forehead. After this, you may also notice thinning and a loss of follicles on the top of your head. Over time, depending on the severity of your baldness, the thinning area on top and your hair boundary may join leaving tresses only on the back and sides of your scalp.

Other causes of receding hair boundary include frontal fibrosing alopecia and traction alopecia.

Coping With a Receding Hairline

There are many ways you can cope with a bad hairline and it is reversible with transplantation procedures like FUE and DHI. A hair transplant clinic in Turkey, for example, could devise a treatment for you where grafts are taken from the back of your scalp and implanted to redefine your hair margin and combat alopecia.

Aside from surgery procedures, you can also wear your tresses differently, and treat your coif carefully to minimize thinning and damage. For example, using a wide-toothed comb with gentle brushing is advisable, as is avoiding things like smoking and too much direct sunlight exposure.

A Big Forehead or High Hairline Doesn’t Mean Hairloss

I hope you now have a clear idea of the receding hairline vs big forehead argument. As you can see, you may have mistaken your high hair margin for alopecia or a hairline regression but oftentimes this isn’t the case.

With bad hairlines, you often notice hair loss and thinning in other areas of your scalp too as it’s the genetic condition of male pattern baldness. If you are unsure, I advise seeking the help of a qualified hair transplant surgeon who can give you a consultation and a clear analysis of your follicles.

Dr. Resul Yaman Holistic Approach in Hairline Planning

Dr Resul Yaman takes a holistic approach when performing DHI hair transplant for bad hairline. Already a professional specialist physician should consider the scalp border at the temples when planning restoration to the forehead line of his patient.

Dr. Yaman creates a small triangle from the temples of the patient for a perfect scalp border. Thus, the temple area of the patient is covered by using less grafts.

If the big forehead is caused by scalp thinning, planning the surgery procedure along the entire bad hairline, including the temples, ensures the healthiest result.