If your forehead looks tall to you, forehead reduction surgery (also called hairline lowering or hairline advancement) is one of the few options that changes the hairline itself instead of covering it. If you are also looking at the brow, see brow lift in Turkey. To add up the whole trip with your own quote for hairline lowering in Turkey, use the trip budget calculator.

Key takeaways

  • Forehead reduction moves the hairline forward by removing a strip of forehead skin. Published series report an average lowering of roughly 1.6 to 2.5 cm (about 0.6 to 1 inch).
  • Reported complication rates range from 1% or less in a pooled review to higher figures for folliculitis and temporary shedding in a large single-surgeon series.
  • Published studies do not compare forehead reduction and rhinoplasty done together with the same operations done separately, so timing is a question for your surgeon.

How does forehead reduction surgery work?

The surgeon makes an incision along or just inside the hairline, removes a strip of forehead skin, and advances the scalp forward so the hairline sits lower. The advanced scalp is then fixed in place and the wound closed. The methods are described in the surgical literature at length; the 820-case series below, for example, details how the flap is fixed to the bone and how the incision is sutured. Techniques differ between surgeons, and your surgeon can explain which one they use and why.

A review of the field notes why the operation is appealing. Epstein and Epstein, writing in Facial Plastic Surgery Clinics of North America, describe it as an alternative to hair transplantation with “unsurpassed density” and immediate results. If you are weighing a transplant instead, our guide to a hair transplant and rhinoplasty on one trip covers timing. They also state that good candidates need a stable frontal hairline, which excludes most men, and a scalp loose enough to be advanced (PubMed).

How much can the forehead be shortened?

A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis pooled four studies with 801 patients. The mean reduction was 1.6 cm (95% confidence interval 1.4 to 1.8), which is a little over half an inch (Vila and colleagues, PubMed). All eight studies in the wider review were retrospective cohorts, so the evidence is real but not the strongest kind.

Larger single-practice series report similar numbers. One series of 650 patients, 95.5% of them women, reported an average skin excision of 2.29 cm (de Azevedo Marques, PubMed). Another, of 820 consecutive cases, reported a mean shortening of 25.5 mm with a range of 10 to 50 mm, and an average satisfaction score of 3.98 out of 5 (Ekizceli and Hocaoğlu, PubMed). The range matters: a forehead cannot be lowered by any amount, and how far your scalp can move depends on how loose it is.

What are the risks, scars and side effects?

The numbers depend on what each study counts.

  • Pooled review: complications included temporary and permanent hair loss, unacceptable scarring, lasting numbness and hematoma, with a pooled complication rate of 1% or less (PubMed).
  • 650-patient series: the listed complications were 14 cases of wound dehiscence, 6 seromas, 1 case of tissue death (necrosis), 133 of folliculitis, 98 of temporary postoperative shedding and 1 of hair loss. The authors say all scars were rated good quality, and that managing expectations is essential, especially about how far the forehead can shorten, scar development and folliculitis (PubMed).
  • Numbness: in a smaller report of 21 patients, scalp numbness was present in every patient and resolved in all by 2 months (Espinosa and colleagues, PubMed). The pooled review above lists persistent numbness among complications, so ask your surgeon how long numbness lasted for their own patients.

The two sets of figures are not contradictory. They come from different designs, and the large series tracked outcomes such as folliculitis and shedding that a pooled review of older, smaller studies may not have captured. Treat the 1% figure as a lower bound.

The 650-patient report also says patient selection should look at hair conditions that can affect long-term results, such as male pattern baldness and frontal fibrosing alopecia. If you are losing hair at the front, say so at the consultation.

Can forehead reduction be combined with rhinoplasty?

People often ask about doing both in one trip, because the nose and forehead sit in the same central part of the face. No published study compares forehead reduction plus rhinoplasty in one operation against the same two operations done separately. So there is no published answer on whether combining lowers or raises your risk.

What is documented is more general. In a retrospective review of 1,753 plastic surgery cases, each extra hour of surgery was associated with 21% higher odds of complications, and the risk rose noticeably after about 3 hours (Hardy and colleagues, PubMed). That study covered mostly complex, multi-procedure operations rather than facial surgery alone, so it does not predict your case. It is a reason to ask your surgeon how long the combined plan would take and whether staging the operations is an option.

If you travel for surgery, the NHS notes that flying is generally advised against for 7 to 10 days after facial cosmetic procedures. It also says it is unrealistic to have a holiday straight after surgery (NHS; last reviewed December 2022). Two recoveries stacked on top of each other, one on the scalp and one on the nose, make that timing harder to plan. For the wider picture, see our guides on facial procedures that can be combined with rhinoplasty and whether doing more at once is wise.

Is a tall forehead the problem, or the brow?

A forehead can look tall because the hairline is high, because the brows sit low, or both. Brow position and forehead height are separate questions with separate operations. Our comparison of endoscopic and temporal brow lifts shows where the incisions for two brow approaches sit. Our guide on combining a brow lift with rhinoplasty covers the brow side, and facial proportion and harmony explains how people judge the upper third of the face.

What should you ask your surgeon?

  • How many hairline advancements do you perform each year, and may I see unedited results at 12 months or later?
  • Where will my scar sit, and how will it look as hair grows around it?
  • How far do you expect my scalp to move, and what happens if it moves less?
  • How long does numbness usually last, and what is your rate of folliculitis and temporary shedding?
  • Would you do this together with rhinoplasty, or separately, and why?
  • What is covered if I need a scar revision?

Sources

All pages were checked on 10 October 2026. PubMed items are cited from their abstracts.