Back of Head Reshaping

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am a 37 year old man who is extremely self conscious about the shape of my head. I’ve longed for a nicely rounded back head. Through my research I recently learned of your practice who performs surgical back of the head reshaping. 

I typically where my hair rather short…prefer it to be shorter than the pictures attached. I think the custom implant is the way to go for me, but am concerned about a really noticeable scar. Would these sutures be similar to those use on the face when cosmetic work is done? 

How do you determine if a two step skull implant process is required? 

Another concern for me is if l the implant will create a “pulled look” in my face and pull my hair line back? 

Where do you suggest making the incision?

I look forward to hearing from you. 

A: In answer to your questions about back of head reshaping:

1) Generally scalp scars heal really well and can be very hard to see even in short hair. In my experience, for a variety of reasons, they do best in thicker scalps. For occipital skull implants the incision is placed low on the back of the head with a horizontal incision at about the level of the top of the ear and is usually about 7 to 8 cms.

2) Computer imaging is done to determine what you consider a ‘nicely rounded back of the head’. That will tell me how much augmentation is needed and whether a one stage or two stage approach is needed.

3) The implant will not pull up on your face or pull our frontal hairline back.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana