Can My Flat Back Of My Head Get A Nicely Curved Bump To It?

Q: Dr. Eppley, Hello, the back of my head is completely flat from the top of my skull to my neck. This has always bothered me and thought I’d have to live the rest of my life with it. As a woman I’ve never been able to wear cute short haircuts. I keep my long hair held back with a bandanna. I have to be careful how I tie it and place it because it will slip right off my flat head. I have to make sure the knot is placed to the side so it won’t pop out and show from under my hair at the back of my head. Is there a plastic surgery that can give me a nicely curved “bump” to the back of my head? Thank you in advance for your time.

A: Thank you for your inquiry. Back of the head augmentations are common in my practice and there are two methods to achieve a significant augmentation effect. How much augmentation can be achieved is highly dependent on how much augmentation the patient desires and whether the scalp can stretch to accommodate it. While the placement of a custom occipital skull implant can be done, by itself, it will not achieve the maximum augmentation result that most women desire in my experience due to the limited scalp stretch that you undoubtably have given the congenital nature of the skull flatness. Thus the potential need for a two stage approach with either placement of a first stage scalp expander followed by a second stage skull implant or the use of a layered two piece custom skull implant using a staged approach to the implant placements.

I would need to see a side view picture of the back of your head to do some computer imaging to determine your exact back of head augmentation needs.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana