Weird Head Shape Surgery

Q: Dr. Eppley, I am interested in weird head shape surgery. I’m 24 years old. I have thinning and receding hair which I have come to terms with. However I can’t come to terms with my weird head shape. I will include pictures below as well.

Picture 1:

Left and right arrows show dips in the sides of my head which gives the skull such an uneven look and very coney. This goes back quite far as well but not far enough to get to the back of the head.

The middle arrow shows a coned look, however it may be because it goes so thin due to the dips in the head which makes it seem worse. 

It’s a slightly better picture of the dip on the side of the temple specially on the left side. You can see it looks like it’s on another platform. 

I have looked at a lot of the surgery posts on your site and feel encouraged that you can assist me I just hope I’m correct in assuming this to be honest. I would love to have a normal smooth rounded head shape rather than dippy lumpy and coney.

A: In consideration of weird head shape surgery, we first have to define the exact skull shape abnormality. The side dips to which you refer is known as the temporal lines where the top of the temporalis muscle meets the outer edge of the skull. While in many people this is a smooth transition as the muscle gets very thin in this area, there are men like you where the muscle actually remains or appears thick (or the skull bone is more narrow than normal which better describes your situation) creating muscle pseudofullness and making the normally flat temporal line look indented. The other indicator to your scaphocephalic skull shape is the high peak or sagittal ridge with narrow parasagittal sides creating what is known as the ‘roof’ skull deformity.

The effective treatment approach is usually a combination of sagittal ridge reduction combined with parasagittal augmentation that crosses the temporal line. Together this is the only effective way to reshape the current appearance of your head shape.

Dr. Barry Eppley

Indianapolis, Indiana