Hairline errors are not one problem but four, and they are not equally fixable. Knowing which one is present decides whether the answer is more surgery, less hair, or neither.
| Error | How it looks | What can be done |
|---|---|---|
| Placed too low | A juvenile line on an ageing face | Grafts removed by punch, or cleared with laser |
| Too straight or mirrored | A drawn line; both sides identical | Edge broken up with single hairs and selective removal |
| Coarse grafts in front | Tufted, pluggy leading edge | Multi-hair units removed and replaced with singles |
| Wrong angle or direction | Hair standing upright or splaying sideways | Only by removing and replacing the grafts |
Filled temples are the error people misname. When the frontotemporal angle is closed off, the hairline becomes a rounded arc across the forehead. Nothing about the front row is wrong; the shape is. It is corrected by opening the angle again, which means taking hair out rather than adding it.
Adding hair cannot undo a hairline that sits too far forward. Density behind a badly placed line only makes it more definite. Correction generally means removing grafts first, and every removed graft is donor that was already spent — which is why the first design matters more than any repair that follows it.
Related terms
- Hairline design principles
- Natural vs artificial hairline
- Micro-irregular hairline design
- Donor area depletion
For how a corrective procedure is planned, see revision hair transplant. For the wider set of outcomes that go wrong, see hair transplant gone wrong.