Women face permanent scars and hair loss from following the TikTok drooping brow craze

Young women risk lifelong scarring and permanent hair loss if they have cosmetic procedures to lower their hairline, experts warn.

The surgery, which costs between £5,000 and £7,000 in the UK, has been widely promoted on social media by cosmetics companies and ex-patients who claim a smaller forehead ‘evens out’ facial proportions and ‘boosts’ confidence’ .

During the operation, the woman’s scalp is severed and her hairline is pulled forward.

Online ads promise that patients will make a full recovery in a week and will not leave any obvious scars. On the video-sharing app TikTok, clips showing women with hairline transformations have attracted 44 million viewers.

Joanna Gawor, 29, had hairline lowering surgery to reduce her forehead to boost her confidence

Ms. Gawor suffered significant swelling after her surgery and required emergency treatment

However, experts say that when the skin is pulled too tight, the blood and oxygen supply to the face is restricted, causing skin tissue to die and sections of hair to fall out.

“In extreme cases, if the surgery is done poorly, the dead tissue becomes inflamed and the infection spreads under the skin to the rest of the scalp,” says facial plastic surgeon Dr. Greg Bran. “This leads to permanent hair loss, chronic pain and stubborn infections.”

according to dr Bran, who performs the procedure at his Harley Street clinic, is seeing a growing number of patients requiring corrective surgery after botched jobs.

He says, “Some doctors are jumping on the trend even though they don’t understand the structure of the face, and the patients are suffering.”

Joanna Gawor, a 27-year-old midwife, paid £1,300 for treatment in Poland in October 2021. She says: “I hated my hairline. I knew that surgery to bring it down would leave a scar, but the doctor assured me hair would grow back and cover it.

When Joanna woke up from the surgery, her forehead was swollen and painful, and after the bandage was removed, parts of the scar turned black and the skin began to peel. She suffered from necrosis – when the blood supply to the tissue is cut off, causing it to rot and die. She says: “I ended up with a huge red scar and lost all the hair on my forehead.”

On TikTok, many patients seem delighted with their results. One woman reviewing the procedure she had a month ago says she “loves” the transformation. “I feel like I’m 18 again!” she says into the camera. Another patient named Madison wrote on Instagram: “I finally feel and look like I always wanted to. I’m about a month away from my surgery now and you can’t even see my scars.’

Hairline lowering surgery was developed in the late 1990s to treat male pattern baldness. It has also been used in gender reassignment surgeries for the past decade, but experts say the explosion in popularity has been attributed to fake images on Instagram and TikTok. “Edited photos and videos have changed young women’s perceptions of the perfect female face,” suggests Dr. Bran before.

“I used to have maybe one or two hairline surgeries every month. Over the past year, that has increased to at least two a week.’

During the three-hour procedure, surgeons cut a band of skin on the forehead below the hairline. Tiny holes drilled in the skull allow metal implants to attach the bone to the skin once it is pulled forward. Then the wound is sewn up. dr Greg Williams, hair restoration expert at the Farjo Hair Institute in London, says: “Every patient will be left with a scar, the quality of which cannot be guaranteed. It can be raised or a different color than the skin of the forehead – which requires bangs to hide it.

“The surgeon must be very skillful to hide the wound. The risks are downplayed by social media influencers who suggest it’s easy and everything will be fine.”

In May, Joanna had corrective surgery with Dr. Bran to cut out the scar and readjust her hairline. “The wound has recovered well,” she says. “The scar is barely visible. It’s been a long road, but I’m finally happy with my result.”

Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk