Temples. The small section between your ear and eye. In the world of hair transplants, there is no area that can so profoundly lift your result to perfection or bring it crashing down to disaster. Temples are such a high stakes game that many clinics won’t even touch them. But still, knowing these stakes, many patients (myself included) take the risk. This article will explain why temples are so important and how to get the best result if you choose to get them done.
Hair frames the face. This is one of the main reasons that a hair transplant can make a guy look so much younger. To this end, temple restoration achieves this in a way that the top part of the hairline cannot. Not only do temples frame the face from the side, the very presence of temples are uniquely linked to youth. Simply put, younger guys tend to have more pronounced temples. When we get them restored, our face looks more youthful. Compared to the thousands of grafts that are usually needed to address the main hairline, a little goes a long way with temples. A few hundred grafts implanted each side will make a huge difference visually.
Getting temples done creates better symmetry throughout the hairline. Imagine you’ve receded to a Norwood 4 and decide to get a hair transplant. If you were to only do the top part of the hairline and not address your receded temples, there is a chance your hair could look a bit like a toupee. Think about it: once your new hair has grown in, it might seem strange to the eye that the top part of your hair is so strong yet the side parts remain receded. Getting your temples done creates balance.
What to consider and how to find the perfect surgeon for temples
As I mentioned, many clinics, particularly lower priced ones will flat out refuse to do temples. To be honest, I like this stance. For clinics who focus on volume and speed it is the lesser of two evils to simply be upfront rather than provide terrible final results.
The reason many clinics won’t do temples is the added amount of work. The hair on your temple is much thinner than the hair on the middle of your scalp. A surgeon must therefore filter through your donor area for the thinnest hair, suitable to be placed at your temples. Given that hair is thicker the further it is to the bottom of your head, the donor area will never have hair as thin as natural temples, but finding the best candidates is a painstaking process. It also means that guys with thinner hair such as myself will find themselves better suited for temples given their starting point.
Once the hair is selected, implanting them at the right angles is the next challenge. Given how ‘on show’ the temples are at all times, grafts implanted at the wrong angles will be highly noticeable. Below is a picture of when temple work goes badly. For these two main reasons, temple work generally requires a clinic that focuses on quality rather than quantity. If you want temple work done, you should be willing to pay slightly more for it.
Choosing the right clinic for temple work
- Request prior examples. This is paramount. You want to see that a clinic has a track record in producing temples specifically. Find out which doctors or tech teams produced the work and request that they carry out your surgery. Clinics will often allow customers to do this and even if they decline, there is no harm in asking.
- Be willing to pay a little more. When it comes to this industry, you will certainly find rock bottom clinics who will promise you the greatest temples since ancient Egypt for only $1,500. Temples require extra skill. It is worth saving slightly longer to get a true specialist. This doesn’t mean you have to treble your budget but be willing to save slightly longer to get the peace of mind from a true specialist.
- Consider splitting your surgeries. Need >3k grafts but can’t afford a higher tier surgeon? One option would be to get the bulk of your work done in a more cost effective place, and then return to a higher quality clinic to add 1,000 grafts to the hairline and temples.
- Set your expectations. If you are a Norwood 4, don’t expect a clinic to give you the temples of a young Will Smith. Overdoing your temples is one of the quickest ways to have an unnatural looking hair transplant. Talk with your clinic about what could be realistic, and remember that even a small number of grafts can make a big change to your final result.