A comparison between parallel hairline incisions and perpendicular incisions when performing a face lift.

Abstract

Our profession has not decided if it is better to incise parallel or perpendicular (at an angle) to hair follicles when performing a brow lift or a face lift. Thirty patients had one side incised parallel and the other side incised perpendicular to hair follicles. Neither the patients nor the examiners knew how each side was incised. By comparing the invisibility, the nonlinearity, the absence of hypopigmentation, and the abundance of hair into and in front of the scar, we obtained statistical proof that if we incised perpendicular to hair follicles (to preserve the deep follicles in the proximal flap), scars were better in 95 percent of patients.