A woman got called suffered cruel nicknames her whole life due to the size of her forehead had to resort to having surgery to lower her hairline - in a bid to stop the vicious bullying.
Mum Carla-Marie Norton always wore her hair in a slick back tight ponytail as a child for years, but it resulted in her hairline receding and gave her a large forehead.
She was then tragically bullied for 20 years, being called names such as "slaphead" and "five head" and hid away until she decided to do something about it and got her hairline lowered by 3cm.
Carla, from Andover, Hants, made sure she always hid behind her fringe and was terrified of going out in the wind in case her forehead was exposed. She would never go swimming and heartbreakingly also avoided having photos taken with her two children. She also revealed how she "missed out" on not taking photos with her children while they were young, due to the insecurities she's had since the age of 15.
The hairstyle, known as the Croydon Facelift, caused the 41-year-old's hairline to recede and left her with a large forehead, but now proudly shows off her face and no longer hides away. This is all thanks to having her hairline surgically 'lowered' by around 3cm in a breakthrough procedure at UK clinic London Bridge Plastic Surgery in 2019.
Carla said at the time: "It's made such a huge difference to my life. And it's the little things that stand out. A few weeks ago, I went on a rollercoaster with my kids at Peppa Pig World. That's something I would never have done before the operation because it would have risked exposing my forehead. The ride was going fast, the wind was blowing back my hair back, and I literally did not have a care in the world. I didn't realise how much that feeling would mean to me.
"Looking back, one result of my body hang-up was that I never took photos with my children. I actually have very few photos with my son. He’s five now, and yet there's hardly any shots of us both together. It's not a nice feeling for me. But since the operation, I'm making up for lost time."
Born with naturally afro-textured hair, Carla would scrape it back into a ponytail during her school years. She says that triggered a phenomena known as 'traction alopecia' - where repeated strain on hair follicles can trigger irreversible hair loss. It's common among those with heavy dreadlocks, hair extensions and cornrows and can also be caused by excessively tight ponytails.
Carla further shared: "There was one picture that I had taken at the swimming pool in our school. It was a summer's day and the sun was literally reflecting off my forehead to the point that it looked like a solar panel. I got called 'slaphead' and 'fivehead'. It’s just kids being kids, but their words stung. And by the time I was 15 or 16, I began to feel really self-conscious."
From then on Carla would style her hair into a big side fringe and wouldn't let anyone stroke her head out of fear her forehead would be exposed. She added: "I was very conscious that all the other girls didn’t have big foreheads. I thought that was why boys were not attracted to me as much as my friends. I basically blamed my forehead for everything."
The insecurities extended to her wedding day in 2016 and Carla said: "I specifically remember saying to the hairdresser, my hair has to be styled into a big side fringe. It was windy on my wedding day as well, so I was paranoid. Thankfully they put so much hairspray on it didn't shift."
She decided she'd had enough and as she researched options she stumbled upon hairline lowering surgery. The operation was performed by surgeon Christopher Inglefield at the London Bridge Plastic Surgery. It works by removing a portion of the forehead skin, before the scalp is brought forward by around 3cm and reattached. The incisions - cut in a delicate, slight zig-zag - are placed in the natural hairline so they're as hidden as possible.
She admitted: "I literally googled 'I hate my forehead', and an article appeared about another lady who'd had the same surgery at the clinic. It was literally a lightbulb moment. I didn't even know hairline lowering surgery existed. There was no question whether I was having it. It was happening."
She had the surgery - which lasted around two hours and involved general anaesthetic - in August of 2019 and her confidence was instantly boosted. Carla explained: "The scar is so well hidden and if you put makeup on it then you can’t even see it. I couldn't be happier with the results."
Carla's surgeon Christopher Inglefield says demand for hairline lowering ops have skyrocketed since he first began performing them in 2013. He added: "It's very difficult to disguise this area of the body in everyday life. And another huge driver behind forehead unhappiness is that people assume, wrongly, that there's no remedy.
"We often hear from patients who say, 'I never knew this surgery existed - and I'm so relieved it does’. As in Carla's case, we hear stories of past bullying at school, the struggles to form meaningful relationships and the general erosion of any sort of self-esteem. We first began performing hairline lowering surgery in 2013 and it's been increasing in popularity ever since. It's also a popular procedure for trans patients, particularly male to female transitioning patients who are undergoing facial feminization surgery."
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