It starts with a receding hair line. Eventually you notice less hair over a greater area of your head. Whether this happens over a few decades or in just a few years, there’s action you can take.
You are among the millions of men and women who experience thinning hair and hair loss as they age. In fact, I had the same experience several years ago — realizing that the full head of hair I had grown to love in my 20s was thinning fast. From that moment on, I began searching for the best option for hair restoration. My experience has shown NeoGraft® to be the best choice for hair transplant and restoration for my Naples and Fort Myers patients.
Unlike the traditional FUG (follicular unit grafting) strip method, NeoGraft doesn’t require stitches or invasive surgery, and it leaves the donor sites intact with 95 to 97 percent of the donor follicles preserved.
But how exactly does the treatment work? Skimming over handouts and other information you can find at my practice will give you a good idea, but I want to share the play-by-play of a typical NeoGraft procedure from start to finish to clearly outline the procedure.
- Numbing the scalp: The procedure starts by anesthetizing the scalp. No other area of the body is numbed. In addition to that anesthesia, you may also choose to take oral medication that will help you relax throughout the treatment. The procedure can take between 3 and 8 hours, depending on the size of the treated area. While it may seem like a long process, you will be more than welcome to use the restroom, stretch your legs, and eat lunch or snack throughout the process.
- Gently drawing individual units of hair from the donor area: After numbing the scalp, the NeoGraft equipment will use the follicular unit extraction (FUE) method to harvest hair follicles in units of 1 to 4 hairs each. These hair follicles are drawn out without using incisions or stitches, while still maintaining the health and quality of the donor hair follicle. The NeoGraft system also extracts hair of a uniform diameter and length to ensure the results are distributed evenly across the treatment area.The breakthrough technology of NeoGraft leaves no visible scars, so there’s no obvious line where the donor hair has been removed. This is in direct contrast to the traditional follicular unit grafting (FUG) method, which harvests hair in linear strips and requires incisions, stitches, and even staples in the scalp.
- Creating recipient sites: Once the hair grafts have been extracted, we create recipient sites using a small needle to make tiny incisions and insert the harvested hair. These incisions, which are barely visible to the naked eye, require no stitches and leave no scarring, allowing the transplants to be undetectable once the full results are achieved.
- Transplanting the hair units: After the donor follicles have been harvested and the recipient sites created, the new follicles will be transplanted in a way that mimics the natural growth pattern in the same small clusters of which they were harvested. This way patients aren’t left with the notorious “plug” appearance or the strips associated with FUG hair restoration systems.
- Recovery: After your treatment your scalp will be sore until the donor follicles have become established. I’ll ask you to avoid washing your hair and rubbing or scratching your scalp for a few days following the procedure. After about 10 days, the transplants will be well established and you may return to your normal routine.
The Results
Because hair grows in cycles and your transplanted hair will have to reestablish in a new location, a few treatment cycles may be needed in order to achieve the full head of hair you desire. These treatments will be spaced 9 to 12 months apart to ensure that the transplanted follicles are distributed evenly and your results are natural looking.
After time patients can wear their hair long or short with the donor sites remaining well camouflaged as seen in the before-and-after picture below. Full results are typically seen between 6 months and 1 year after the initial treatment.
Know that you may need a follow-up treatment, or a few maintenance treatments down the road, but that these will be more minor than the first, and will only help to enhance your existing results.
NeoGraft results speak for themselves. I encourage you to take a look at more of the images in our gallery. Or, if you’re ready for a consultation to discuss your candidacy for a NeoGraft treatment, contact us and we’ll work with you to schedule a consultation.
Leave a Reply