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Hair loss is a major cause of appearance anxiety for both men and women, and it’s extremely common. If you are losing your hair, you are definitely not alone. By the age of 35, about two-thirds of American men will have measurable hair loss and by the age of 50, 85 percent will have visibly thinning hair to some degree. In extreme cases, complete baldness can occur even before that age. Surgical options are unattractive to many and medicinal options won’t work for everyone. Now there’s NeoGraft, a completely safe and natural-looking hair restoration procedure that works for both men and women.
Women too, experience hair loss for a number of reasons, including female pattern baldness. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, by the age of forty, 40% of women will have visible hair loss. To make matters worse, while our society is very accepting of men taking measures to preserve or restore their hair, female hair loss is almost a shameful secret. Many women fear to even speak to a professional about the problem. At the same time, there’s a huge market for ‘volume-adding’ hair products. The prevalence of these products alone should be enough to tell you that if you’re a woman suffering from hair loss, you are not alone. Not by a wide margin.
Finally, the medical treatments that are available to men, such as medications like Propecia (Finasteride) or topical treatments such as Rogaine (Minoxidil), are not safe for women as they can adversely affect hormone levels. There is one topical treatment which is safe for both men and women, Formula 82M, which we offer here at MagnifaSkin. It does work wonders for some, but everyone is different, and this treatment won’t work for everyone.
Fortunately, cosmetic procedures of all kinds are becoming more widely accepted and accessed by American adults. Twelve percent of men either have had, or plan to have some form of cosmetic procedure, and this figure is much higher in women, who of course undergo much more social pressure to be physically attractive.
The one area in which this statistic has always been ‘upside-down’ is hair restoration. Fortunately that is now changing. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, in 2012 (the most recent year for which we have statistics) hair restoration procedures increased by 3% among men, but double that among women. This was the 3rd largest increase in cosmetic procedures among women for that year.
Many women, and not just a few men, have also been turned off to the idea of surgical hair transplantation, as it leaves a horizontal scar at the back of the scalp (see video). Of course there’s also the somewhat nauseating idea of having a large area of your scalp cut off with a surgeon’s scalpel and transplanted piecemeal to other areas of your head, leaving even more scars.
Hair plugs are also an unattractive option for many people of both genders. The final appearance of plugs has often been described as ‘doll hair’. The plugs do indeed resemble the small circles of hair which are characteristic of the fake hair on plastic dolls. It’s kind of like sticking a sign on your head that you’ve had a hair transplant. For many, this is no more attractive an option than losing their hair in the first place. In addition, the donor area from which the plugs are extracted may experience significant scarring in some patients.
NeoGraft leaves no scars, the results look completely natural, and a scalpel won’t come anywhere near your sensitive scalp.
With NeoGraft, individual follicles are removed from areas of the head where the hair is thickest and transplanted one-by-one to the areas where hair has been lost. While it might sound like individually transplanting thousands of hairs would take forever, in the hands of a skilled doctor or clinician, you’ll be amazed at how quickly the procedure can be completed.
The NeoGraft machine, developed by Venus Concept, makes the procedure quick and completely safe. It also takes the guesswork out of the implantation procedure by tracking the number of follicles transplanted from and to each area.
As another major benefit, both the procedure and recovery time are much quicker with NeoGraft over traditional hair transplantation methods. While this will vary from patient to patient, depending largely upon the number of follicles that need to be transplanted, a NeoGraft procedure can take as little as five hours.
Image courtesy of NeoGraft
For some people, they never even get to the point of age-related or genetically-associated hair loss. They are born with hair lines or hair patterns they are unhappy with. NeoGraft can fix that too. Born with a widow’s peak and wish you had a more pleasing hair line? With NeoGraft, we can give you any hair line you wish. In some cases, this results in a dramatic improvement in overall appearance, as the hair frames the face.
Are your eyebrows gradually disappearing? While men’s eyebrows tend to get thicker and bushier as they age, we women often suffer the opposite effect. Eyebrows that were once full and well-defined gradually thin to the point where our ‘eyebrows’ are more pencil than brow. Neograft can give you back your full brows, or even leave you with thicker brows than you ever had.
The procedure itself is done in two steps. First, we harvest hair follicles from the area at the back of your scalp between your ears. This area is most resistant to pattern baldness, and the area of the head from which hairs are the last to go.
During the harvesting procedure you’ll need to lay face down for between two and four hours. A local anesthetic will be applied to the harvest target area, also called the ‘donor site’. The area also needs to be shaved so only the roots will be extracted. We then use NeoGraft’s state-of-the-art FUE, or Follicular Unit Extraction device to remove the required number of hairs. This treatment is so comfortable and pain-free that some patients even fall asleep.
After extraction, we both get to take a short break. Go the bathroom, get something to eat or drink, or check your voicemail.
For this second part of the procedure, you’ll be sitting upright. Once again, the areas to receive the transplanted hairs, called the ‘recipient site’, will be anesthetized so there’ll be no pain during implantation.
We’ll have pre-determined your desired hair line and implantation pattern previous to this step so your resulting restored hair will look very natural. You’ll be free to listen to music, watch a movie and talk with those around you. Just relax and enjoy the knowledge that you’ll soon have a much fuller head of hair.
After the procedure a sterile dressing will be applied to protect the area from possible infection, but you’ll only need this dressing for a short time.
Our State-of-the-Art NeoGraft Follicular Unit Extraction Device
Unlike with traditional transplant procedures which may require up to a week before you’ll be able to return to work, many patients are able to resume their normal routine within two or three days. If it takes a little longer for you, don’t be concerned. Everyone will respond differently and heal at a different rate. Expect little to no discomfort. You can even shower and wash your hair, but you should take care to be gentle with the treated areas.
The donor area will look natural again within a week to 10 days for most patients. It takes only this long for the remaining hair in that area to grow over the areas where follicles were removed. If you don’t want anyone to know you’ve had the procedure, it is recommended that you book a couple of weeks off work. This will be enough time for most people to regain a natural appearance. Once again, though, physical recovery is very quick, so if you don’t mind a few strange looks you can book the procedure for a Friday and safely return to work on Monday.
The new hair follicles will remain in place for a couple of weeks following the procedure, then begin to fall out. Not to worry as this is completely normal and to be expected. The transplant procedure is traumatic to the tissues, but the follicle isn’t dead, just starting a new growth phase. New hair shafts should begin to appear within 3 to 4 months and your new head of hair should look completely natural by 8 to 10 months.
Most of the risks associated with traditional transplant procedures, including bleeding, scarring, extensive recovery time, and post-op infections or complications are dramatically lessened with NeoGraft. Most patients experience no issues whatsoever and the vast majority of patients report being ‘satisfied’ to ‘extremely happy’ with the final result.