A new minimally invasive hair transplant system called NeoGraft allows patients to regrow hair with very little downtime.
Those feeling the social sting of premature hair loss now have an alternative treatment called NeoGraft, an automated system that removes individual hair follicles from the back of the head so that they can be transplanted to balding areas while the patient is awake and comfortable.
Unlike the harsh “strip method” that involves putting the patient to sleep while a strip of the scalp containing hair is actually cut out so that it can be transplanted to an area of hair loss — usually resulting in slow recovery time, loss of feeling at the incision site and a noticeable amount of postoperative pain — NeoGraft utilizes the less-invasive Follicle Unit Extraction technique that removes individual hair follicles from natural groupings of about one to four hairs from the back of the head, which is resistant to hair loss, and then places them in the areas where balding has occurred without the need for staples or stitches or having to leave behind a linear scar.
“A lot of people in the industry feel that this provides the most reliable grafting because you’re not manipulating all of those hair follicles so much,” says Dr. Kevin Duplechain, who operates the only clinic in the area to offer NeoGraft. “What I like about it is that you don’t have to make such a big incision, there is very little downtime and the fact that you could create such a natural appearing hairline.”
And the NeoGraft treatment isn’t limited solely to cosmetic applications for male or female pattern baldness as it can be used to help restore hair follicles for people who have suffered severe burns or other trauma to the face and head.
“It’s not just for men who are losing their hair,” says Duplechain. “So let’s say patients who have been burned and maybe they’ve lost their eyebrows. Commonly, people would just tattoo their eyebrows. Now, we can re-create an eyebrow with their own hair, which gives them a more natural look. And with patients that have maybe had trauma or major surgery along the hairline where incisions are visible we’ll be able to come back and microscopically repair and conceal those incisions.”
For more information, visit DrDuplechain.com.