Losing your hair is a bummer, whether male or female. While men usually have areas that become fully bald, women tend to suffer from universal thinning hair that typically begins to show on the part line. At Saltz Plastic Surgery, we offer a solution that uses your own healthy hair to restore thinning areas. It’s called FUE hair transplantation with NeoGraft. NeoGraft moves your actively growing hair follicles from areas they are not needed to where they are. But timing can be important, as the process works before for areas where the hair is thinning, but not fully bald yet.
How is hair transplantation different now?
Hair transplantation has been performed since the 1950s, but techniques have come a long way. Formerly, an entire patch of “bald resistant” hair from the back of the head was removed and transplanted in its entirety on the balding area. This created two problems. First, when the skin on the back of the scalp was stretched back together and stitched, it created an unsightly scar where hair would not regrow. This scar could be seen when the person was swimming and in other situations. Second, the transplanted hair patches looked unnatural.
After researching innovations in the industry, Dr. Saltz decided the best option is the NeoGraft system. NeoGraft provides the follicular unit extraction (FUE) method for hair transplantation. This involves taking individual follicles from the back of the scalp and transplanting them into the balding areas. The result is natural looking and effective. No pills. No creams. Just your own hair moved to where it is needed.
How is FUE done?
In follicular unit extraction, the back of your head is first shaved and then numbed. This is the area where your hair is still growing normally and isn’t prone to pattern balding. Then Dr. Saltz removes hair follicles one by one from this area using the NeoGraft device. This area will heal with small dots, but the surrounding hair will cover those.
Next, we clean and numb the area where you are losing hair. Holes are created with the NeoGraft device and a hair follicle is placed into every hole. As you would assume, this is a time-consuming process, taking anywhere from four to eight hours.
When will the hair start to grow?
After about two to three weeks, your transplanted hair will fall out, but it’s not a reason for concern. This is simply the follicles’ reaction to the trauma. Of your transplanted follicles, around 60 percent will successfully take hold and start growing new hair within six to nine months.
Would NeoGraft FUE work for me?
The question of whether you could have NeoGraft FUE transplantation at Saltz Plastic Surgery depends on if you still have hair growing on the back of your head, the area usually immune to male pattern balding. If so, then you could probably have FUE and a return to a fuller head of hair.
Interested in NeoGraft for restoring your hair? Call us at either of our Saltz Plastic Surgery offices in Park City (435) 655-6612 or Salt Lake (801) 274-9500 to schedule a NeoGraft consultation.