Male pattern baldness is a common condition that affects 70 percent of men, and some studies say about 40 percent of women. Until recently, surgical hair transplant procedures would leave a visible scar and a painful recovery. Now, however, there is a new way to transplant hair that is quicker, less painful and requires very little downtime. 

By Carolynn Grimes
The Plastic Surgery Channel

Disguises, Wigs and Spray Hair…?

Men have often resorted to all kinds of hairdos and products to bring back the youthful look of their teenage years. There’s the ever popular “comb-over” – a technique that doesn’t fool anybody – where you grow out a portion of hair from the side, comb it way over, and swirl it around on top to cover the bald. You can tattoo your hairline, buy a toupee, and there’s even a product that works similar to spray paint where you literally spray your bald away!  If these techniques don’t sound good to you, there’s always the cropped cut or do what most men do… embrace the bald and shave it all off!

None of these ideas sounded good to Asher Trimble, an Austin entrepreneur who began losing his hair at the age of 28 years old. “At the front of my scalp I had pretty significant hair loss to the point where I had to cut it very short. At first, you just kind of accept it and move on with life and say, ‘Oh well, those years are behind me’.”

That’s what he thought until he started doing some research and discovered a cosmetic procedure called NeoGraft. NeoGraft is the first and only FDA cleared follicular unit harvesting and implantation system that uses what’s called the Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) method.  This method extracts between 1 and 4 hair follicles at a time from the back of the head and transplants them where baldness has occurred.

 

 

Drs. Dustin Reid and Ashley Gordon have done hundreds of hair transplants with the NeoGraft procedure in their Austin, Texas plastic surgery office. Dr. Reid says hair follicles in the back of the head are more resistant to testosterone, the reason for male pattern baldness. In the past, doctors would take a strip of hair from the back that left a visible scar and often times a painful recovery.

Experience Matters

If you’re interested in hair transplantation, do careful research of your surgeon and the procedure. Dr. Gordon says it’s important to find a surgeon who has lots of experience. “It’s really important to create a natural hairline,” says Gordon.  “The hairline needs to be a little bit irregular, you can’t bring it too far forward and it needs to be age appropriate.”

“Neograft is a tool in the surgeons hand but more important is the surgeon’s eye and the surgeons skill when doing the hair transplant,” says Dr. Reid.

“I honestly forget that I had it done sometimes because it looks so natural,” says Trimble.

Trimble had his procedure two years ago and loves the result. He’s now going in for a second procedure to fill in the last few gaps in his new hairline. “I strongly recommend it.  I’m very open about the procedure with my friends and I tell them, in my mind, there’s not one disadvantage.”

Recovery time for the procedure is short and the benefits can often last a lifetime. The NeoGraft technology allows patients to achieve natural looking results with no linear scar, minimal downtime and a shorter recovery period.