Hair loss affects over 35 million men and 21 million women in the United States alone.

More than 40 percent of men will have noticeable hair loss by age 35, and 65 percent of women will have significant hair loss by age 60.

The NeoGraft FUE procedure is effective for hair transplantation for both men and most women.

FUE (follicular unit extraction) has been the method of choice for hair transplantation since the 1990s because it results in the most natural appearance and does not have the look of a toy doll.

The automated NeoGraft is the most modern way to perform the FUE technique, and allows the procurement of many more grafts than manual FUE as well as a more precise method of removing grafts.

The FUE method does not require removal of a large strip of scalp from the back of the head, and there are no sutures, staples or resulting linear scar.

This minimally invasive procedure is performed under local anesthesia, and the recovery and discomfort are minimal. The result, when skillfully performed, is completely natural and undetectable in appearance with no visible scars.

The skill and experience of the surgeon also includes choosing patients who are good candidates for the procedure and explaining expectations to the patients.

One has a choice of getting up to 2,500 grafts at one sitting (each 1 millimeter graft contains from 1 to 4 follicles and hairs). Or, one can get 750 or more grafts at each hair transplant session and plan for when the next NeoGraft session will be scheduled until the optimal number of grafts is reached.

Each patient requires a different number of grafts according to their individual hair loss and goal. This plan spreads the grafting over time and may be more affordable for some people. The future grafting sessions can be done at the patient’s convenience.

The hair grafts are taken from the “donor” site in the back and sides of the head. These are areas that continue growing hair for most, if not all, of the patient’s lifetime, and when grafted they continue a similar growth pattern to that of the donor site after transplantation.

One patient equated it to planting trees. It is, therefore, a lifetime investment.

E. Ronald Finger, MD, FACS is a board certified plastic surgeon with offices in Savannah and Bluffton. www.fingerand associates.com