145 Foss Creek Cir Healdsburg, CA 95448
707-473-0220
Hair loss is a reality for millions of people—men and women alike—but hair restoration options in San Francisco and beyond have not always delivered in the way sufferers have hoped they would. Dr. Stanley Jacobs has found that NeoGraft works well for his patients by treating all types of hair loss, from male pattern baldness to thinning hair in women.
While hair restoration is not new to Dr. Jacobs’ practice, previously available hair restoration techniques did not meet his high standards for aesthetic excellence. Traditional techniques involved cutting the scalp and resulted in an unnatural appearance, also known as “doll’s head.” The new technology elevates hair restoration to an art form and meets Dr. Jacobs’ strict demand for a natural hair pattern with no incisions, no sutures, no linear scar, and minimal downtime. NeoGraft is an FDA-approved hair loss treatment and is about the same cost as other hair restoration techniques.
Men facing hereditary baldness and women dealing with thinning hair can find many possible hair restoration solutions to the problem of an increasingly visible scalp, but NeoGraft presents an answer that is accurate, fast, minimally invasive, and doesn’t require a scalpel incision or stitches.
This system makes use of an FUE hair transplant device. Bay Area patients may already know that FUE stands for “Follicular Unit Extraction,” which is a method of collecting healthy individual follicles from one area to be transplanted to the bare portions of the scalp. Since there are no incisions involved in this collection process, healing time with this hair restoration method is drastically improved from techniques that make use of a linear incision.
Many men and women eager to halt and reverse the effects of hereditary hair loss find that modern surgical hair transplant techniques are the most advanced and effective strategy for getting the results they want. While the “hair plugs” of the past frequently resulted in uncomfortably obvious additions to a thinning or balding scalp, today’s harvesting and implanting methods can produce a look that rivals the patient’s original head of hair.
There are two main transplant methods for restoring hair favored by doctors today, one of which collects hair grafts one at a time, frequently accomplished with a NeoGraft® device, while the other requires the surgical removal of a large piece of scalp. Dr. Stanley Jacobs performs only the individual-collection method for a variety of reasons.
Both strategies involve removing healthy follicles from areas of the scalp where hair is more resistant to baldness, then transplanting them to areas where hair has thinned or disappeared.
A talented and experienced surgeon with an eye for the lines and flow of hair, such as Dr. Jacobs, will produce results virtually indistinguishable from natural growth.
Though the transplanting portion of both hair restoration methods operate in much the same fashion, the extraction is where they greatly differ.
The strip method involves a surgeon removing a thin section of follicle-bearing skin from the back of the scalp, then separating the viable follicles and preparing them for implantation. The process is effective, but it obviously requires a significant incision, which carries with it all of the associated risks and recovery time of a surgical procedure. Ultimately, when this line heals, it leaves a linear scar. Granted, this line should eventually be hidden beneath new hair growth, but the fact remains that the mark is there.
Extracting individual grafts improves on the transplantation process by foregoing the strip and taking follicular units, which contain one to four hairs each, one at a time. No incisions are necessary. There is a slight puncture with each extraction, but the resulting circular marks heal to a barely visible size and are further obscured by new growth. Since these tiny marks are spread across the scalp as opposed to collected into a row, they do not catch the eye in the way a concentrated line can.
This type of extraction may be performed manually, but Dr. Jacobs uses the NeoGraft® device, which safely and rapidly collects the follicular units. These will be prepared and meticulously implanted the same day.
Recovery time is drastically improved with this method, since there are no incisions to heal and no sutures or staples to monitor.
Many patients prefer the minimal scarring of the individual extraction because it allows them to wear their hair short without worry that evidence of a transplant will be visible.
Note that not every patient is a candidate for this method. Dr. Jacobs will discuss your best options with you at your consultation.
