NeoGraft machine for hair transplants

NeoGraft adds automation to an otherwise cumbersome process called follicular unit extraction, or FUE

June 2010

Hair transplant experts are excited about a new technology called NeoGraft that restores lost hair.

But they warn that a never-ending series of bad hair days could be the outcome for patients who turn to NeoGraft clinics run by poorly trained doctors and technicians.

The NeoGraft machine, which automates part of the hair transplant procedure, eliminates hair-transplant scars by letting doctors efficiently move healthy hair follicles from many parts of the head to the areas where hair has been lost.

NeoGraft adds automation to an otherwise cumbersome process called follicular unit extraction, or FUE.

“I have been told there are med spas and skin care clinics who are starting to use automated FUE using NeoGraft without proper training,” said cosmetic surgeon and hair-transplant expert Dr. Ken Williams of Orange, who was the first in southern California to offer NeoGraft transplants. “Complications and problems will occur.”

He said that poorly trained doctors and technicians might leave patients with an unnatural hairline or otherwise unattractive hair, or might operate on patients whose hair loss is unsuitable for the transplant process.

So far, Williams said, he knows of no such medspas or clinics in Orange County.

“Many of the obvious hair transplants seen ‘on the street’ are products of the graft sizes and approaches popular more than 15 years ago,” said hair transplant expert Dr. Alan Bauman of Boca Raton, Fla. “Modern hair transplant procedures have become more predictable, more comfortable.

Procedures today move more hair, give more coverage and are virtually undetectable, if performed properly. In the worst cases, errors that occur during a hair transplant may require repair—especially if the hairline design is flawed.”

“Much of the potential problems,” he said, “can be attributed to an inexperienced doctor and novice surgical teams – not necessarily the technology or device itself.”

For doctors, NeoGraft machines cost about $80,000, Bauman said.

For patients, an average NeoGraft hair transplant cost $12,000 to $20,000, depending on how much hair needs to be moved, he said. That price is about twice the cost of a traditional “linear harvest” or “strip” hair transplant, he said.

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