NeoGraft the revolutionary patented hair transplant machine

[LT]

My wife was watching the Rachael Ray show they had something about plastic surgerys. During the show they came out with this NeoGraft machine that is supposedly revolutionary for HT. The NeoGraft is like a vacuum that sucks the hair out from anywhere on your body and places it in the bold spots almost like an FUE procedure but less time, no scarring, less staff and cheaper cost.

 

I would like to here from anyone that knows anything about this I'm hoping it's something I can get my hopes up on. Is there any doctors in the US already using this machine? Here is the link,

 

neograft.com/Home_Page.html

[hairthere]

the reason fue is so time consuming and expensive is that it takes great care and precision to perform. i would NEVER trust this type of surgery to a machine.

[LT]

Originally posted by hairthere:

the reason fue is so time consuming and expensive is that it takes great care and precision to perform. i would NEVER trust this type of surgery to a machine.

The machine doesn't do the surgery by itself. Someone most likely a doctor uses a hand held device that sucks up each hair then places into the bold spot.

[the B spot]

No Thanks. Every attempt to automate the HT process has failed or simply underwhelmed.

 

Take a close look at the size of the punches they offer with this machine.

[hairthere]

I realize it takes a human to operate the machine. but fue grafts are VERY delicate. if they are not removed and handled properly then they are useless. i would only trust certain docs with this procedure.

[LT]

Some of you guys need to do a little bit more reading about this Neograph machine because I'm not getting to many responses in here. Neograph sounds like the next big thing in HT. I am still getting more info myself but I already saw how a doctor uses it on TV. Here is the link,

 

http://www.neograft.com/Home_Page.html

[the B spot]

I've already known about this for several months.

 

It allows those who refuse to put the hours of tedious work with .8-1.0mm punches, train staff to handle the fragile grafts, and create the smallest possible incisions, to perform FUE.

 

It attempts to bypass the human handling of the grafts through suction. Ask Dr. Feller and others who have seen this what they think.

 

FUE is HARD and hard to get good at..it takes time. Once a person goes through the learning process, any "benefit" gained through this machine is negated.

 

Remember, a human still has to mimic the follicle angle.

 

This machine is also very expensive.

 

Obviously, this is just my personal opinion.

 

Take Care,

Jason

[Bill - Seemiller]

LT,

 

Though automation sounds like a good idea in theory to increase speed and the effectiveness of a procedure, many before Neograft have tried and failed. The reason for this is because no matter what, it's the skill and experience of the physician and technicians (not the tool) that's paramount.

 

Also, don't be fooled by any promises of non-scarring hair transplant surgery. FUE via any tool including the NeoGraft will leave a tiny white dot. Though under optimal conditions, scarring won't be visible even when hair is worn or cropped short.

 

I'm not suggesting that good quality tools can't improve a procedure. After all, many dedicated physicians have recently designed innovative tools to help improve FUE. Names like Coalition members Dr. Feller and Dr. Devroye come to mind. Recommended physician Dr. Harris has also engineered his own tool. See the links below.

 

Recommended physician Dr. Harris' New FUE Tool

 

Coalition Member Dr. Devroye's New FUE Tool (with video)

 

Coalition Member Dr. Feller's New FUE Tool

 

That said, I really don't know how Neograft will compare to these other innovative tools and whether or not it can deliver what it promises. I suppose if/when physicians begin to use it, we'll let them offer a review on how it's helped or hindered their practice.

 

In the meantime, remember that a tool is just a tool and a tool is only as effective as the physician that utilizes it.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[Blake Bloxham]

Bill (Bill, if I may call you Bill hahaha),

 

I'm glad you brought up the delicacy necessary in removal and handling extracted follicular units. I investigated NeoGraft a few months back, as a local cosmetic surgeon brought the tool to his office and wrote a long post on his site about it, and to me - it seemed between automating the process of removing follicular units and having a high survival rate, one greatly outweighs the other. I don't see the need to take the physician touch out of such a delicate process, and I would love to see results of a procedure using NeoGraft - as surgeons such as Dr Feller have posted intricate details concerning their new tools and the procedure results. Furthermore, these tools don't seem to put the focus on automation, instead they seem to focus on handling the grafts more delicately and lowering transection rates. I personally would stick with a coalition physician performing FUE.

[Curious]

Are any of the coalition docs using this machine?

[Franklin]

In the meantime, remember that a tool is just a tool and a tool is only as effective as the physician that utilizes it.

Exactly. I was never caught up in all this tool talk. To me it's just a headline grabber. I am only concerned(which we all should be) about long term results and the effect it will have on the donor afterward for future procedures.

[Sparky]

NO WAY! not for me, uh ah.

[Dr. William Lindsey]

I get an email or 2 a month from someone marketing that device.

 

I use the "Feller-omatic" tool that Dr. Feller has been perfecting for nearly all of the last 9 years that I have known him. Its reliable, consistant, and continues to improve; and importantly, the inventor uses the device himself.

 

Dr. Lindsey McLean VA

[LT]

Thanks for the responses especially Dr. Lindsey it's great to see coalition doctors respond to people's questions in here. I don't see any information or results from the Neograph so I don't think people know to much about it. I didn't get the doctor's name on the show but the Neograph can be used to take body hair and place it onto the scalp. To me I would rather use body hair instead of anymore scarring on my head.

 

I can't afford a regular FUE I have a family, a mortgage bad economy you know can't spend tens of thousand of dollars on HT right know. With the Neograph supposedly it's less money for a procedure, less time, and less scarring so to me it makes sense. Great question from Curious that hasn't been answered who uses the Neograph? Any coalition doctors use it or going to eventually use it?

[LT]

I just looked up the Rachael Ray show and found more info about the Neograph machine and the doctor that talked about it.

 

 

Hair transplantation

"The NeoGraft machine is based on a vacuum technology," Dr. Youn says. "What we can do is use this machine to actually punch out the hair follicles [from one location] and then reverse the vacuum and put the hair follicles back into the new location. Plus, because we're punching it out hair by hair, you can technically take hair from your chest and put it on top of your head; you can take hair from your back, and even theoretically, you could take it from your armpit and put it on top of your head!"

 

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/...rgery-breakthroughs/

[Doug Monty]

B-Spot,

 

Sorry to call you out on this, but you flat out do not know what you are talking about.

 

I am sure your views will change if and when you see a procedure and even more so if the doctor you work for purchases a system.

 

The only thing which you are correct in identifying is that FUE is hard and tedious and the NeoGraft is more expensive than other tools on the market. Another thing which is also correct is that the NeoGraft was not designed by a Coalition Member.

 

Like all tools used to help improve the FUE process, the NeoGraft is an extension of the Doctor's hand. It is a very light weight angled tool which allows for easy harvesting of 1, 2, 3 and 4 hair High Quality grafts using a 0.8mm or 1.0mm punch.

 

Yes, the NeoGraft will allow people to become very proficient at FUE Harvesting High Quality Grafts in a lot less time than it took you to do the same with the a manual FUE tool. Sorry if this rubs you the wrong way.

 

Yes, this will allow other hair transplant centers to catch up to whatever level you are currently performing at, at a much faster rate. This is what technology does; it advances what once had to be done by hand using a $200 tool.

 

We now use $300,000 lasers in surgery which once was done with a $50 scalpel. You think a surgeon wants to spend that kind of money? But good surgeons know that they do not want technology to pass them by and have the doctor down the street be the first one on the block to offer the procedure.

 

I am sure people will be singing a different tune once one of the Coalition members gets around to getting a system. But until that time we have to dance around the 'whose got the best tool game'.

 

By the way I am sure you may see a bump in FUE inquires since the Airing of the Rachel Ray show. We had close to 1000 inquiries to the home office since the airing of the show and this number continues to grow.

 

There is a very large untapped demand for FUE procedures. The more FUE procedures which are performed the more business will be generated for Strip Procedures.

 

By most accounts there is less than 5% of the US market which is tapped for hair transplants. Where would this industry be if that number was 10% or 15%?

 

Best Regards

 

Doug Monty

 

NeoGraft

 

Be wary of clinics who must use smear tactics to gain business.

[Bill - Seemiller]

Doug,

 

Asking "Who has the best tool" is not a game or a dance, it's a legitimate question. However, it's not nearly as important as which doctors produce the best results whether they use the NeoGraft or other tools.

 

Technology is always advancing. But not every new invention becomes a popular solution, even if it seemed like a good idea at the time. When I worked for an inspection firm as an IT administrator, we used to back-up data on a removal disk known as a PD. Now a PD had the same recording capabilities and storage space as a CD, but it looked and responded more like a larger floppy disk. It was a viable solution for us for a good bit of time however, most people I've asked never heard of the technology. PD technology was pretty cool at the time, it just never became popular. It was also replaced with something better and more affordable after a short time - recordable and rewritable DVDs amongst other things.

 

Frankly, there are many FUE tools on the market, many of which are custom designed by the physicians who use them. (See links above for some of them). The question remains whether or not the NeoGraft machine will become a popular and viable solution/option for quality surgeons worldwide.

 

Some questions...

 

Do you believe your tool is superior to all other FUE tools? If so, what type of comparison analysis have you made? How many grafts per hour on average can be extracted and then implanted using the NeoGraft machine? What is the transection rate? Have any parties other than those interested in its financial success confirmed the data through scientific testing?

 

For the purpose of discussion, I hope you'll entertain and answer the above questions to the best of your ability.

 

One last point...

 

Even if this machine delivers what it promises, I highly doubt it will ever become the standard in FUE transplants. In my opinion, I expect it will become just another option hair transplant surgeons can choose from for FUE.

 

The bottom line: let's give Neograft consideration as a possible viable tool as we learn more, but let's not give it more importance than it's worth. In the end, it's just another tool. No tool or technology will ever replace the experience and skill of the physicians and their staff administering the procedure.

 

All the Best,

 

Bill

[Sparky]

well said Bill, you always present such convincing counterpoints.

[the B spot]

Doug, you don't have to be sorry.

 

Your a "tool" salesman. Your interest, just like the many that have come before and many that will come after, is units sold.

 

Mine is focused on the individual patient experience from one of the most recognizable hair transplant doctors in the world.

 

You patently ignored a debate on another forum that included Dr. Feller, Dr. Epstein, Dr. Law, Gillenator, myself and others, because you know that you cannot hope to debate your unproven machine against those with a differing opinion. Questions were asked by both doctors, yet you waxed quiet?

 

I even proposed a "meeting of the minds" after initially being very intrigued by the machine.

 

You certainly did not respond with the level of vigor you have on this site.

 

Doug, the introduction of SPEED into the FUE process is detrimental to overall yield. Efficiency and experienced staff cannot be confused with speed. I'm sorry if that rubs you the wrong way.

 

This forum is generally unreceptive to BS..... And while I have only been around for a short 5 or so years, after seeing all the latest "Technology" to keep popping up, the real truth is more than likely your machine will simply take it's place among the hundreds of other innovations that have gone by the wayside.

 

So, I have nothing against you or your machine...I hoped it worked. It may "work" for all intents and purposes, but excuse my skepticism when your entire "pitch" is that this is the future...and everything else is just falling behind.

 

I do not care to enter a debate with you. You had that opportunity months ago.

 

I look forward to one of the Coalition clinics trying out your new-age machine.

[LT]

Doug,

 

You come on here and argue with B-Spot about how great the Neograph is but haven't answered any of my questions. For a week now I have been trying to get answers about this machine since my wife recorded the Rachael Ray show.

 

Supposedly the Neograph has been part of 6000 procedures Where? Who are the doctors that use it? How much does it COST per procedure? Is it true you can use body hair to place on you scalp?

 

I am someone that is very interested in the Neograph and hopes it is for real not another gimmick. I emailed neograft.com and haven't got any emails back so if you work for them it would be nice if you can answer my questions.

[Doug Monty]

Lets be honest here, this site and others has been pretty Anti-NeoGraft from the start.

 

You have several well respected coalition doctors creating their own tools and who also have a tenacious core group of people who circle the wagons quite effectively, if anything comes up which projects anything less than 100% agreement with their views or challenges the status quo (not that there is anything wrong with that).

 

This by and large is an agenda driven web site, albeit with the overall goal to inform the hair transplant patient of all the possible outcomes and best practices. Each one of us in here has our own personal agenda as well as the agenda to provide the absolute best procedures, options and education for the patient and Hair Transplant Doctors.

 

I guess you can call them ???debates???, but people were debating a machine which they have never seen perform a live surgery, and no matter how much miss-information was being spouted there is no way that anything from the Pro-NeoGraft side would have made any difference.

 

As with all tools and technology they have evolved over time, the NeoGraft is no different. The technology behind NeoGraft has been around in three earlier versions, with the basic concept being the same, using rotation and gentle suction to harvest the graft. As with all companies Continuous Improvement is essential to continued success and because of this the NeoGraft was completely redesigned several years ago to take advantage of the latest technology available and improvement ideas from physicians and engineers.

 

Surgeons who are use to performing FUE procedures can expect to have a 5% or less transaction rate the first time using the device. We have had cases which had zero hairs transected.

 

Comments that NeoGraft generates any Torsion, Traction, Compression or Overheating are just not the case and are coming from people who have not seen a procedure done live.

 

We are in the process of producing another video which was done in South Florida which will show the ease of use at harvesting High Quality grafts at a very fast rate.

 

LT,

Sorry about any delays from the corporate office, since the Rachael Ray Show they have had a hard time getting back to everyone in a timely fashion. Also I am not on this web site that often, so sorry that I was not able to respond faster.

 

Best Regards,

 

Doug Monty

[Rachmunas4life]

I watched the Rachel Ray show and was interested to learn more about it. Some other interesting procedures on there as well.

 

http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/?day=2009-09-25

 

Any surgeons performing it in South Florida? I'm in Lauderdale.

 

What's the cost per graft?

 

Although my mind is pretty much made up for FUE with Dr. Shapiro in 2010, I'd like to see if this lives up to it's hype!

 

Maybe we could see one of those "work shops" with some coalition surgeons and a neo graft surgeon?

[ej]

Doug ,

Im a patient and have been researching the best way of repairing poor work from the early nineties for around 12 months now .

The point i want to make is that I have exceptionally low donor hair left to work with, so I want to make sure that what is left is used wisely . I am aware of creating an illusion of density, and the importance of hair characteristics that play a large part in a successful result, also graft survival rate which I believe to be around 90% via strip

 

The most significant point I find in relation to your Neograft tool is the " Handling" of the grafts , you state quote " Gentle Suction " to remove the grafts , I find this slightly alarming as all my research has led me to believe that graft handling from removal to placement is critical , the idea of having follicles " Gently Sucked" out of my head and I would presume up a tube and into some sort of collection tray ( accept my apologies and please correct me if im wrong ) would concern me as to my graft survival rate .

 

Perhaps your tool is still in the early stages of development and of course photographic and relevent documentation of graft survival rates would help greatly .

I am an independent patient who wants the best result at the end of day , I see your neograft device developing into a tool to partially remove a graft whilst the surgeon or tech then delicatly fully removes the graft to lessen any damage , I hope Im wrong though, as your description imply`s that a surgeon with little expierience can perform a hair transplant procedure and get 100% graft survival rate , this would be great news for myself and others as it would bring more surgeons into this field and greatly reduce the cost of a fue procedure .

I hope you do not find my `feedback` negative in anyway as this is were my research so far has led me and I personally believe feedback to be a gift ! .

 

Anyway good luck with your device and I hope to see regular updates .

Regards

ej

[Bill - Seemiller]

Doug,

 

So instead of answering many of the legitimate questions posed by our members, you attack this community as a whole and claim we're "agenda driven"? And besides recommending only the best physicians who meet our high standards and providing a transparent and educational environment for hair loss suffers, what agenda would this be? If you're going to make an accusation, you better be prepared to defend it. In fact, if you'd like to maintain your posting privileges here, I demand you either substantiate this or apologize and retract your statement.

 

You have to remember that it's up to the inventor to prove their machine works. Once we see physicians regularly using it and producing excellent results, in my opinion, members have a right to be just a little skeptical - especially if claims are extraordinary.

 

Regards,

 

Bill

 

P.S. You've invited me to a live showing and demonstration of the machine. I expressed interested however, I have yet to receive the details.

[the B spot]

Surgeons who are use to performing FUE procedures can expect to have a 5% or less transaction rate the first time using the device

 

I think I am more anti-"how this is being presented and how those who represent this machine as something that actually works" than I am anti-Neograft.

 

You still have to mirror graft angulation, which changes as you move around the head, and grows more difficult as you get to the side of the head. Claiming physicians can expect 5% or less transection rate the first time using the machine is ambiguous and deceptive, in my personal opinion. Physicians who have never performed FUE? or Physicians who have never used the machine?

 

If anyone wants to look on another forum and see my initial positive remarks on this machine to Dr. Bauman, who is claiming this is the next generation FUE process, that cooled after many, many excellent, non-attacking questions were asked by doctors and educated posters alike.

 

Again, I then suggested we hold some form of meeting where the machine could be demonstrated in front of interested and respected doctors.

 

Ignored. By both Dr. Bauman and Doug.

 

I have no financial interest whether this machine works or does not work. If the Neograft machine provides clear benefits to the patient over traditional FUE, then I will certainly support its use.

 

I am always wanting a better approach for patients......but that means in turn a healthy form of skepticism when discussing issues of this nature.

 

Take Care,

Jason