Non-surgical
Micrografting

It is risky to have hair restoration procedures when you have SLE and it’s typically not recommended. As for alopecia areata, there are non-surgical treatments that may benefit patients who have this type of hair loss. Research shows that results vary and because of the nature of alopecia areata, hair sometimes comes back and restores, so it’s hard to attribute results directly to a non-surgical procedure. Hair Loss Research has shown various non-surgical treatments having anywhere up to 50% effectiveness, which may be worth the plunge, if you have exhausted your options. That said, there really hasn’t been a well proven method for treating this disease. This procedure would not be a treatment for this, but may help improve the overall health of your hair follicles and scalp. A complimentary hair loss consultation would be important for determining whether or not it’s worth trying.

Yes, it is completely natural and the only additive used is normal saline, the substance you typically see in most IV bags at a hospital. This procedure utilizes your own vascular growth factors and the matrix derived from your dermal papillae, which are essentially the brain of your hair organ. They control how the hair repairs, grows, falls, and everything in between. When it becomes damaged, it loses some of that functionality. So the purpose of this procedure is to utilize the healing mechanics from the healthy dermal papillae and vascular tissue in your donor area to repair the hair in areas of struggle.

As with any medical procedure, there may be some risks involved. The risks are mostly associated with the fact that your skin is being punctured and excised. This means there is a risk for infection or tissue damage. Both of which are extremely rare. As for the substance itself, everything is natural and derived directly from your body and your body will know how to respond and handle it so long as you don’t have certain immunological conditions that might be problematic for aesthetic treatments. You would want to have a consultation to determine your risk and the clinical team will advise you as to what the pros and cons are to any procedure.

No. This does not replace the need for hair transplantation. Both a hair transplant and any non-surgical hair restoration treatment have their place in care. A hair transplant is typically the only option for an area that is completely nude. However, if you are not ready for a hair transplant and you have an area that is thinning but still has a bunch of microscopic hairs, non-surgical restoration may be a good solution until you are ready to receive a transplant. There are two major factors to consider:

1. The stage of loss

2. Your desired goals

Based on the answer to these, one of the options or both may be advisable. A hair transplant is an aesthetic solution for hair loss whereas non-surgical procedures aim to help heal or remove problems that exist in the scalp in an effort to allow the hair to heal and restore.

This hair restoration procedure is typically most effective in the crown, donor recession, temples (toward the ear on the sides of the head, not the peaks in the hairline), and middle scalp. It is less effective in an area such as a severely receded hairline, empty temporal peaks, also known as a widow’s peak, where there are no or low visible hairs. That area is better served with a hair transplant. This can still be performed on a hairline, if the hair loss is early enough with a good enough foundation.

It depends on what you are hoping to accomplish. If your goal is to restore your crown anyway, and your donor hair is in good condition everywhere else, you may be able to still do the hair transplant on your crown. In fact, you could do these hair restoration procedures together and limit your hassle. Many MAXIM Hair Restoration patients opt to use this as an ancillary hair restoration procedure alongside their FUE or FUT hair transplant.

Here are a couple of hair transplantation scenarios where you might see someone combine various therapies and or procedures:

1. Donor recession with sufficient donor to still complete a desired result for a hairline, mid scalp, or vertex

2. A hairline FUE or FUT with thinning elsewhere

3. A crown FUE or FUT with thinning elsewhere

4. General thinning that doesn’t extend to the donor area

5. Forehead reduction

6. Hairline lowering with some minor thinning elsewhere

This hair restoration procedure is the alpha dog of the non-surgical hair restoration solutions pack, but it does greatly benefit from mixing modalities. PDO hair restoration in combination with micrografting are a clinical favorite for non-surgical options because they both approach problems in very unique ways with very little crossover. That means you are really getting the best of both worlds without spending time and money on using two things that have similar improvement profiles. They solve different problems in different ways and dramatically improve one another. We typically recommend them in unison when done independent of a hair transplant.