Serious attempts at replacing lost hair go back more than 50 years, but great strides have been made in achieving a natural look in just the past few years. Gone are the “plugs” of a decade or two ago; new techniques result in more natural looking hairlines that can make the replacement undetectable.
In this article, we look at the evolution of the hair transplant process and explain how the technology, techniques, and skill of today’s surgeons can truly restore your hair. You find out about the options for harvesting hair for transplantation, and we also look to the future and the possibility of hair cloning.
Taking the Long Road to Modern Hair Transplantation
Searching for a cure for hair loss is nothing new, but it’s only in recent years that greater knowledge of genetics and the chemistry of the sex hormones has helped doctors begin to really understand the causes. Androgenic alopecia, also known as male pattern baldness, affects more than half the male population to some degree, and it remains the most common cause of balding. Because it also responds well to hair transplantation, hair restoration surgery has gained popularity as a permanent means of addressing genetic hair loss.
Looking at early attempts for a cure The first documented hair transplant was done in 1822 by J. Dieffenbach in Wurzburg, Germany. He investigated the concept of auto transplantation (transplanting from one part of the body to another) using hair, feathers, and skin in animals.
Although there were sporadic reports of hair transplantation in European and Japanese literature during the mid to late 19th century, the modern era of hair transplantation really began in 1939 with the Japanese dermatologist, Dr. Okuda, who used small grafts to correct various hair loss conditions of the scalp, eyebrows, and mustache.
Dr. Okuda transplanted round grafts of skin containing multiple hair follicles from permanent hair-bearing areas into smaller, scarred recipient sites. He noticed better cosmetic results with slightly smaller punches than larger ones in the recipient area. Here’s a brief timeline of key steps toward modern hair loss treatments:
In 1943, Dr. Tamura treated 137 patients with non-androgenic alopecia of various causes to restore female pubic hair. He noted that single hair grafts produced results almost indistinguishable from the natural growing hairs. He also noted that larger grafts produced a very unnatural appearance. Due to World War II, the Japanese doctor’s findings remained unknown to the Western world.
In 1952, Dr. Orentreich performed the first hair transplant for male pattern baldness. Seven years later, he coined the term “donor dominance,” which is the basic principle of hair transplantation that hair grafts from the back and side of the head (donor sites) continue to grow hair when they’re transplanted to a bald (recipient) site.
In 1975, a dermatologist and hair transplant surgeon, Dr. O’Tar Norwood, building upon earlier work, developed a classification of male pattern hair loss that’s still widely used today.
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