Hair Transplantation is a surgical procedure where hairs that are not predisposed to fall out are transplanted from a donor to the recipient site of the scalp, face or body.
The first method of covering areas of the scalp without hair was by using flaps, while modern techniques originating from Japan about 30 years ago started using the first hair grafts, but in the transplantation of the eyebrows. In 1952, the first attempt by the famous New York doctor Norman Orentreich was to use hair transplantation to cure hair loss on the scalp. Walter Unger first defined why some regions are considered as “safe areas” for harvesting the grafts, and he established the basics of today’s hair loss therapy of functioning hair grafts. In the past 20 years surgeons have been trying to get smaller grafts, but the results have been poor. Patients, due to these large grafts often had the appearance of dolls (“the doll effect”). The strip technique (FUT) that appeared in the 80’s has become the most favorable procedure. A piece of the patient’s skin (strip) would be excised, and then microscopically micro grafts would be dissected and ready to be planted. The only problem with this technique was that the scar on the donor region of the head would be fairly large, rough, and thick. This thought would turn off many patients from undergoing hair transplantation and they were waiting for a better solution to their problem. That led to the newest, most up to date technology – FUE hair transplantation. With this new approach, grafts are directly extracted from the donor area without further dissection. Also the surgical instrument with which FUE technique has been improved. It was originally done by hand (manually), but with time it became automatic. It allowed surgeon to do a procedure faster, make less trauma to the tissue and grafts, and patients would return to their daily routine in just a few days.
Hair restoration is a teamwork