As with all types of surgery, hair transplanting has improved a lot since it was first practiced. However, hair transplanting is not that old, in fact it is one of the newest types of surgery. It falls into the category of cosmetic surgery because it is not essential and is done merely to improve someone's appearance, although for some individuals, losing one's hair involves a loss of self-confidence as well.
This is the reason why hair transplanting was pioneered. Dr. Okuda of Japan was looking for a way to replace the eyebrows of people who have lost them in an accident. This was before the Second World War and after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the practice was forgotten amidst all the other concerns the Japanese were undergoing.
However, this was not the first instance of hair transplantation. Astonishingly, hair transplantation was pioneered in the late Nineteenth Century. Doctors tried to graft skin complete with hair onto bald spots, but they were unsuccessful, perhaps because they did not have a good understanding of graphing.
Dr. Okuda's work was resurrected 20 years later in the late Fifties by Dr. Norman Orentreich, who was searching for methods to mask balding. His idea was to transplant hair from fields of the head that are not prone to balding to patches that are. For men, this involves taking hairs from the side and back of the head and transplanting them to the top and front of the head.
The hairs on the side and back of the head are falling out and regrowing all the time, so they will regrow. The theory was true that hair follicles from different areas of the head behave differently. This was known as Donor Dominance.
By the Sixties and early Seventies there was an established 'best procedure' for transplanting hair, However, it was flawed and not aesthetically pleasing, because hairs were transplanted in groups of 15-25 and they looked unnatural. It had not been noticed that hairs grow in clumps of four.
In the Eighties and Nineties the size of these plugs of hair was reduced in size, so that a full transplant might involve thousands of grafts with 800-1,000 grafts being performed in one session. Ubel in Brazil and Rassman in the United States were prominent in this field.
In fact, Rassman was later able to complete thousands of micro-grafts in a single session under local anaesthetic and it just took around a week to recover between sessions instead of the two weeks previously required.
Nowadays, up to 50 grafts can be placed into one square centimetre of scalp and in the early 2000's surgeons invented the lateral incision, which involves that a group of four hairs may be rooted in at different angles so that they lay flatter instead of sticking up in clumps like dolls' hair. The lateral incision also offers better coverage with not so many hairs.
There is at present hot debate on the use of different types of incisions for different purposes and the best hair transplant surgeons use a combination of techniques to cover the recipient's head more naturally.
This is the reason why hair transplanting was pioneered. Dr. Okuda of Japan was looking for a way to replace the eyebrows of people who have lost them in an accident. This was before the Second World War and after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the practice was forgotten amidst all the other concerns the Japanese were undergoing.
However, this was not the first instance of hair transplantation. Astonishingly, hair transplantation was pioneered in the late Nineteenth Century. Doctors tried to graft skin complete with hair onto bald spots, but they were unsuccessful, perhaps because they did not have a good understanding of graphing.
Dr. Okuda's work was resurrected 20 years later in the late Fifties by Dr. Norman Orentreich, who was searching for methods to mask balding. His idea was to transplant hair from fields of the head that are not prone to balding to patches that are. For men, this involves taking hairs from the side and back of the head and transplanting them to the top and front of the head.
The hairs on the side and back of the head are falling out and regrowing all the time, so they will regrow. The theory was true that hair follicles from different areas of the head behave differently. This was known as Donor Dominance.
By the Sixties and early Seventies there was an established 'best procedure' for transplanting hair, However, it was flawed and not aesthetically pleasing, because hairs were transplanted in groups of 15-25 and they looked unnatural. It had not been noticed that hairs grow in clumps of four.
In the Eighties and Nineties the size of these plugs of hair was reduced in size, so that a full transplant might involve thousands of grafts with 800-1,000 grafts being performed in one session. Ubel in Brazil and Rassman in the United States were prominent in this field.
In fact, Rassman was later able to complete thousands of micro-grafts in a single session under local anaesthetic and it just took around a week to recover between sessions instead of the two weeks previously required.
Nowadays, up to 50 grafts can be placed into one square centimetre of scalp and in the early 2000's surgeons invented the lateral incision, which involves that a group of four hairs may be rooted in at different angles so that they lay flatter instead of sticking up in clumps like dolls' hair. The lateral incision also offers better coverage with not so many hairs.
There is at present hot debate on the use of different types of incisions for different purposes and the best hair transplant surgeons use a combination of techniques to cover the recipient's head more naturally.
About the Author:
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on numerous topics, but is at present involved with hair treatment for dry hair. If you have an interest in hair loss, please go to our web site now at What is the Best Hair Regrowth Product?
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