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The
History of Hair Transplantation
Defining where surgical hair restoration came from, and how hair
transplantation developed into a common surgical process.
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History
Transplantation of portions of hair-bearing skin from either animals
or humans has been done with varying degrees of success since the early
1800's. However, significant modern developments in hair transplantation
did not occur until the next century. In 1939, a Japanese dermatologist
named Okuda first described the punch technique of hair transplantation.
Dr. Okuda, working on severe burn patients, transplanted round grafts
of skin containing hair follicles from the permanent hair-bearing areas
into slightly smaller round openings in scarred areas of scalp.
The grafts continued to produce hair in their new locations. In 1943,
another Japanese dermatologist, Dr. Tamura, used 1-3 hair micrografts
to restore female pubic hair. These very small micro-grafts were obtained
from a single elliptical incision taken from the donor area. Interestingly,
his techniques were very similar to those we are using today. The work
of both of these physicians were published in Japanese medical journals,
but their pioneering procedures remained unknown to the Western World
because of World War II.
Hair transplantation was rediscovered by Dr. Norman Orentreich in New
York City in 1952, where he performed the first hair transplant for
male pattern alopecia. In 1959, Dr. Orentreich published his work in
the Annals of the New York Academy of Science (after several years of
rejection by a disbelieving medical community). In this publication
he put forth his theory of "donor dominance" and this began
the "modern" era of hair transplantation. Unfortunately, his
work paralleled the "punch" technique of Okuda, rather than
the "micrograft" technique of Tamura and so, by the 1960's,
hair restoration surgery in the United States was off and running, but
in the wrong direction.
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Recommended
Resources |
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- Ask questions and get information on Hair Transplants
in our Men's
Forums and Women's
Forums!
- Information provided courtesy of the New
Hair Institute, taken from "The Patient's Guide to
Hair Transplantation" William R. Rassman, MD and Robert
M. Bernstein, MD
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