Hair Transplants and Hair Transplant Repair

Hair transplant surgery was introduced in the United States by Dr. Norman Orentreich in 1959. He showed that hair taken from the permanent zone in the back of the scalp would continue to grow even if transplanted to the balding area in the top of the head. This characteristic of hair, which he called "donor dominance," is the basis for all hair transplants.

 In spite of this important discovery, for many years hair was transplanted in large plugs that resulted in a very unnatural appearance. Even with significant advances in technology and the use of increasingly smaller grafts, surgical hair restoration procedures performed through the early 1990s never looked completely natural. (See History of transplantation)

Hair Transplant surgery was revolutionized in 1995 with the publication of Dr. Robert Bernstein's landmark paper Follicular Transplantation .In it, he asserted that hair should be transplanted exclusively in its naturally occurring groups called follicular units, in order to achieve the most natural results.

The major limitation with today's transplants is the finite donor supply. The next major advance in the field of hair transplantation will come when one's donor hair can be multiplied. In the section on Hair cloning. we will discuss the exciting new field that had the potential to produce an unlimited supply of hair.

 A thorough examination is critical before surgical hair restoration can be recommended. Dr.  discusses the importance of measuring density and miniaturization as part of the Hair transplant evaluation.

Read a short interview with Dr. where he answers a few of the more commonly asked questions about Hair transplant.

There are many misconceptions about surgical hair restoration - read about the Top 10  Hair Transplant myths.