As per established records, a medical student and teacher in Germany carried out the first hair transplant operation in 1822. The origins of modern hair transplantation date back to the 1930s. The foundation of contemporary hair transplantation was established in 1930 by Drs. Okuda and Sasagawa. In 1939, Dr. Okuda created the punch technique for hair transplantation, which is used to replace hair on burn scars. Research on hair transplantation has been passed down to future generations as a result of Dr. Okuda’s death during World War II.
Dr. Tamura in 1943. It was transferred to the pubic where grafts are extracted one by one, with a method very similar to the techniques used today. The Western world could not learn about these developments in hair transplantation for a long time because at that time the Second World War had broken out.
HISTORY OF HAIR TRANSPLANT
The first transplant surgery for male hair loss was performed by Dr. Norman Orentreich in New York in 1952. The foundations of today’s modern hair transplantation techniques were laid when it was discovered that the transplanted hair follicles grew longer in the studies carried out during this period.
The medical community was initially hesitant about this. This technique was published in 1959.
Dr. Orentreich tried to explain the basic principle of hair transplantation with the term “donor dominance”. According to Dr. Orentreich, the transplanted hair follicle showed the same characteristics as the donor area. Knowing this laid the foundation for many modern methods.
The idea of opening the holes where the grafts using laser, was first put forward and implemented in 1990. Although it is seen as a technological method in hair transplantation, it has not been demanded much due to the traces left by the laser on the skin and the weak growth of the hair afterward the operation. Although laser is still on the agenda today, it is not used much.
Scalp Reduction Technique
Another technique called scalp reduction or alopecia reduction was used in the 1980s and 1990s. In the scalp reduction technique, the skin is removed from the balding area and replaced with hair-baring skin from the donor area. However, this method was completely abandoned due to intense scar formation, unnatural hairstyles and especially the discovery of the FUT technique.
Mini-Micro-Graft Technique
In 1984, much smaller mini-grafts (containing 1-2 hairs) were obtained from the donor area, resulting in much better results. In this mini-micro-graft technique, larger grafts were placed in the center and micro-grafts were placed on the hair edges and front.
This technique was accepted as the standard and used regularly for 20 years until the end of the 1990s.
Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT)
A different technique started to be used when we came to 1995. Stereo-microscopic graft dissection, called Follicular Unit Transplantation (FUT), has begun to be used in hair transplantation procedures. Although a much more natural image is obtained thanks to the FUT technique, it has been realized that it requires expertise since it is surgical in terms of application.
Although the FUT technique was initially very dubious, FUT became the “Gold Standard” for surgical hair transplantation in 2000, as the results were more natural. It was also very popular among patients because of its natural-looking results.
Follicular Unit Extraction” (FUE) Technique
In 2002, the “follicular unit extraction” (FUE) technique, intered the literature thanks to Dr.Rassman and Dr.Bernstein.
The FUE technique is based on the direct extraction of follicular graft units from the donor area.
The popularity of the FUE technique was realized with the article written by Harris in 2005. Graft removal was thought to be more useful in this technique.
In 2007, however, Thanks to the work of David Berman, there have been developments in the robotic FUE hair transplant method. The basis of robotic hair transplantation is the FUE hair transplantation method. In robotic hair surgery, the procedure is performed by removing the hair follicles from the donor area by a robotic device. The hair follicles collected by the robotic method are applied manually in the hair channels which are also opened manually.
You can take a look at our article about hair transplantation to get more information.
