20th Century Hair Transplants
Early Modern Day Techniques
The modern surgical techniques of hair transplantation were first developed in Japan in the 1930s and 1940s, but did not come to attention outside of Japan until after World War Two. In 1939, Dr. S. Okuda, a Japanese dermatologist, described the use of full-thickness grafts of hair-bearing skin from hair-bearing areas to hairless areas to correct hair loss on the scalp, eyebrows and upper lip. While most of the 200 patients he reported were treated for traumatic alopecia, his technique was almost identical to that first reported in the United States in 1959 to treat androgenetic alopecia. Other Japanese surgeons reported successful hair transplantation to areas of the body other than the scalp throughout the 1940s and 1950s; as with Dr. Okuda's reports, these were written in Japanese and were not seen outside Japan for many years.
Hair transplantation as a treatment for androgenetic alopecia took its modern shape in 1959 with a paper from Norman Orentreich, MD. The paper presented a hair transplantation technique, but just as importantly it presented a physiologic basis for successful hair transplantation-the concept of "donor dominance" and "recipient dominance". The donor dominance concept explained the contradictory results of many previous hair transplantation studies.
Dr. Orentreich showed that the success of hair transplants for androgenetic alopecia is dependent on donor dominance. Donor dominant transplants continue to show the hair-growing characteristics of hair from the donor site after transplantation to the recipient site.
Research published in the 1950s and 1960s also confirmed that so-called "male-pattern baldness" is an inherited condition, treatable by hair transplantation. These findings put to rest other hypotheses regarding the cause of male-pattern baldness-among them, the theory that movement of the scalp muscles would, over a long period of time, incapacitate hair follicles and cause baldness.
Dr. Orentreich's 1959 paper marks the beginning of modern hair transplantation. The science and art of hair transplantation have progressed together-the science developing techniques for harvesting and transplanting even single hair follicles, and the art following in the steps of science, refining the placement minigrafts (3 to 5 hairs) and micrografts (1 to 3 hairs) to create an entirely natural look on the transplanted scalp.
Progressing side by side with hair transplantation were surgical techniques for treated baldness by:
- moving flaps of hair-bearing skin to cover bald areas
- using tissue expanders to facilitate bald scalp reconstruction
- using scalp reduction surgery to eliminate bald scalp and "pull up" hair-bearing scalp to replace it
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Jason's Story
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From The Gallery
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Who is Dr. Craig Ziering?
Dr. Craig L. Ziering is one of the leading authorities in hair transplant surgery. With more than 20 years of experience as a preeminent hair transplant surgeon in Southern California, Dr. Ziering has provided help to countless men and women who suffered from hair loss.
