Hair Transplants Then and Now

It was not until the 1950’s that American doctors began experimenting with the relocation of hair follicles.  They discovered the phenomenon called donor dominance, which is the concept that when the follicles are removed, they still live and can be used as replacement elsewhere.  Although this concept was discovered in the 1950’s, it was not until the 1960’s and into the 1970’s when doctors started performing these hair transplant procedures.  They began by taking hairs from the sides and back of the scalp and relocating them to the top.  At this time, they were placing grafts in the scalp containing 15-25 hairs, which produced a very unnatural, obvious look. 

In the 1980’s, the procedure of hair transplantation improved.  The large grafts of 15-25 hairs decreased in size to about 5-8 hairs per graft.  This look, called minigrafting, still appeared unnatural, however not nearly as much as in earlier years. 

Today, modern day technology and science has evolved to the follicular-unit micrografting version of hair transplantation.  This micrografting technique is used by replacing only one to four hairs at a time in the areas that are experiencing hair loss.  This produces a natural appearance.  The hairline also uses the method of micrografting in a random fashion, to produce a feathered hairline that look natural.