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Hair Loss Surgery
The doctors who have become skilled at hair surgery have learned how
to perform hair
transplantation. A Japanese physician named Okuda was the first
doctor to achieve success with hair transplantation. He worked on
scarred eyebrows and eyelashes during World War II. Unfortunately,
his work stayed hidden from most of the world for almost two decades.
Dr. Okuda did not then realize that he had made use of an important
scientific principle.
That principle is called “donor dominance.” Medical
professionals became aware of donor dominance in 1959. A surgeon
named Norman Orentreich published a report about donor dominance.
He explained that the term simply refers to a hair’s retention
of the characteristics associated with that hair’s site of
origin.
After the performance of hair surgery, the operating physician
does not need to expect any transplanted hairs to take-on the characteristics
of its new “home.” That fact has become the central
focus of all present-day attempts at hair surgery. That fact holds
true, regardless of how any one man undergoes the processes that
are part of the typical hair surgery routine.
Not all hair surgery takes place in the same way. The first attempts
at hair surgery made use of something called punch grafts. In the
mid 1980s, surgeons altered their approach to hair surgery. They
began to use strip grafts and transposition flaps.
More recently, surgeons performing hair transplantation have chosen
to remove donor follicles from the back of the patient’s neck.
Removal of donor follicles from that area seldom leads to creation
of a visible scar. The hairs on the back of the neck often hide
any scar created during the transplantation process.
On the scalp of a healthy man, the hair on the back of the neck
is “donor dominant hair.” On the scalp of a healthy
man, the hair in that region will continue to grow, regardless of
how well a man’s hair grows at any other point on his scalp.
The success of hair surgery often hinges on that fact.
During hair surgery, hair samples are generally obtained from the
hair I the back of the head. The surgeon then transplants those
hair samples to a balding
region on the same man’s scalp. The transplanted hair retains
its ability to grow, creating the appearance of new
hair growth in the once balding region.
The 1959 report from Dr. Norman Orentreich set in motion the wheels
that are still spinning. Those spinning wheels have the hair surgery
facilities bustling today.
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