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.