Follicular-unit and multiple-follicular-unit hair restoration

Abstract

The history of hair restoration can be traced back to the early nineteenth century when Dieffenbach [1] recorded his efforts at transplanting hair and feathers in animal subjects. However, the modern era of hair transplantation began with Okuda [2] in 1939 and Tamura [3] in 1943 by covering shameful hair loss in the pubic region with scalp hair. Orentreich [4] should be accorded the rightful epithet the father of hair restoration, as our current methods stem back to his work in 1959 that involved transplantation of hair from the back of the head, an area that would never undergo hair loss, to the front of the head and the transplanted hair would retain the native characteristics of the donor scalp, i.e., the hair would not undergo loss when transplanted to the new site. However, the subsequent three decades in which Orentreich's punch-grafting method was popularized have been associated with unsightly plugs and created much damage in the public's mind about the unnatural appearance of the transplanted hair. © Springer-Verlag 2008.