It’s an interesting known fact that the first recorded hair transplant is credited to a Doctor named Norman Orentreich who proposed in the 1950s that transplanting a skin graft with hair follicles would keep its hair growth qualities when transferred, rather than taking on the qualities of the bald area it was transferred to.
What is not credited to Dr. Norm is a natural-looking result…he was correct with his medical hypothesis, but that probably wasn’t something the balding patient ended up being super hot on.
The fact is that hair transplant surgeries have evolved light years since this initial procedure in the 50s, but be very careful when researching hair restoration operations with your doctor—especially if the doctor specializes in FUT.
FUT, or follicle unit transplantation is still a very common procedure in the United States, but the fact is surgical medicine has evolved enough to render some FUT techniques for harvesting donor follicles unnecessary.
In regular FUT transplants, skin strips are harvested from the back and sides of the patient’s head and dissected into individual follicles for transplantation. This has become a fairly effective and natural looking procedure, but leaves unsightly scarring lines across the patient’s head that are visible while sporting a short haircut.
The evolution of microsurgery has spread to the world of hair restoration; it’s now possible to undergo what’s called an FUE procedure, or follicle unit extraction, that changes the way donor follicles are extracted from the head.
Instead of cutting skin, each follicle unit of 1-4 hairs is removed individually, resulting in no scarring and more natural looking results.
