Hair Transplant Surgery throughout the Years

Many years ago, hair transplant in Palo Alto was unheard of. People who suffered from thinning hair and baldness did not have any aesthetic solution on hand. When the idea of hair transplant surgery was presented in 1952 in New York City, it was not immediately accepted by the medical community. It sounded like an absurd strategy for addressing the problem of male pattern baldness.

Today, hair transplant surgery comes in different forms. The wide availability of several practices has turned it into a commonplace procedure with greatly improved results. In Palo Alto alone, the treatment has evolved over the years, making it possible for patients to undergo a faster procedure with much less pain and scars while also achieving a more natural appearance. A Brief History of Hair Transplant Surgery It was Dr. Norman Orentreich who first introduced the concept of hair transplant surgery back in 1952 in New York City. He actually performed the operation for male pattern baldness and then came out with a paper about it, which was widely rejected by the medical community. It took three years before he was able to publish the study that had started the hair restoration surgery of today.

The basic principle involved in this technique states that transplanted hair taken from the normal growing hair at the back and on the sides of the head continues to exhibit the same traits. The donor hair just keeps on growing the same way as if it had never been removed or relocated. The years that followed consisted of large graft techniques utilized during the surgery, bringing about an unnatural look for patients. No improvements or innovations were attempted even throughout the 1970s and the early 1980s. In 1984, physicians finally started applying mini-micro grafting techniques, thereby producing a softened effect on the hairline and a natural appearance too. This practice became the norm for the next twenty years. The Emergence of Follicular Unit Transplantation

At present, hair transplant surgery in Palo Alto still includes follicular unit transplantation (FUT) as one of the major techniques available for patients. This was actually introduced in 1995 by Dr. Bernstein and Dr. Rassman. In this practice, graft dissection was further enhanced via stereo-microscopic amounts transplanted in naturally occurring groups. This way, the outcome appears more natural and does not leave obvious scars behind. Patients who tried this gave positive testimonies, thus encouraging more individuals to pick this approach over the traditional ones. In the year 2000, the hair transplant community finally embraced this method and propelled it to be the conventional practice. The Practice of Follicular Unit Extraction

A few years after FUT had become the mainstream, follicular unit extraction (FUE) came out. Dr. Bernstein and Dr. Rassman were also the ones who introduced this graft harvesting concept by direct removal from donor areas. FUE provides a number of benefits that cannot be enjoyed with FUT. With FUE, patients will not have any linear scars. There are smaller holes grafted, hence also decreasing the healing time on donor areas. After the hair transplant, patients are allowed to go back to normal activities after just one to two days. FUE has currently moved from manual to digital too, with the rise of digital imaging technologies that paved the way for robotic hair restoration. Hair Transplant Surgery from Then Until Now Since hair transplant surgery was first introduced in 1952, it has come a long way with various improvements and innovations. Even the modern technology adopted now is still continuously being studied for greater development. Thus, societies around the world can look forward to faster and more efficient hair restoration procedures with much better results.