Hair transplantation was first developed in the United States during the 1950s. Initially, it began with the punch method of hair planting using about a 4mm punch to extract hair from the back of the head and plant it on the grafting area where the same sized hole was made. However, the results of this method are very unnatural because the hair sprouts like bristles on a toothbrush. Therefore, this method often has low levels of patient satisfaction. In order to improve the unnatural appearance from the punch method and the minigrafting, Professor Jung Chul Kim at Kyungpook National University developed a new hair transplantation method in 1992 using the world’s first follicular unit transplantation implanter. Follicular unit refers to the hair unit on the scalp, which means hair on the scalp grows in follicular units and each unit comprises 1-3 hairs growing from a single opening in the skin. For Asian men including Koreans, 46% of hairs are single hair follicular units and 54% are 2 to 3 hair follicular units. For most Caucasians, however, hair generally grows in 2 to 4 hair follicular units, with only 5% being single hair follicular units.
Follicular unit transplantation provides the best results because it involves transplanting hair follicular units in a normal distribution pattern on the scalp, thereby preserving the original hair distribution.
DRAHN HAIRPLANT CLINIC
Ji-Sup Ahn, MD, PhD, FISHRS
