Sometimes simply referred to as “plugs”, hair plug transplants were first used in 1952 by Dr. Norman Orentreich, who is considered the ”Father” of surgical hair restoration. Despite its many limitations, this primitive hair transplant method continued for decades until its subsequent replacement in the 1990s by the far superior follicular unit strip surgery (FUSS). Although it is now extremely outdated, this is still a landmark procedure that serves as the prototype of modern hair solutions today.
This procedure is performed using the following steps:
Hair plug transplants are no longer popular because of the undesirable consequences that accompany even the most “successful” procedures. Although hair plugs can yield fairly positive results in terms of hair density, there are still much better treatments for hair restoration than this type of invasive surgery.
Technology has advanced a great deal over the past sixty years since hair plugs were originally invented. Nowadays, the donor sites can be as small as the individual hair follicles themselves. This technique, known as follicular unit extraction (FUE), leaves minimally invasive scarring that enables patients to wear their hair short, if they choose. Follicular unit strip surgery (FUSS) is another way to transplant hair without scarring the scalp as drastically as hair plugs. Sometimes referred to as “FUT” or “strip”, this technique inflicts much less trauma on the recipient scalp while yielding a far greater degree of naturalness.The downside is that there is still the potential for undesirable amounts of scarring in the donor zone.