The first description of hair transplantation was written by Dr. Okuda in Japan in the 1930s. He used hair transplantation to treat burn victims during WWII. However, records of his work were lost after the war. In 1950, Dr. Norman Orientreich rediscovered the process and successfully performed the first hair transplant in the U.S. for patients with MPB. 

He proved that when “donor” hair from the permanent horseshoe-shaped fringe area on the back and sides of the head was moved to the balding “recipient” area on the top of the scalp, it continued to grow and did not fall out. Donor hair from the fringe area remains insensitive to DHT, and it is this property of donor hair (not local properties in the recipient area) that enables transplanted hair to grow. Dr. Orientreich called this “donor dominance,” and it is the property that makes hair transplantation possible.

The fringe or donor area is resistant to DHT. It remains resistant even when moved to the balding recipient area. This is called Donor Dominance.

It is important to point out that this fringe of hair is a limited area that can only produce a finite amount of donor hair. The concept of a limited donor supply is important in hair transplantation as it places a limit on what we can accomplish. 

Although Dr. Orientreich demonstrated that hair could be moved and it would indeed grow, the original procedure often created an unnatural look and therefore had a limited application. The desire to improve naturalness has led to many improvements in this technique, more natural results, and a broader range of applications.