Hair loss occurs in more than 60% of men and in approximately 10% of women. Although a lack of scalp hair can potentially increase the risk of actinic damage and skin cancer, male and female pattern baldness are conditions that are, with few exceptions, treated electively.

Balding is a major concern for many, and surgery to treat hair loss (ie, hair transplantation) is the most common cosmetic surgery procedure performed on men today. Yet, the market for hair transplantation is dwarfed by the immense market for products that treat hair loss without surgery.

Hair transplantation has become a well-established procedure for the treatment of hair loss due to androgenetic alopecia (AGA) as well as for hair loss due to trauma and some forms of inflammatory hair disorders. Hair replacement surgery appears to date back to Japan. An article by Okuda in 1939 reported the transfer of single hairs, but it was not until Orentreich that the transfer of large amounts of hair could be accomplished, and the concept of hair transplantation for treating baldness became popularized.
While the evolution of hair replacement surgery has afforded us the ability to create excellent results, we still face situations where patient expectations cannot be reached. Challenges exist that limit our ability to produce results that rival hair in its natural state.

An ongoing challenge in hair restoration is preventing hair loss in patients destined to have AGA. How can we preserve hair when there is already hair loss? By limiting hair loss, we can hopefully reduce the need for increased numbers of grafts to be placed into an area of alopecia. A mean to early diagnosis such as genetic mapping might be helpful in starting medical therapy early.
We can often ascertain that a person is destined to have hair loss based on a review of the males and females with hair loss in the family, but having a more accurate method might be useful.

Hair transplant surgery has become an excellent means to treat many forms of hair loss, particularly male and female pattern hair loss. The techniques utilized today provide natural appearing results that are esthetically pleasing, but there is room for the results to be enhanced. The primary limitation has been access to sufficient quantities of donor hair. This lack of donor hair, coupled with the fact that hair loss is often progressive, has led us to encounter various challenges. The solutions to the problems we face lie in preserving donor hair, skillful surgical techniques, limiting hair loss, and developing the means to replenish hair.

Hair transplants don’t work for everyone. They’re mainly used to restore hair if you’re balding or thinning naturally or have lost hair due to an injury.
Most transplants are done with your existing hair, so they’re not as effective for treating people with:

- widespread thinning and baldness
- hair loss due to chemotherapy or other medications
- thick scalp scars from injuries

Thirty-eight direct hair implantations were performed in addition with 169 follicular unit extractions. An average number of 2973 grafts were transplanted. Mean operation time was calculated as 385 min.

Conclusion:
Hair transplantation is still the best solution for hair loss. In conjunction with the surgery, the addition of non-surgical interventions may give a better result to the patient. On the other hand, the promising results in the field of regenerative medicine with cell-based solutions may alter hair transplantation and change the options solely into this field.