About forty years ago the medical profession began to experiment with male pattern baldness by taking the balding resistant hair follicles from the rear or nape area of the scalp and transplanting the follicles to the balding areas. The first pioneering hair transplant surgeon was Dr. Orentrek of New York.

What made the physicians begin to think about transplanting hair was the observation of older males that still had hair growing around the side and back of the head. This by todays standards is the most advanced stage of male pattern baldness.

The determining factor of who will go bald and the speed and pattern of your baldness is for the most part determined at birth by genetics. What determines which hair follicles live or die is largely about how resistant they are to hormone derivatives, such as dihydrotestosterone (DHT). Those hair follicles that are genetically vulnerable to certain hormones gradually wither away, producing ever thinner strands of hair. Eventually these hair follicles die and no longer produce any hair. The result is baldness.

The goal was to see if the follicles transplanted from stable permanent growing areas from the back and sides of the head would survive in their new area of the scalp. The doctors found that the transplanted follicles did live and continue to grow forever. The medical term of the transplanted follicle has come to be known as "Donor Dominance". The "Donor Dominance" theory was to prove a hair follicle was genetically programmed to live forever and not the position on the scalp that determined the life cycle.

As with all new medical treatments, hair transplants went from a theory to experimental testing and then practical application. Physicians began cosmetic improvements, and as with many new medical procedures, with less than the optimal results that the customer was looking for.

Over the years the medical profession refined and successfully transplanted hair from the stable life long areas to the balding areas in need of transplants. Transplanting hair in itself was not enough. The transplants looked as if the patient had "Doll's Hair", as if the hairline was created by a toy manufacturer. The "Doll's Hair" look, although it was real natural growing hair, was unsightly and sometimes left the patient with scar's that would last for the rest of their life.

As with all new medical treatments, the procedures would have to improve or be found useless. Fortunately the hair transplant procedure improved and continued to dramatically improve the cosmetic end result. The reality with transplants is that there is not always enough donor hair available. Transplants are very successful for those looking to maintain a thinner hairstyle but for someone looking for a full thick head of hair, transplants are limited.

Today's transplant techniques have evolved to become increasingly smaller and refined, changing from 15 to 25 hair grafts to as small as one or two hair grafts. A good hair transplant today is one you'll never notice, not the "Doll's Hair" look of transplants in the past. Now with the improvements in hair transplants most surgeons are using grafts that range from one to eight hair follicles, with a range of 800 to 1500 (mega-sessions) individual grafts that are transplanted during an operation. Even with the major improvements over the years, these transplants can leave a slightly unnatural look.

The latest trends in transplants are called Follicular Unit Transplanting and Megasessions. These procedures use 1, 2, 3 and 4 hairs that are growing together in units. Hair transplant physicians have refined the natural look of Follicular Unit Transplanting because it mimics the way that hair grows naturally from the scalp. If you look at naturally growing hair in the scalp under magnification, one can see that human hair grows in an irregular pattern of two to five hairs.

The universal problem that everyone has to face in the fight against hair loss is very simple. The FDA approved drug therapies don't produce enough hair to influence the density. Surgical transplant procedures are limited to the donor area that is able to supply enough hair for a desired hair style and one may have to wait months to know if the transplants would produce enough hair for a desired esthetic effect.

Old fashioned hair pieces can render too much hair and are unnatural looking. Apollo Cosmetic Reconstruction bridges the gap. It becomes part of you and provides the exact amount of hair to support your hairstyle of choice.