Why did it take so long for reasonable hair transplants to develop?

I’ve been reading about the history of hair transplants recently and I’m baffled by how in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s and at least early 90s getting those awful plug procedures were the norm. I’ve also read that in Japan they started experimenting with hair transplant techniques in the 1930s and 40s, and one pioneer even mentioned that the grafts need to be small so they look natural. Did really nobody else figure this out for 50+ years and they thought walking around looking like having the hair of a doll was the best and most natural thing you could do?

That is the question I asked when I entered the business in 1991. So, after watching the terrible deforming procedures that were the standard of care back then, I started on my first case to perform follicular unit transplantation in large quantities in a single session. That set a new standard until 2002, when I pioneered the FUE procedure. Those old procedures produced many freaky-looking men, so I developed repair techniques that became the new standard of care for repairs back in 1992. Everything I did, I published in top medical journals. Young men who understood what I had done started demanding it from their doctors, who eventually either quit practicing (because it was a long, hard, and tedious procedure) or adapted. I am still practicing that art form today. 

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