Hair plugs name originated in the 1950’s when hair transplantation procedures were first being used. At that time the state of the art in microsurgery did not exist so surgeons were forced to work with large circular or cylindrical block of bunch of hair of scalp skin from the backside of the head. This gave results that looked like the artificial hair that is plugged into a cheap dolls head. The results were not really as good as they could have been. .  This gave a result that was not very pleasing as the hair tufts tended to just stick up in unnatural direction.  This is actually where the term hair plug came from.  The transplanted hair looked like the plugs of hair that are stuck in a cheap dolls head.  Most of the time the procedure was very noticeable like the bristles of the toothbrush or appearance of cornrow.

This has now changed as the new techniques allow for implantation of individual follicles (called Follicular Unit Transplant). This allows the surgeon to place the hairs at different angels allowing him to match the growth direction of the existing hair.