HookHairs

Thank you very much for taking the time to do that, it’s reassuring. My recent consultation was with James Frida (not sure if that’s you?) in December.

Thanks for your reply, that’s encouraging. Best of luck with your final result!

Great thank you, I’ll do a search for more.

Hi all.. Any great results coming out of Dr Rahals clinic lately? they seem harder to find. I went to Dr Rahal in 2012 and found him a genuine great guy, the clinic superb and the result fabulous. I went through a thin out/shed in early months post op which I suspect were reactions to another separate treatment. However, not all but a great deal of the hair grew back and I’ve had over a decade of genuinely life changing excellent hair, all thanks to Dr Rahal. I’m very social and a partner in several cocktail bars so appearance remains as important as ever despite being 50. Over time, periods of no meds, and due to a little stress at times, I have thinned in both recipient and native so require a touch up to my frontal zone. I have consulted with Rahals team and 1000-1300 grafts was recommended. I’m on my last couple thousand available donor grafts so have to choose wisely 😬. I’d be interested to see more good recent results and sincerely hope that the clinic is still up there with the best in the world? I’ve attached some photographs of the hair I’ve enjoyed through the years since my op with Dr Rahal.

Hi All, just to provide an update as I've had lots of emails over the last two years asking questions and the reasons why ive gone quiet. My hair recovered after the two sheds to roughly 80% of original post op, it was left a little patchy on the hairline but looked fine. Unfortunately my hair went through a shed last year ( 2015) and has thinned a little on the native too. The good news is I'm confident ive identified the trigger which causes an immune response. Naturally I will avoid that in the future! I intend to go back to Dr Rahal for a topup to the transplanted area and to fill in some of the native I think ive lost too. I contacted Chad a couple of weeks ago and Im just waiting to hear back from Dr Rahal. You can see on the photos where it could help from some thickening and getting the hairline neat again so I dont have to shave down the stalky hairs in my hairline.

Hi All, sorry its been a while. The reason for my delay is that at 5 months, my result was turning into what I thought was going to be truly amazing but at 5.5 months I went through a pretty rapid and traumatic mysterious shed. I believe one other rahal FUE patient experienced the same phenomenon at 5 months. I was asked by Rahals team to see a trichologist which I did in January this year. She told me that since the dermal papilla had clearly transplanted properly, whatever "insulted" the follicles causing a shed should subside and the follicles should regrow in 6-12 months. Fortunately enough, the shedding has slowed (but still happening, and these are definitely thick transplanted hairs) and Im seeing some progressive improvement and now the result is looking pretty good. There is still some hair missing behind the hairline, and the hairline itslef has degraded badly in areas, which under harsh light really shows up the lower density. Its a little patchy in places but Im hoping this improves, if not, im sure Rahal will provide a small top up to fill in those gaps for a tremendous finish. I'll report again at the 18 month mark, at which time I should have an idea of which hair is coming back and which isnt. Images show just prior to shed at 4.5 months, then immediately post shed. Then skipping to more recent pics of exposing the patches but also how I can currently make it look in ordinary light now that its recovering. Despite the thinning out period, its looking pretty good and a million miles from where I started. Hope that helps guys.

Hi all, thought I would update on my progress so far. Im four months and a week out from my op now. There is some good growth on my left side with more new shoots popping through. The shape of the hairline is great on this side too. The right side is a fair bit weaker which is a little disappointing as the hairline was not lowered on this side, the idea was just to fill it in here and create a natural hairline. I know its still very early days yet so we'll see what the next few months brings. Ive noticed probably about ten or so dried plugs drop out long after the shedding phase which im not sure are failed grafts. The odd transplanted hairs have shed (after regrowing following the shedding phase) but im told this is normal and can happen. I'll let the photographs do the rest of the talking.

Just a quick update at one month today post surgery. Over the last ten days ive been shedding like a wookie, my hands were like teen wolf in the shower. Im now left with about 20% of transplanted hair, but.. there is early new growth, ive attached a pic that shows a couple of sprouts under a lens but there are lots of them all over, not bad for just one month out, i didnt expect any growth to show yet. The only negative is that even after a month out, you can still see the donor area worked on, its got pretty shredded after 3300 grafts over 3 years. I certainly couldnt have any more taken from the areas already worked.

Hi Headbangerguy, originally from the online consult I was recommended 1800 grafts but the photo I emailed to the patient liaison Chad distorted in the email for some reason so it was difficult to tell. When I met with Dr Rahal he revised down to 1400 and said it would give a great result. My final graft numbers were as follows: 1s = 347 2s = 660 3s = 366 4s = 40 = 1413 (total 2925 hairs)

Thanks guys, trooper, lol I guess you could say that.. it was very depressing having gone through the first HT with a respected doc and end up with a poor result, so embarrassing to friends and my then girlfriend ten years younger gave me hell. I had to go back to Feller the second time as he offered to repair for free using a different method (manual punch, more tissue around the grafts, grafts left in natural groupings), problem was he didnt use near enough grafts to finish the job and density/evenness was an issue. Its been one hell of a journey but after the second op, although it was far from perfect it made a significant difference in how I could style my hair (a little more trickery than avatar involved for some styles though haha). I just finished with my girlf of 8 years, I never struggle with girls but I wanted to look forward to being single with a full swede of hair and decent hairline. Hence the tough decision to see the deal through and go for one more op with a world best. Im now recovering well although the shedding is in full swing on day 14. Im having to stay in with a red shaved head which is a killer but Im confident that this will be the result to achieve my goals. Good luck all who are soon to go under the punch.. ill post my results as soon as theres anything worth seeing.

Hi Maninspace, after my $1000 travel discount for being an overseas customer, it cost roughly $10,600 canadian or ?6767 uk. Each case may be assessed differently but an online consult with them would confirm exact costs. I know that with FUE the donor (and recipient area if native hair present) is ALWAYS shaved down. In most cases people just shave it all over as it looks stupid otherwise. My first op with Feller I didnt get a full shave, it looked horrific and made cleansing more difficult. Not shaving the recipient may also cause shockloss I believe after reading about Spex' recent FUE with Dr Lindsey?

Hey M, good to hear from you, we checked out Montreal which was great and sampled beavertails in downtown Happy growing too. D

Veritas84, whats your concern?

Zenmunk, I made the decision to use Rahal simply based on his previous consistent hairline results which was the most impotant thing for me to get sorted. Id have no problem going to Bisanga if I need fill-in work in the future.

Thanks for the feedback guys, looking forward to seeing your result updates Sean. Chrisdav, I take your point, I think its important that people show their poor results as well as good ones though. Many people who get a poor result just accept it and walk away feeling duped/disappointed. It takes a lot of effort as you know to set up online profiles and nobody really wants to show themselves online and risk being recognised with a poor result. I did it so that people can get a balanced view and understand the risks because lets face it, its a maze out there. Of course, my hair improved following the second surgery, its only the first that was very poor for some reason.