Capelli11

I had my HT on Tuesday and am going home tomorrow (Saturday)...that was the perfect amount of time because they cleaned it every day for me and monitored my progress and made sure everything looked ok...also my swelling has definitely went down considerably so I am ok to go home. I am going to drive back for my suture removal around the 20th. I think that is the best amount of time...I am itching to go home because u do get a little bit of cabin fever because u literally don't leave the house bc of obvious reasons...u should lay down the first few days anyhow so u r confined to the recliner!

The cost for the main floor room (share a bathroom) is $60 USD...the suite upstairs with personal bathroom and recliner is $75. The USD is a few cents less than the CAD...to get all the most current rates you can go to oanda.com which tells you the currency converter for each currency.

Thanks for all your comments guys...much appreciated. I'm so glad this is over and now I can focus on recovery and finally seeing my hair grow instead of fall out! lol. I shaved it down to a 3 ish today at the office but when I come back to get my stitches out in a week I am going to have them shave it down further so that everything can grow evenly I guess. Let the fun begin! lol

There really is no real answer...reason being if you don't try to blend everything you will look just as bad bc the top of your head is completely shaved and the back is long? So today I had them shave me down to like a 3 all over to at least make it look better and it does...it also still covers the scar somewhat...def can't totally see it...there is so much polysporin in it that I'm sure that shows the scar more...once it is out i think it will cover it.

Hey...the suite upstairs is really nice...very secluded too and it has its own bathroom too...the recliner up there is great...u HAVE to sleep on the recliner the first 5 nights minimum. I wanted that room but it was booked. You get your hair cleaned at the office and all you have to do is spray saline solution on your grafts while u r having it cleaned from them. Once u go home and have to clean it on ur own...u will have to drip vitamin E oil on the grafts..Dr. Rahal's office does the Vitamin E and everything else (i.e. baby shampoo and polysporin on ur scar). It is great that I don't have to clean anything for my time here I am literally thinking about staying the full duration till my sutures are removed so I don't have to ever clean it!!! You would have to stay a total of 14 days. I am pretty much going to drive back on Dec 20th to have my sutures removed too.

Hey...just came from the Dr's office...I decided to trim the back hair...so Mike (Dr. Rahal's awesome Head guy) shaved a 3 clip on top with a 4 clip down at the scar to keep it covered bc I said I didn't want it totally revealed..so for now it looks a lot better at least...still looks weird but there is no getting around that...they said it will make cleaning it a lot easier and I can def see why. If I were to do it all over again, I would have had it just shave me down to a 3 to start off and make it easier for them too. I suggest doing that bc either way you still won't be able to totally comb it over and have to eventually trim it to catch up the hair in the front so u r better off doing it now and letting it all kind of grow together.

Thanks Hairthere...question regarding shaving down...do u do it or do u go to a barber? I was thinking I would have Rahal shave it as they offered before I go. Also do u shave it down to like a 1 or do u tapper it to like say a 3 guard? Also how long before it covers the scar again? a few months??? I am concerned it will take a while to blend over the scar...thanks!!!

Here is my FOXBAR write up: For those of you that don't know..."Foxbar" is a house that a lot of Dr. Rahal patients stay at instead of staying at a hotel. The house is literally 3 blocks from his clinic and a quick 2 minute walk. I finally realized it is called "Foxbar" because that is the name of the street it is located on! The front of the house looks like it would be small inside but that is deceiving. I got there at around 3 pm and met with the house manager Manish. He gave me the keys and showed me around the house and to my room. PAYMENT: ****Please note that you can ONLY pay in CASH (US or Canadian)!!! I thought I could pay in credit card but you can't. So I had to go to the ATM and take out Canadian money...so don't let this happen to you...either bring US cash or get Canadian money prior ***** LAYOUT: When you first walk in you enter the living area...to the left there is a nice round table that seats 4 and to the right there is the living room. The living room consists of a nice 3 person couch, fireplace, about a 36 inch LCD TV, Cable, WiFi and 2 very comfortable leather recliners. You then go into the kitchen area which is like a normal house kitchen...it has pretty much everything that a kitchen would have including pots, pans, dishes, utensils and kitchen table, microwave, stove, etc. The refrigerator is filled with breakfast foods (juices, eggs, bacon, milk, cereal, oatmeal) that are free for everyone. Lunch and Dinner you are on your own for. BEDROOMS: There are a total of 3 bedrooms and another make shift room upstairs. There are 2 rooms on the main floor equipped with 1 bathroom. There is a suite upstairs with your own personal recliner and bathroom. The make shift room is upstairs too (couch with own tv and blinds to cover your area for privacy). Only one of the rooms downstairs has a recliner but it is not as comfortable as the ones in the living room. I didn't have a recliner so I have been sleeping on the recliner in the living room. The bedrooms down stairs are equipped with a bed, closet, TV and a small night table. Please note that there are no dressers for your clothes...so I have been living out of my suitcase basically and putting stuff on my bed bc i can't sleep on it anyway. However the suite upstairs is a lot nicer but like $15 more a day and it is more private if that is what u r looking for. WHAT TO BRING: FOOD?!- I brought some bagels with tuna cans, granola bars, soup and cereal. Knowing what I know now, I would buy/bring frozen food that you can easily heat up because when u come home u r not going to be in the mood to fully cook something so I had to go to the store and buy like frozen pizzas. Granted I am normally a healthy eater but given the circumstances I had to sacrifice a little to just make my life a little easier! They also have fruit too like bananas and all kinds of cereals too. I would bring food that you can munch on and not so much cook as I haven't had the energy to cook...so I have been eating fruit and granola bars pretty much and heating up a pizza at night. The house also has coffee and tea for everyone. Bathroom- The bathroom is fully equipped...nice bathtub with shower. I brought my own towels but shouldn't have because they provide towels for your body and face so don't bring any! Also...the house is a little chilly all the time so I would dress warmly and bring warm clothes esp sleeping in the recliners they get cold at night so bundle up...I brought a blanket thankfully...so I recommend bringing one to cover you at night because it is close to the front door and it is a little chilly. Bring a lot of button down shirts because you don't want to be pulling shirts over your head. Foxbar is a great social place...when i first got here there were 2 people both of which had multiple procedures with Dr. Rahal so they were well versed and put me at ease the night before answering any questions I had. One was from London and the other Australia. Now there are 2 others from Toronto and Greece. Having people around helps so much in this experience as you all can talk openly about the HT experience...it is a nice forum to do so plus you don't feel like u r in a cold hotel it is basically a really nice bed and breakfast. I absolutely recommend it! The other benefit is staying there u can go to the clinic and have then clean your head everyday which is huge to me in that I am nervous to clean it myself at least for the first few days! Makes life easier...all you have to do is spray saline solution on every few hours which is easy to do. I will post some pictures when I am ready to leave the house...any questions or concerns in regards to the house or what you should bring def PM me or post on this thread and I'll give u my take on it. Thanks everyone!!!

Hey Everyone! My apologies for not doing my write up earlier...surprisingly the main reason is that I obtained a rough cold and wasn't feeling good...mixed with also looking like an alien with my swelling! lol. Soooo...here is my write up...I will post a separate write up on FOXBAR shortly after this one. I am going to give as much detail as possible as I always enjoyed reading detailed write ups as they help future HT patients like it did for me. For more info on me and my journey up till now...see my original post when I made my decision at http://http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/162964-ive-made-my-decision.html The week leading up to my HT I was very anxious not at the fact that I was worried that Dr. Rahal wouldn't give me great results but that I was worried how my hairline design would come out. So to ease this anxiety, I drew a hairline on myself utilizing what Dr. Rahal and I came up with during my consult in the privacy of my home and really took a lot of pictures and analyzed it like crazy in my mirrors. The reason why I did this was because when you are in the doctors office and he draws the hairline you can get very overwelmed in that you have to make a decision within a few seconds. So to avoid having this anxiety, I drew it on myself as the hairline I would love to have and then I took pictures and showed the doctor so that when he drew the final design he would completely know where I stood and wanted for my hairline. DAY BEFORE HT: I decided to drive to Ottawa (didn't want to have to put up with airports)...which was about a 9 hr drive...thankfully there was no snow!!! I had my pre HT consult at 3:30 and brought my pictures with me. The dr and I went through them and he said that my hairline was feasible. I kept stressing how I wanted a nice straight hairline with no widows peak and I also wanted my temple points done as this is a crucial part of hairline restoration. He thankfully agreed with my drawing and he said we would draw the hairline the day of my surgery. I left feeling very confident and at ease in that he saw my pictures and knew exactly what I wanted so there wouldn't be any surprises the day of...I truly recommend everyone do this before their HT...draw one on yourself and provide the pics to your doctor. I also signed all the paperwork and consent forms...boy...as all consent forms are...that was interesting to say the least...u sign your life away on those things! But we all know the potential risks associated and we all accept that and I know Dr. Rahal is great and gladly signed everything. DAY OF HT: I didn't really sleep that good the night of bc I was so anxious to just get it over with. You are supposed to shower and wash your hair thoroughly. Also enjoy your last shower for a while as well as a great nights sleep which I def tried to!!! I arrived at 9:30 am and filled out some more paper work in that I had to pick my lunch that I wanted. I then met with the doctor to draw my hairline. He drew it on and we tweaked it from there...it definitely helped having him see my photos the day before and for me as well because I knew how it should look...I was a pain and asked to see a mirror and went into the bathroom to see it in private and from all angles...once I was ok with this I agree to it. In the process of it, I told him that I really wanted this to be as much of a one and done kind of HT for at least a few years in that I didn't mind if he went further back as I did have further recession that I wanted to take care of while I was here now instead of in a few years. Plus by increasing my temple points this added to increased graft count. So once we started measuring my head and area it came out that I would be covering a 90 cm area...so factor that with on avg. 50 FU/sq cm and that is where you get around 4,500 grafts...we agreed on around 4,200 at that point. I originally was scheduled for 3,000 grafts and didn't really expect it to come up that much but I was ok with it because I just wanted as much coverage as possible in this session instead of having to worry about further procedures in like a year or two...granted I am well educated in that I may need further work but I just didn't want to have to come back in a year...i'm sure u all can understand this. I also informed him I wanted a nicely dense packed hairline and he kept telling me I would definitely be happy with what he was going to give me. To confirm this we looked at other patients with similar hairlines and his results were literally jaw dropping...the density is unbelievable...so that made me happy and I was now ready for my life changing procedure!!! Dr. Rahal was so patient during this process as I can definitely be very anal with this...he was great and never rushed me making sure I was happy with the design and I was! PROCEDURE: WHAT TO WEAR: I recommend wearing comfortable clothes...I wore jeans but recommend like sweat pants for my comfortability. Also wear a button down shirt but you won't be wearing this during the HT...they give you a hospital type gown to put on during the surgery...but u will need your shirt afterwards to wear when you leave. PRE OP PICS: Mike (who is the head nurse) is wonderful...he is very nice and down to earth and joked around with me which helped put me at ease. I must say I wasn't nervous at all and was so excited the whole time to be getting back my hair! He took pre-op pics of me then we went into the operating room to prepare for the strip extraction. STRIP EXTRACTION: I always thought you were seated face down but I was seated in a barber like chair upright. Mike then shaved my front and I asked to see myself with a shaved head...It looked weird as I never had my head shaved before! So he shaved my top and the back and taped my remaining hair up...it was quite an extensive tape job! Mike then gave me some pills and a sedative in my arm and that made me feel a little relaxed. The Dr. then came in and gave me the numbing shots...these weren't really that bad...like a normal needle feeling...nothing that crazy at all. The whole strip removal was very quick...I would say like 25-30 min and it was painless. I didn't really hear anything as some people state it sounds funny but I didn't really hear anything just felt some pulling as he was suturing but def no pain at all. INCISIONS: Once this was done he started the incisions. He positioned me so I was practically laying on my back as he reclined the chair all the way down. He numbed me up and this didn't feel too great but def not that painful. After this he started making incisions...this is where the genius happens...he was maticulous and is def a perfectionist which I really enjoyed about his work. This lasted about a good hour give or take. It sounded like a crunching noise as he poked my head over 4,000 times! I kept talking to him asking to hook me up and make it dense! lol. He kept looking at the front and making tweaks to it and that is how he is a perfectionist...he kept tweaking it to make it look just perfect and especially even! AFTER INCISIONS: Afterwards, there was a little time in between as they were slicing up the strip...so Patrick (a nurse) asked me to pick about 2 movies and I did...there was quite a good selection of movies and the TV was right in front of you and pretty big! I chose Mr. and Mrs. Smith so I could stare at Brad Pitt's great hairline hoping mine looked half way good as his! lol. The nurses and staff were soooo great asking me if I needed a break all the time and they were so diligent too. IMPLANTING: I was feeling good at this point...just felt my back of my head was a little tight and my face was tight too almost like what a face lift would feel like! The whole time I just kept invisioning my new hairline!!! You need to totally trust your dr. because I couldn't see what my incisions looked like at this point and knew Dr. Rahal would hook it up! So the movie started and so did the implanting..I was now sitting in an upright position as they did this. There were a lot of staff...I would say around 10 people in total...they all were working like a very well oiled machine as each member knew exactly what was their role and communication was great between them...i guess they did this a few times before! lol. This was the worst part if I had to choose one...worst in that it took a LONG time for this to be completed and there were a lot of staff working on me. It took at least like 5 hours because I burned through over 2 movies and then more time afterwards! I surprisingly didn't get anxiety for sitting still for so long as all I was thinking about was I am sooo close to getting my hair back and I was so excited the whole time I think I had a smile on my face the whole time! The Dr. kept coming in asking how I was doing every so often and he also was doing some quality control in watching the staff and often directed them. He then came in and said that they were able to get 4,600!!! I was like OMG...so he had to make additional incisions...I was worried that he wouldn't hit the mark and would have to cut me open again but thankfully it was the opposite...guess it was all those scalp exercises I did! lol. I also had a good density in my donor too which is great also! Often throughout the procedure he had to keep freezing my head as the numbness wore off...this happened a few times but didn't really hurt bad. POST HT: When the implanting was over...it was now around 7:30 pm ish...and I was shot...just such a long day. They bandaged me up quite extensively, I changed and Mike went over with me my meds that I had to take and also gave me a care package of everything I would need to clean my head so you don't have to buy anything as they provide this for you which is great! The Dr. was so nice in that he drove me back to Foxbar...it was like 8 pm at this point. I got home and felt pretty good actually...I didn't feel any pain really just a lot of tightness in my back. I had such a huge smile on my face in that it was finally alllll over...and my road to new hair has started!!! NIGHT OF HT: I started feeling some discomfort and pain in the recipient area so I took a Tylenol 3 and that didn't really do the job so I took a Percocet and that seemed to help dull the pain. They said to sleep in a recliner for the first 5 days so I didn't have a recliner in my room so slept in the recliner in the living room at Foxbar. It is really comfortable but my sleep was rough...didn't really sleep well at all...was up all night...the airline pillow wasn't really working for me...so I just put a towel and rolled it up and that seemed to do the job and have been doing that ever since. DAY 1 of HT: I woke up and felt ok...took my antibiotic and kept with the percocet pills for the pain...the hardest part was me getting a cold...so fighting that was the toughest part not the HT recovery ironically!!! I kept sneezing which didn't feel that great as you could imagine! All I felt was the tightness in the back of my head. I was told to stay off my feet and relax in the recliner all day so that is what I tried to do. I had my cleaning at 4 pm so I walked there and the cleaning was great...Mike does it and sits you in a barber like chair and cleans it for u and cleans your scar too. The Dr. then comes in and I had my first unveiling...I was sooooo nervous to see it for the first time scared that the hairline wouldn't be what I wanted...but I looked and was like OH MAN!!!! It looked amazing!!!! The temple points are so perfect and the hairline is so straight and nice and low (low meaning at a very reasonable level as we didn't technically lower it but kept it even with my frontal hair and just made it straight across from there). I was sooo happy when I saw that and it just justified my great job in selecting Dr. Rahal as he is a perfectionist and it totally showed. He came in and said it looked very clean and everything looks great including the scar! I was very relieved!!! I went back to Foxbar and was informed to spray saline solution every 3-4 hours which is easy to do. I looked in the mirror and suddenly noticed how swollen my face got....like alien swollen...my cheeks swelled up so much and my head looked like a light bulb shape! lol. DAY 2 of HT: I feel good today...no real pain anymore just normal discomfort. I am going to get my cleaning in a little while. So that is my story...I want to thank each and everyone of you reading this and also those who contributed in helping me make my decision and educating me throughout my years of research and being on this wonderful site. This site allowed me to find Dr. Rahal and educated me on doing research research and more research before booking your HT. Thankfully i listened to everyone and made the right choice!!! To pay everyone back, please feel free to PM me or ask me any questions regarding HT and especially regarding Dr. Rahal as I picked all of your brains! Thanks again guys....I am a happy camper!!!! Attached are my post op pics...I am very happy with the hairline and I finally got my temples back too!!! Let me know your feedback! Also...what do I do with my existing hair? Should I have them just shave it down now? How do u start getting it even again?!

Sean...looks really good...u def have some nice early growth...keep us posted and congrats you are in for a great result!!!

Hey Everyone, First off...I am excited I am finally able to post on this forum category for HT patients!!! Well I finally am done with my first HT...as many of you have been following...I was scheduled for approx. 3k grafts FUT with Dr. Rahal. I will go into more details perhaps tomorrow as I am shot from such a long day...got in at 9:30 am and finished around 8 pm! But basically as the doctor and I were plotting my hairline design and we realized that we needed to cover approx. 90 cm's...so when you do the math at around say an avg of 50 FU per sq cm...you get around 4,500 grafts...so we agreed on 4,200 grafts as I told him I wanted to get it all or as much of my head covered in this procedure as my hair really does receed into my mid scalp somewhat. But when we were done it ended up with 4,600 grafts!!! Pain is starting to set in now...but I will fill everyone in hopefully tomorrow but all in all it went great...Dr. Rahal is a master as his craft to say the least! Pictures to also follow!

Thanks for all your words guys...NEWHAIRPLEASE: No worries...I will fill you in on everything...you will be fine as I wish I knew what I know now...stay tuned till I do my write up. There is company here...it is always booked pretty much. House is really nice...like a bed and breakfast. I am still on the fence about shaving down though...don't know which way i should go...gonna be a game time decision i guess...see what Rahal says is best.

Hey...i have been thinking for a while if I should just shave my entire head to start from scratch or should i just have him shave my area that he will implant? Reason being...I heard people say it is easier to clean and care for when it is all shaved...can I please have some feedback??? I'm goin into surgery tomorrow morning...Thanks!!!!

Hey everyone...I'm now at Foxbar...must say place is really nice...very cozy...I am here with one guy from Australia and one from London...both of which are HT pros as they each had over 2 procedures with Dr. Rahal. So I had my pre HT meeting with Dr. Rahal...I had a consult with him in person before...signed my consent...boy that was scary to say the least...the stuff in any consent form is crazy let alone this one...but it is what it is. I met with him and I wanted to talk about the hairline but he said it was better if we did that tomorrow (i.e. to draw it on me) which makes sense I guess...but I was obviously nervous so we talked for a bit about what I was looking for so that there would not be any surprises come tomorrow...he showed me some more results..results that were never posted before....man...unbelievable...typical Rahal results...great hairlines. So that pumped me up and he is very confident too which is great to see. He said we will go over everything tomorrow and won't proceed until I am comfortable with everything which put me at ease somewhat. So I am now hangin at Foxbar...I will do a full detail write up about the place and now seeing the place what I could pass on to future patients (i.e. what to expect and what to bring,etc). Little nervous but I guess this is normal. Hopefully I'm ok tomorrow that I can keep you guys posted. Thanks again for everyone's well wishes and good luck remarks...much appreciated!!!

Well guys...the time is almost here...I am almost done packing and getting everything all ready for my big day on Tuesday...I will be leaving in the early morning (Monday a.m.)...have an appt with Dr. Rahal to discuss hairline design to finalize it. My surgery is scheduled for 9 am on Tuesday December 6th. I am getting 3k grafts FUT to frontal third to restore my hairline for those that haven't been following my threads lately. Wish me luck guys as I embark on this journey that I have been waiting for for over 10 years!!!

Nice...that's pretty impressive...Don't quote me but I pretty sure I remember another patient stating that their GP was impressed with his suture work. Def good to know!!!

Wow Keith...looks REALLY good...very clean work as usual! You must be loving that great hairline!!!! This is gonna be another great outcome! Congrats and please keep us posted!!!!

Looking gooood! Congrats again...can't wait for my turn! Tuesday here we come! lol

Jotronic...as always you are a world of knowledge!!! I truly enjoyed spending some time with you and gaining a ton of knowledge from you! I appreciate your comments and will definitely take them with me when I am designing the hairline. Thanks again for all your help thus far...I will keep you posted...surgery on Tuesday!!!

Looks really good thus far...congrats!

Hairthere...my HT date is Tuesday, Dec 6th...driving up early Monday morning...going to have my consult with Dr. Rahal in the afternoon to finalize my hairline design...still not 100% sure about the widows peak...i am closer to saying just keep it straight vs the peak. Then surgery the next day! I'm getting excited...the nerves haven't truly set in yet though...guess I am confident in the doctor and like you said he has been producing a lot of recent great results which def help my nerves! I am staying at Foxbar till Saturday...then driving back...like a 9 hour drive but I enjoy road trips! lol

Hairthere...great transformation...like I said in my other post to you...glad this will be your last HT and def the icing on the cake...your hair looks great!!! Congrats!!!

WOW! Only 5 months too! Again...getting extra excited for my HT on Tuesday!!! Good stuff!

Good Luck...keep us posted!!!

Good luck Bowser!!! Keep us all posted!!!