Capelli11

Dr. Rahal does do 2 ops in one day...he books an early one and then does one in the afternoon on some days...it depends on how big the case load is. If he has 2 smaller sessions it makes sense to do both of them in one day but if say he has a large FUE case he will only book 1 for the day. Either way he is a great surgeon and will give you his undivided attention and always produces a great result so no worries!

I was a NW 3 ish give or take...so when we shaved my head for the procedure i def didn't look good...mainly because of the scar in the back...plus a lot of redness throughout my recipient area as you can see per my pictures. I would say I felt comfortable enough to leave my house with some toppik around 2 months...if there was no scar i would have felt better but it takes at least a month to cover the scar to a decent point. If you have to be in front of customers that is the only bad part of a HT in that you look pretty weird for the first few weeks/months...I was lucky to time it right so I can take a good amount of time off before I had to face the public. It also depends on your loss...if your coworkers saw you as balding then you should be ok because you wouldn't have to cover much...but i had a decent amount of hair on top and mix that with toppik i always used it would have look really awkward when i showed up to work with a shaved head and thinning in the front...so it all depends on how you are already perceived by others. Do you have any pics?

Hey Stinger...I appreciate the compliment! Before I booked with Rahal I wanted to actually talk to and even if possible visually see a HT that he has done in person...just to pick their brain. So I emailed Tara who is his office manager/patient advisor and asked if I could talk with someone and/or see someone in person the day of my consultation. She first sent me a lot of before and afters of people with my hair loss so I can get a better look and then she set up someone to actually stop by when I was there so I could see the result...and it was great...the kid had loss like me and was around 6 months out and looked unbelievable! I also met with a few others too and their results were great. So I recommend you emailing Rahal and asking if you can see NW4/5's via pictures and also ask if you can call any patient to talk with them about the process...I am sure they will be ok with that. Any questions you may have I can help you with too as I had 4,600+ grafts!

I agree with NHP...20 days is a lot but everyone is different...I stayed for 5 nights/6 days and that seemed like a lot to me because I missed my own house which makes recovery seem a lot nicer and easier. Foxbar was great however and would def recommend it to everyone. There is no package deal from what I can gather. The actual 'recovery' time is only a few days...like by the time I left I felt fine...granted I had tightness and numbness, etc but there was no pain and my face was not swollen anymore. So you are ok after a few days...however you should def take off at least 2 weeks...cosmetically that is a different story...it takes a while to get back to looking somewhat normal because the head is shaved and you can see the scar...so cosmetically I would say at least like 1 month to around 2 months when I started feeling decent again.

Stinger...I can understand you being nervous but having the confidence in Dr. Rahal's abilities and his proven results made me extremely at ease...I was shocked how relaxed and excited I was during the whole procedure. To help you out further check out my website and write ups and that should give you a good understanding of the specifics about HT's and Dr. Rahal. Let me know if you have any other inquiries!

I have heard word that they are moving the guesthouse to another house...heard it is even closer to Rahal's office...that is probably why the prices have increased as I have heard they did. Don't quote me on this but I heard from someone who got quoted and was told this. Heard the new house has more rooms and is bigger. It is still worth it in my opinion...really good experience being around other people with the same issue which in the real world is hard to find bc everyone is so secretive about it...it felt good to just be out in the open about my hairloss situation.

Hey...Since you are new you I advise you to keep researching around this site reading every applicable post as there are a ton here to help answer your questions as there are always questions to be answered even when you become very knowledgeable. Once you have researched then you can beginning consulting with top doctors recommended on this site. They will be able to give you a lot of answers based on their professional opinion. Once you start talking with doctors you can see where you are in regards to what can be expected and/or achieved.

Hey JTMan...welcome to this site... it is a very valuable tool in helping to research HT's. Dr. Rahal is one of the best in the world. I had my HT done by him. You can check out my website and write ups to give you an idea of how it works and what to expect. If you have any questions feel free to email me. If you not already...you should consider taking meds (i.e. Propecia and/or Rogaine) to stablize your hairloss...you should also research a lot on this site to gain knowledge regarding HT's.

Congrats! You are in great hands. Feel free to email me if you have any questions/concerns! Keep us posted!

Hey and welcome this site will be an extremely valuable tool for you as it was for me and many of us! With that said, you should spend some time (I spent years) on this site researching HT's and the doctors who perform them. With research comes a vast knowledge and understanding on HT's. To quickly answer your question as noted above educate yourself prior to consulting with dcotors this way you can understand everything they tell you and can ask intelligent follow up questions. You mention Dr. Rahal...you can go to his website and schedule an online consultation or phone consultation. I had originally a phone consultation where you send in your pictures and he calls you and discusses his approach that he would take based on your loss. Check out my website and write ups of my HT and this should give you a beginning as to what a HT is like and what to expect. If you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask!

I 100% agree with NHP...Maninspace you need to consult with Dr. Rahal and we would enjoy seeing if he answers your questions because at the end of the day the doctor is going to have to answer your questions...not anyone on a hair network thread. Please come back when you have spoken to Dr. Rahal.

I concur that we have both made our points and I will push back to you again in that your questions are all for the HT doctor so I would again advise you to have a phone consultation with Dr. Rahal so that you can get his perspective and this will literally put your questions to rest. Would you be willing to do that? It is best to speak with as many doctors as you can as I have learned sooo much from speaking and meeting them even if I didn't end up using them...in the end it made me more educated and allowed me to understand the HT process better. We all have had your questions and at the end of the day you have to go with the dr that suites your needs and gives you the best answers that you agree with. It would also be good to get other feedback on this thread... SPEX: Perhaps you can comment on this thread as you have been in the business for many years and work closely with Dr. Feller?! It would be appreciated to help ManinSpace get a better understanding.

If you have done enough research I feel you will be able to realize as I noted in my prior posts that YOU the PATIENT and the DR have to decide what is best for your personal situation…if you go to a doctor and you don’t like his hairline design and/or philosophy then you simple walk away and go with a doctor whom you like better...which is what everyone who has had a HT has done. As I also said earlier, myself and Dr. Rahal worked out a very feasible plan for my HT and any future loss I may have. I had a large area covered (approx. 90 cm) which is quite large and my graft count is appropriate for such a large area. Dr. Rahal told me what was reasonable and what he would not do based in part because I may lose additional hair down the line which is exactly what you state a doctor should do in “prevent problems down the line and “duty of care”…so I’m not sure why you may think he didn’t exercise these characteristics. In addition we did not lower my hairline…all we did was fill in my lost temple corners and behind it and also increased my temple points. My hairline is actually higher than I would ideally like it but again Dr. Rahal and I exercised caution and care in not “lowering” the hairline. He told me what he was comfortable in doing and wouldn’t recommend nor do anything lower than what we did. If you look at my pictures you can easily see that we continued from where the middle of my fading hairline was and went across from that on each side. I am NOT a NW1 although I appreciate the wonderful compliment you have thrown me…I wish this was true…a NW1 is Brad Pitt and I am no Brad Pitt…my hairline is appropriate for all ages 30+. To also say I have “extensive hairloss” is being a little aggressive yourself in that I am a NW 3 and anyone will tell you that is not deemed to be “extensive”. In regards to using up 4,500 grafts…that is what I needed to use up to get the desired result I was looking for and if my crown goes as it may one day I will have plenty left to cover it as Dr. Rahal has indicated that I have enough based on his professional opinion and also that I have dense hair in my donor region. You should not pass judgment on any doctor let alone Dr. Rahal until you have consulted with him and got to know what his philosophy truly is which I have described in small detail above. Your question that you keep posing should be posed to him and he will easily answer you as everyone who has ever had a consult has asked that question before…so you are not the first nor will you be the last! You have only consulted with 2 dr’s? I have consulted with every major doctor in the world and they literally all had different opinions on how many grafts I should receive. It was up to me to decide which one I thought could give me the result I was personally looking for…I obviously took into account not going too aggressive in fear of potentially losing more in the future…if anyone went into a HT without thinking that they would be careless and clearly not educated enough. You say you are a NW2 with some thinning…first off lucky you lol…secondly you seem to be more conservative so I feel you should go with a doctor who you think has your vision for a conservative restoration…there are a lot of doctors on this forum that are deemed to be more conservative so that is your choice to proceed with them and stay away from other doctors whom you deem to be more aggressive as you do with this case in question. Bottom line..I am CERTAIN Dr. Rahal based on his professional opinion concluded that this patient’s grafts were suitable based on the patients history and future hairloss patterns. Again, instead of posting on this forum anymore you should go to his website and make an online consult appt so that you can go directly to the source and ask him yourself but I will tell you it will be similar to what I have noted above. No 2 patients are alike even if they have the same NW…each can be a NW 3 but end up being very different NW patterns in say 10 or 20 years…no one can predict this future but they can predict as much as they can see based on a lot of criteria they have today…at the end of the day it is up to your doctor and also just as importantly you because you are the one who has to live with the results. It seems you are more conservative than me and that is fine you should get a conservative HT…me on the other hand didn’t care for an ultra conservative approach…as I had different visions of what I wanted and I found a doctor that shared my vision along with his professional opinion and visions and that to me was a match. So I ask you to please consult with Dr. Rahal and come back to this post and let us all know what he in fact told you and you will clearly see he is a true professional with zero malice in dense packing just for the heck of it without factoring in future loss.

Lookin good at that stage of the game NHP...hang in there and be ready for some growth after a few months! Good stuff!

There is no perfect answer to your question that is what I was getting at...unless you have a crystal ball and can determine exactly how much someone is going to lose in the future and if you can do that you shouldn't be worrying about that and you should be buying a lottery ticket instead! There are many "what if's" in HT's...that is what makes getting one more risky in that you could lose a lot more in the future. The goal is to try to create a reasonable plan with your surgeon that makes sense given your family history, hair type, amount of current and future loss you will have and hope that it works out that way. That is how every patient goes about getting a HT...we also take into account that say FIN will wear off after a certain period worse case scenario...I don't want to make my "aggressive" stance seem like I and Dr. Rahal were careless in placing a ton of grafts for no reason...that is not true. When I say "aggressive" I meant I wasn't afraid to put a few extra grafts to beef up my hairline so that I can enjoy it while I was still young but also have enough in the bank for future loss which is exactly what I have done. I could have been a lot more conservative but that just didn't suite me...will I pay for it one day...hey who knows...that's life...you have to take risks sometimes and jump in fully...otherwise you will live your life conservative and never go all out. In conclusion it is up to YOU and YOUR DOCTOR to decide what approach...if you stay on this forum to find an answer to your question you won't have to worry about being too aggressive with your HT and the potential side effects bc you will be 95 years old and wouldn't have to worry about it anymore! Have you consulted with any doctors and posed your question to them?

ManinSpace: Every patient is different...in that we each want different things regarding our hair and how we want it to look...some go conservative while others go more aggressive. There are also some doctors who are conservative and others who are a little more aggressive...I can tell you from my personal experience with Dr. Rahal that he is not aggressive as we spoke for a long time regarding my hairline and what could be expected. I was the one who was pretty aggressive at first and he told me he wouldn't go below a certain point because I probably will experience further loss and it will be wiser to go less aggressive. He didn't force any specific hairline on me as it is pretty much the patients first pass at it and then the doctor dictates whether it is achievable and/or feasible considering other factors such as family history, meds and how much further hairloss one could expect. I personally love my new hairline design as i literally designed it to my liking and Dr. Rahal indicated that it is feasible considering my loss and we made sure that I had plenty in the bank to fill in any other areas that would need addressing in the future. I personally think my hairline design is perfect...but that is also my opinion...some may think otherwise just like I have opinions of other patients hairlines...everyone is different with what they want and/or what is feasible for their personal situation. There are soooo many different factors that there is really not one magical answer to give to you regarding your question...not every patient is created equal...there is no template. Dr. Rahal has different plans/objectives with each patient...there is def a method to his approach. My opinion regarding dense packing and my hairline being conceived as potentially aggressive is I want to enjoy my hair and life TODAY...not in 10...20...30 years...I have spent enough time losing sleep and precious years worrying and being insecure about my hair that I am done with that...so why not enjoy a great head of hair (also practical) now so that I can get my life back and lose my insecurity. I will probably need another procedure at a minimum when the time comes but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it hopefully many many yrs from now. I refused to go conservative and still not be 100% happy now worrying that when I am an old wrinkled man in my 50's that my head isn't fully covered because I was too afraid to put some more grafts in my hairline and miss out on all the fun I would have had with a great head of hair at 30. I loved Rahal's hairlines that is why I chose him vs. other doctors who were more conservative and/or I didn't agree with their hairline placement. I think with your question you may need to continue to research HT's and you will be able to see what I am talking about as I have learned all of this from my experience on this site for years and speaking with many great HT surgeons.

Hey Bonk...congrats! I'm surprised you went in for another one...the last pics I see of you per your website is at 7 months out...what happened with your prior one...did it yield what you were looking for? Do you have some pics of the last results? One month??? Did Dr. Hasson approve this?? I have never heard of keeping them in for a month that doesn't seem like a good thing to do as most docs say 14 days max and there are a lot of docs on this site that even say a lot earlier than that! Curious to see what the rational is behind this.

Nice work...did the patient ask for FUE? Seems like he may become a late NW case to be doing FUE...reason why I say this is that I was turned down for FUE for the same reason and I was a NW 3 ish.

Looks good Corv...ur now rocking the NW 1!!! congrats...and u still have more growth ahead of you. Did you receive my PM I sent you a while back? Hope all is well!

I get my Rogaine at Walmart as it is the cheapest I have seen...I pay 40 for the 3 month supply which comes out to about $13 a bottle which is the best price I have found.

Thanks for all the comments...final question regarding working out...i have read a lot of comments/posts about it but have often also seen crunches (i.e. ab work) as not recommended for obvious reasons. Ironically this is the area that I need to work out the most! So with that said...what is everyone's opinions and real life experiences with doing some form of ab work and what did you do? I am 2 months out...I gather this could be enough time to start? The one ab machine I used to do was where it basically holds your head for you and u just do the traditional sit up motion lying on your back but again the machine has a head rest thing to hold/cradle your head to have less stress on it...wanted to see if this could be something I could do. Thanks!

I felt the same way in that I thought it would be a pain...it really isn't all that bad...the foam feels and acts pretty much like mousse...takes about less than 5 min each time. I have found the best way to apply it is to put your hands under cold water for a few seconds before you apply...so they get cold...then dry them off and put the foam on. This allows the foam to not melt in your hand which makes for a difficult application. With your hands being cold this allows the foam to stay in foam form so you can apply it a lot easier!

Yes I am using Rogaine Foam. Dr. Rahal suggests beginning it 2 weeks post op...but I was more conservative and started it 3 weeks post op. I am using it all over my head not just in the HT site. I haven't really noticed any shedding yet although perhaps a little in my crown but it is hard to tell. I use it twice a day. I really didn't want to start using Rogaine bc I didn't want to marry it forever...but Dr. Rahal said use it for at least a year as it increases blood supply to the grafts which is obviously very crucial. I'm sure the HT grafts will grow regardless but he says it will give it a little extra help in growing faster and stronger initially. So I figured I invested a ton of money already, so I began using it.

Sweet TP's!!! Def gonna be a great result! Heal well and keep us posted!

Thanks for your thoughts...I am in my early 30's...was losing hair for a while but waited till I hit my early 30's before doing a HT as that seemed like the smart thing to do...plus my Toppik use was getting out of control! lol. My whole frontal third was hit so 4,600 seems like a lot but it really isn't too much...my frontal third was pretty thin and the hair I had remaining though it looked decent with Toppik in it...really was miniaturizing. My mid scalp hair is holding nicely thankfully and has come back in pretty nicely and I have good coverage from it so I'm hoping that once I get my frontal third growth I should be great for the time being as I am on Propecia and recently started Rogaine foam!