Slickers

Before the surgery there was enough hair to cover the scar. Dr Rahal said there is still enough to cover it even after this surgery should I decide to have a 3rd surgery in the future. I don't see how this would be possible looking at my donor area now, if I only grow long hair maybe it will cover...

I think your post shows precisely why Dr Rahal didnt just perform FUT on you, you obviously have concerns, misgivings about whether it's right for you. Credit to him for that, it's not a decision to be made on the spur of the moment (for most) and good to know that in his opinion you do have the donor to do it in the future if you ever feel you need to and are ready for it.

Again youre in a great positon for just 3 months from the grafts you did get. It already looks to be growing in nicely.

Another impressive result. But why are the final result pics taken so far away? A balance would be helpful. Good work though. Be great to have someone doing consistent, quality, affordable work in London.

Dude! That hairline of yours is going to be epic! As promised I will be visiting London in the near future for some pints & football, with our new hairlines of course!

Look forward to it mate! Be great to enjoy a beer with ya, swapping the vitamin E and surgical hats for a full head of hair and some footy on the big screen! Counting down the day.

Sam thanks for comments mate. As you've posted before this is the hardest bit. The waiting..... patiently...... (allegedly!). Ha. Good heads up in terms of dealing with the GF side of things, she seems cool with it now but another 5/6 months of this and I can see how it coud start to enter 'rolling the eyes' territory! Hope your good lady is appreciative of it now though.... she must be digging the new look! :cool:

Mike was going to PM you buddy. Can't wait to see that 6 month update! Your 4 and 5 months came at a great time, just as I was going through the usual pre op doubts.... you def seem to take everything your stride and the glass is always half full. If I am where you are at 6 months I'll be a very happy man! Will def keep you updated.

Hey everyone.

 

Here's my blog and details from my procedure with Dr Rahal I had last week.

 

I can not say enough positive things about Dr. Rahal and his staff. My work looks amazing and as the doc said himself it's going to be a "Masterpiece!!"

 

I did a full write up on Dr Rahal's website, if you want more details on the procedure. But the long short is that I felt like I was in the best hands possible, everyone was amazing and the skill of Dr. Rahal is undeniable. Of course another special honorable mention to Mike, he is the man!

 

I stayed at the Brookeline guesthouse with another fellow HT patient from London. He's an awesome guy and I know both of us are going to have incredible heads of hair in the coming months! I can not stress enough how amazing it is to stay at the Brookeline house in Ottawa. I came down expecting to feel like I was all on my own, but having that camaraderie with another HT patient and bonding while at the house was freakin fantastic.

 

Details - 2639 FUE Grafts

 

1s - 393

2s - 818

3s - 1053

4s - 375

 

Photos are preop and 1 & 5 days after.

 

Dr. Rahal told me that I got about double the amount of 3's expected and it's going to provide a knockout result... God I can not wait! I turn 30 next month and boy it's going to be a good year!

 

 

Mate great to see you on here! Ahhh you're only saying that cos I made lots of tea. You're an absolute top bloke and have no doubt you'll be sporting a major Fro in just a few months. I've seen the work in person and it's every bit as impressive as it looks in the pics.

Hope the journey back to VC was easy. Maybe see you in London town sometime soon, be great to have you over. My missus passes on her regards for keeping me sane post op, even if she isnt your biggest fan for getting me hooked on hockey (not another sport she says!)!

Look forward to seeing your updates.

ps. Matt cheers for kind words bud, great to see things are coming along nicely (no surprises there) and loving the incidental love interest in the updates! ha. Keep em coming :cool:

Very nice work, sublime hairline and temple designs. The surgeon in Atlanta actually labels his brand of FUE "CIT" but I don't think there is much difference hehe.

That's right, CIT was second round of rebranding. I'm pretty sure he started with FIT and even that evolved

It's definitely not FUT. Branded FUE

Great result. By the way. Why Dr. Mwamba replace the word FUE with FIT? What is the difference???

He was trained by that well known but 'unmentionable on this forum surgeon' in Atlanta who brands his FUE as FIT. I guess he's just doing the same.

Its normal to look worse at 2 weeks than before the procedure. Its not normal for the doc or at least a rep not to return calls.

Agreed

completely normal. How much research have you done?

Man I have to say the donor post op is crazy. I'm not surprised you suffered some shockloss. I've never seen anything like it. Good to see that it's recovered a lot though and at 4 months it's still very early days.

The next 2/ 3 months should be a lot easier...... some thickening in the hairline and you should get a nice cosmetic improvement. How do you feel about things?

Congrats Ej. You've been through a lot, and the improvement is incredible. Very happy for you.

Buy a pill cutter from Boots or any Pharmacy. Google it so you know what they look like. They're very convenient to use, no hassle.

cheers guys I hope you're right. I've watched many Rahal patients on here posting from pre op to knock out results, here's hoping I'll join the club very soon!

Some pics taken today below. I'm not one to wax lyrical about these things, I know the drill, it's early days yet and a waiting game from here. But I have to say the work looks every bit as good as I hoped it would at this stage. It's impeccable, it blends perfectly with my existing hair and I'm really pleased so far. Rahal and his team were ultra professional which gives me a lot of confidence and hope for a good result.

Oh and I got it wrong (blaming the drugs!) my strip had a bit more density than I thought, I ended up with 3,800. Must get round to editing the title of the thread !

BJ on the plus side it's looking great for just 3 months. Those 1400 grafts have clearly made a cosmetic difference already, you look like you have only mild recession now and with plenty more growth to come.

I suspect the reason FUT wasn't considered was because your donor is a bit on the thin side as youve mentioned and it may just not be dense enough to conceal a strip scar?! Just a suggestion but you def shouldve discussed it with Rahal, nothing to lose.

Anyhow you didnt and the upside is that your hair is looking really good for just 1400 grafts and only 3 months. Plenty to be positive about. Best of luck. Keep us updated.

Well I've done it. Pleased to report the day went really well and the staff were excellent, they really were. It wasn't anymore traumatic than the FUE I'd had with Armani, on the contrary in fact, the whole experience was so much better!

The worst was when I got back to the guesthouse and the freeze and drugs caught up me but that's to be expected, it's surgery after all and it turned out to be quite a big session.

I met with Dr Rahal in the morning and talked through what I wanted to achieve. After the photos it was clear that I have quite a few weak areas into the midscalp. The gaps had always really bugged me and how my 'hairline' never quite felt like one since it didnt join up with the sides at all, that I had a kinda combover effect to camouflage the recession at the sides etc.

After drawing out the areas and measuring, it turned out that I would need circa 3000 and that's what we aimed for. My density seemed to have other ideas though and delivered up 3,490, a nice surprise! :eek:

Let me know what you think.

Johnny you're pretty much on the money. The thinking was my donor is in decent shape now, should have no problem concealing a good scar (fingers crossed), dont risk thinning it out anymore and reserve FUE for further down the line if required.

Modenese I hear you on the travelling! And with more FUT results like yours, Sickboy's amongst others from Bisanga and Feriduni also doing excellent work, I think many guys are thinking twice now about the need to cross the pond for FUT!

Spex / Greatjob cheers for the kind words and encouragement... means a lot to hear good things about Rahal from two seasoned vets like you guys

Cheers for sharing and good luck.

 

2000 FUT will be a walk in the park for Rahal!

 

Interesting that you are going for FUT. Did Bisanga think you were a good FUE candidate?

Thanks matt, hopefully it's a walk in the park for me too!

Bisanga strongly recommended I do strip. I know he gets a lot of comments on here about his FUE and being an FUE advocate, I think many would be surprised about how clear he was about its limitations. Anyway not wishing go down that particular road of discussion, I went to see him about FUE but he recommended I don't do anymore FUE so as not to thin out my donor.

Hi guys. Well the time has almost arrived. Feels like a long time coming and yet unnervingly close at the same time. On Monday I fly out to Ottawa for my date with Rahal on Wednesday 15th. I'm booked in for 2000 grafts although I'm open to a few more if necessary to address the frontal third.... my *hope is that this will see me good for the next 8 - 10 years. In that time who knows, maybe one of the clever chaps working on histogen or one of the many other potential 'cures' pulls it out of the bag. We'll see.

Anyhow I thought I'd finally share some pics. I've spoken to a lot of guys over the years and watched many peoples experiences with a borderline unhealthy interest (according to my better half!). This forum has been an amazing resource, the advice, stories and experiences shared by too many guys to mention has just been invaluable.

My story in brief is that I went to Armani back in 2007 for 2000 FUE....... around about the time he started offering FUE only. I wasn't a pioneer by any means, he had a LOT of good looking FUE results even then. I needn't comment on how that turned out but for me it wasn't bad but it wasn't great. I probably got about 60% growth, it made a cosmetic difference but there are gaps behind the hairline and poor growth in areas. Bisanga when I consulted with him wasn't particularly impressed with the work but hey ho, you live and learn and I wasnt butchered.

Onwards and upwards, it's taken me a few years to get the opportunity to address things and that's what I intend to do with Rahal in just a few days time. I won't be writing reams and reams about the day, surgery etc, there's plenty of that on here but I will be posting pics.

Watch this space :cool:

Nice endorsement. Do you have any pics?

That's resolved itself pretty quickly! Any pics? Look forward to the one month pics. I like what I've seen of Dr Panine's work.

Not heard of your doc but the work looks incredibly neat. That's one of the best scars I've seen post op. Good healing and growing !

Looks good but why do the photos look like they were taken in the 1970's?

I'm guessing this is as good as a scar can looks 5 months post op. not to mention this is after i used a guard on it so if i grow it out like a normal person...this would be covered up id assume

it's neat and tidy but visible with your hair at that length. is it flat? I don't know if it's the pics but it looks like there's some ridging, is that the case?

Bro, what happened to your scar? It stretched back badly? Looks like its wider than before!

I disagree. It's improved loads. And overall big progress in the last month.