Gandolf

Impressive work, thumbs up from me.

That's the whole list of RECOMMENDED hair surgeons. Looks like there are a ton in other parts of Southern California, why would you want to limit your options to just one city?

Wow, 17 years old?!?!?! I thought that was a typo at first when I read the title. I must say that I share the same viewpoints as the masses here, this was highly irresponsible given the patient's age, despite the fact that his parents and therapist were in support. The only imaginable circumstance I could think for doing an HT on a patient under 21 years old or so would be if they were already on their way to full NW7 baldness so you know exactly what their final donor/recipient areas would look like, and it goes without saying that a surgery in this type of case would have to have a very conservative placement of the hairline. I am a little surprised that no one has asked about this, but for this particular patient, what was his family history of baldness? Did he have any fathers, grandfathers, brothers, uncles, etc. who had aggressive NW 6/7 baldness? Did he have other family members who started showing noticable signs of hairloss at such a young age? If so, how did their hairloss progress? I don't doubt that this poor young man was extremely depressed and even potentially suicidal to be probably the only kid in high school going bald, and I believe that the Dr. thought he was being compassionate and helping him, I just don't think he was using good judgment. Here's to hoping we have better options for stem cells and hair cloning etc in the next 10-15 years.

That's a very big improvement for 1 session. I have a few questions: 1)Do you have a picture of this patient right after surgery which would show graft placement? 2)Do you know if he dyed his hair color in the after pics? It looks very different in color. Thanks for sharing, keep up the good work!

If you don't mind me asking is your follow up procedure regular price, discounted, or no charge? Regardless, it sounds like Dr. Rahal cares very much about his patients and is going to extra mile for you to make sure you're happy with your final result, I think you're making the right choice to go back to him. And thanks again for sharing your experience with the group!

Yeah I think that's my thinking too. If there is an eventual option in 20-30 years of unlimited donor supply thru cloning that's great but certainly nothing to wait around for.

I'm just curious what others think about this and how likely it is to come to fruition while those of us suffering from hair loss are still young enough to reap the benefits. The most comprehensive write up I've seen was on Dr. Bernstein's website and the basic gist seemed to be that it's promising but still has significant hurdles to clear and further testing etc. Everyone's thoughts?

Just out of curiosty, how much of a sponsorship fee are we talking about??

2103? Wow that's a long way off : )

I am not aware of the recently passed legislation you mentioned. Could someone please post a link to that thread?

I really like this result.

Your continued progress is making me very excited about my upcoming surgery with Dr. Rahal. Congrats on your transformation.

The end result looks OK I guess all things considered, but does anyone here really feel this guy was a good candidate for surgery? That's still some extremely sparse coverage, as anyone would expect in a patient with such a large, bald head.

Great result, I especially like that temple work.

Wow looks like really great coverage.

That's one of the best results I think I've seen here, congrats to the patient for taking the plunge.

Geez only 400 grafts??? That's insane that they would even do such a small procedure.

First of all CONGRATS you look amazing. I also thank you for bringing up the point about the negativity of the members here who told you to give up. There are a lot of NEGATIVE people here who have made mistakes and jumped into this without doing their research and I think it bothers them on some level when someone like yourself is able to defy all of the dogma here and the conception that someone can never have a full head of hair but only an "illusion" of density. As you say, things are not black and white. Certainly someone with a NW7 and poor donor hair has to be realistic but for those of us with minimal loss OR those like yourself who responded well to the meds and have a lot to work with prior to surgery, I see no reason not to be aggressive and go for the results you want. Again, thanks so much for posting and this should be a lesson to many people here not to get discouraged with some of the BS that people post around here from time to time.

Wow you're looking great already this is a fantastic result!

Have you posted any of your before pictures on the foroums? I'd love to see how you looked before getting these HTs done as your end result looks great.

Wow, that's quite an improvement you made from April to July. Hopefully the next few months can be just as good!

Exactly. And let's also not forget the hair folicles are a NON RENEWABLE RESOURCE so you would be better to err on the side of caution.

You will find many anonymous people posting here who do a lot of fear-mongering about permanent shock loss, but you will be hard pressed to find any actual pictures of someone who went to a top doctor and experienced it so I wouldn't worry too much.

You have great hair attributes and would probably get an amazing result from a transplant. Don't compromise your long term results by looking for a clinic that doesn't require you to shave down. All of the best doctors will require it and it's for your own good so they can make it look natural.

I think your results look really, REALLY good and I don't understand what you mean by your "ugly duckling" comment. Why did they have to do a 2nd pass into the hairline and not just make it more dense the first time around?