hairlineman

Amazing result, Chris! Very happy for you!

Thank you @Shera! Everything you said makes sense and it’s important that I be realistic. But I’d imagine I’d be happy with 3000-3500 grafts. Thanks again!

Was that your first HT or your last?

Thanks for sharing Melvin! I’m so happy this website exists for all of us hair loss sufferers. This has always been my #1 go to for research.

Thanks for your help @Shera. If I were able to get 3000 to 3500 grafts and reinforce my hairline, strengthen my midscalp going back to my vertex, do you think it would be dense enough where I wouldn’t have the see through look anymore in the new transplanted area? I’m asking because my hair is so thin.

@BeHappy @BeHappy, May I ask who you had your HT with?

Thanks so much for sharing! I wish I would’ve thought of that back when I had my HT with Rahal. This will be my game plan on HT # 2.

Thanks for your recommendation! Everything you said makes sense and trying to get my coverage in 2 sessions might just be a smarter route.

Thanks for your feedback! Yeah my plan is to get back on Fin ASAP. We are actually attempting IVF again as we speak for a 2nd child, fingers crossed my wife gets pregnant so I can get back on Fin. This has been the holdup again as of recently. I know you are recommending me do an FUE and I’m definitely considering it. I had thought if you’ve already done an FUT that you should do as many as you can before you start doing FUE. I also don’t know if that’s true. But I’d hate to go in for a FUT and only get like 1500 grafts. I’m not sure how common this is, but I’ve heard of some clinics doing a combo surgery where they perform FUT & FUE in same session. In a perfect world I’d love to get 3000 to 5000 grafts in one session. We’ll see. I’m happy to discuss how I financed my first HT with Rahal. *** My HT with Rahal was $13,500. I bank with a credit union and refinanced my car and that auto loan was $10,000. The car loan APR was in the 4% range. I opened a credit card at that credit union and put the remaining balance of the HT ($3,500) plus my airline ticket, and hotel purchases. So I believe I ended up putting a total of $6,000 or so on that card. The APR on that credit card was 9.99%. Luckily I was able to pay off that higher interest loan (credit card) within several months. As far as the car loan goes I took out a 5 year loan and payed it off in 4 years. I’m not saying this is a great way to get a HT if you don’t have the money already, but this decision changed my life and my confidence and I’d do it again. Hope this info helps!

Thanks for your feedback! You are right about H&W, I’ve always thought H&W’s results have been amazing and they have a great reputation. I’m not that familiar with Diep so I’ll have to research him. And I feel Asmed has had some outstanding “one pass” results. His graft calculator is pretty interesting as well. I will continue to keep Asmed in mind. Thank you!

Thank you for your feedback! I attached hopefully a better pic of my back donor area. You might be right about going straight for a FUE. I had reached out to @Gasthoerer a while back and he recommended to go check my laxity at a U.S. clinic which I thought was a great idea. I haven’t done that yet, but hopefully will be able to soon.

Hello everyone! Just want to say first that I truly appreciate this website and all of it's members. I've learned so much from this site even before I created an account in 2013. I've sent a couple private messages several months ago asking for opinions, but this will be my first public post where I'll finally share my story, hair transplant results with Dr. Rahal, and hopefully you all can give me some honest reviews/recommendations. Two things before I get started. I don't have the best quality pictures nor very many of them and I apologize. And also I know my username is about as cheesy as it gets. It seemed appropriate at the time before I had my first hair transplant and my primary goal at the time was to create a naturally looking hairline. I'm 39 years old now and live in Missouri - United States. I started receding at 16 years old. Almost had a HT with Bosley in my early 20's but thank God I wrecked my car and then couldn't afford it. Going to Bosley would've been the worst decision ever. I took Propecia/Finasteride off and on in my 20's and early 30's which really helped. And then I stopped the medicine when I was around 32 because I knew at some point in the near future my fiancee and I would be trying to do In-Vitro Fertilization. Less than a year after I stopped Finasteride I had lost a lot more hair and it was driving me crazy. I was about to get married and I knew it was time to get a hair transplant asap. After all the research I had done up until this point I was 100% sold on Dr. Rahal. My goal was to create a new hairline that was dense and natural looking and I felt that Dr. Rahal was the surgeon I needed. I ended up having a FUT with Dr. Rahal in October, 2013. Based on my hair loss at that time, Dr. Rahal recommended 4000 grafts by FUT. Once the procedure was finished I only ended up with 2949 grafts based on my laxity and donor density. Four to five months after my FUT with Rahal I was feeling optimistic because more new hairs were starting to sprout. I was also given the okay from Rahal's team to use Toppik if I wanted. I had never used any hair fibers in the past and this was a complete game changer for me. Even though at 6 months my results were see through and not dense, with the help of Toppik, I was able to create an illusion of a full head of hair. A year after my FUT with Rahal I took pictures and emailed them to Rahal’s team. I expressed that I felt my growth was not what I imagined it would be and that I’d like to hear Dr. Rahal’s opinion of my results. I didn’t make a big deal about it to Rahal’s team. Rahal’s team responded and said they covered an area of over 81cm with 2949 grafts, which is an average of 36 graft/cm squared. They also said at that density we expect to see some see though and visibility of the scalp. I was also advised that when Dr. Rahal reviewed my file that my grafts were fragile and my skin was tough to create popping. Dr. Rahal advised the fix would be to do another procedure/add more grafts and bring the density closer to 50 grafts/cm squared which would give a better illusion of density. Dr. Rahal also offered me 300 free grafts if I scheduled another hair transplant. By the way, I financed the hair transplant with Rahal thorough my own bank in Missouri on a 5 year loan. So a year after my HT when I knew I needed another HT in order to add more density and getting a better result, I knew I simply couldn’t afford anytime soon. So I let it go and went on with my life using Toppik every day and making the most out of the hairs I had. Also, I’m absolutely not blaming Rahal for my result. I think he is an amazing surgeon and I consider him to be very ethical. Even though I didn’t get a homerun result which I know now is not always the case, the result I got with the combination of Toppik changed my life and appearance in a very positive way. I’ve always known I’ve had thin hair, but I didn’t realize until lately that different hair characteristics play a very important role in the final result or the illusion of density. I also think it’s very likely that the reason I didn’t get a homerun is because my hair being very fine, not many triples and no quads, not able to get as many grafts needed to cover my larea needed, possible below average growth, and no finasteride. Here I am now, five years since I had my FUT with Rahal. I haven’t taken Finasteride in 7 years or so and I’ve lost so much more hair. I still use Toppik almost every day, except for the days I wear my hat. I’m tired of using toppik and spending so much time fixing my hair and stressing over it. It’s exhausting and depressing to say the least. I’ve considered shaving my head and also considered getting a hair replacement system. My gut tells me I wouldn’t be happy with either of those two options. Since I was successful at IVF and had a healthy child, hopefully very soon I’ll get back on Propecia or Finasteride which I know will help. What I really want and think I need is another hair transplant. In a perfect world I’d love to get one mega session and be done. Reality tells me I might not be the best candidate for that nor does that happen every time. So I want to be realistic. I’m not sure if I should go the FUT route again or if I should try FUE? Even though my hair characteristics are not amazing, if I were to get another FUT or FUE who would you guys recommend? Obviously I have a lot of area to cover and I’d love to cover as much area as possible in one session. Thank you all so much for reading this and sharing your opinions!

That looks fantastic! Congratulations!