Cryingoutloud

I am not sure at this moment whether I want a free follow up with Rahal. I know he has a strong reputation and is well respected. But my question is and always will be - why are my results below par?

 

There are so many questions are going through my head which I intend to discuss with Dr Rahal in person.

 

There is also the issue whether I want a 2nd procedure with Dr Rahal or any other Doctor. To be honest, having gone through so much pain and then to see average results, I am not sure I could face that again.

 

I still plan to go and see Dr Rahal in person and will then decide.

 

I want to thank everyone on this forum for your advice and support. I really appreciate it.

Yeah I'm hearing you on that question. I asked myself the same thing and had the crushing feeling that I must be one of "those" - you know, the ones doctors tell us don't have the "right physiology" for hair transplantation success. That's all bullshit designed to cover up a mistake possibly made by a member or members the team that handled your procedure. Maybe your grafts weren't placed deep enough into the incisions, maybe the grafts were handled badly, maybe . . .

As for the "pain", look there's nothing to be gained by wallowing in self pity, bro. I felt the same as you do but I had it for 2 YEARS while I waited for the promised result that never materialised. I'm coming up on 3 months post op with a European surgeon and next month will be a whopping 3 years since my first, fateful procedure. That's right - 3 years walking around suspecting that everyone was looking at my hair and chuckling to themselves.

Your hair is PERFECTLY fixable. Wouldn't take a lot of grafts and in 8 months time, you could laughing.

Get back on the horse, bro and good luck

From what I've read on this forum, most people advise against giving a practice a second bite of the cherry if they botched it first time round but such is the esteem in which Dr. Rahal's held by patients and surgeons alike, he's one of the few doctors I'd entrust with another shot.

My first procedure was done by a coalition surgeon whose offer of a free follow up I turned down flat after an FUE test session on me that he video-recorded showed he was actually having difficulty getting a graft into an incision he'd made.

He tried to make it sound as if my hair was particularly difficult to work with but I'm not stupid; I knew that was bullshit - the guy's eyesight simply wasn't up to the job any more and there's no way I was gonna let his techs train on my head.

Anyway, if you're confident in Dr. Rahal's ability to put you right and secure assurances that he will do the procedure, give him the shot but bear in mind that this is the face you're gonna be showing the world for the rest of your life. You can't entrust that shit to techs no matter how good they're supposed to be.

You paid for a Rahal transplant; not a Jill, Penny or Moira transplant. If you can't get those assurances then even if you have to wait 6 months for a slot, you're best off with the Euro boys, Lorenzo, Bisanga, Mwamba or Feriduni.

Whatever the motivation behind FC's furious back-pedaling, it's worth remembering that whatever arrangement he and Dr. Rahal come to, he's still gonna have to wait another 8-12 months for the result he should have had after this surgery.

I know what that's like; it's horrible so I wish him all the best

I also have been eating a healthy diet and taking in a lot of foods high in vitamin C and protein to help the scalp of the donor area heal faster. Of course, not leaving about carbs, and other important vitamins and minerals. Anyone else, notice a healthy diet help them seem to heal faster? I know it will definitely help with growing strong new hairs to come.

A healthy diet is always a good thing but does it help one heal faster? I doubt it very much. Remember when Michael Schumacher broke his leg? The guy was as close to a machine as any human could be - training, diet, attention to detail, the lot. Everyone expected him to heal faster than mere mortals . . . didn't happen. Just a normal guy after all.

Not suggesting you should eat whatever you like but there are posters here who grew just fine with out getting all "Nutrition Nazi" with their diets.

Hell, some even smoked

Not sure what's going on but maybe the forum owners need to look at alternative hosting because the speed with which pictures load has slowed dramatically in recent weeks.

It really spoils the experience when you have to wait 30 seconds for each picture to load . . . especially when there are 10 thumbnails.

My internet connection is strong - 50Mbps - so I know that's not the weak link here.

I see what you mean. If that should happen, I will have SMP, simple as that.

How's that gonna work? Long hair over the frontal third and SMP all the way back over the crown and the scar??

How silly do you think that's going to look?

Even if you shaved your head down to a crew cut - number 1 all over - is SMP gonna hide your scar close up?

SOrry, bro; you may THINK you have an answer for everything but you don't. I'm not gonna do what others have done and patronise you with the old "I was young once too" chestnut; I ain't your dad or your big brother.

If you think you know what's best for you, then go ahead and do it. Just be prepared to spend a long time regretting the more impulsive decisions you make.

To hell with hair systems. That I would NEVER on my life wear, ever! I would rather have an SMP procedure carried out. That way I could even pretty well cover up the scar too. When my hair grew out it didn't at all look bad, but very thin, especially in the middle part. I will have it filled in next year, and hopefully no more hairloss will I experience over the next year. I estimate I have about 3500-5000 grafts left, which isn't that bad. Plus I have an immense amount of coarse body hair, EVERYWHERE, enough to even cover a NW7, I kid you not. One thing I WILL have done, is to extract the hairs he implanted on the very side of my head. It looks very stupid. Does FUE leave you with visible scars, in the hands of an expert hair transplant surgeon. Some say my result looks okay and even good, while others call me a fool and tell me it looks horrible.

Yeah well you're saying "to hell with hair systems" NOW because you're 20 and still have much of your hair.

Will you feel the same if/when you're sporting a mane of hair in your frontal third and an expanse of bare scalp behind it? Will you feel the same when people are pointing and chuckling at your "unconventional" hairstyle?

Who knows? Maybe meds will stabilise your loss and maybe a visit to a high quality surgeon will fix the "row-seating" implantation effect you now sport - I certainly hope so - but there's a good chance you're gonna be disappointed.

All the best anyway

Clearly, Mirror is paying the price for his impetuosity.

Still, it's worth remembering that there are several cases in which patients did their research, had consultations, even spoke to previous patients and still ended up with disappointing results.

Mirror's result could be worse - not much, I admit - but I think a talented surgeon could make his hairline look quite natural.

If however, his hair loss continues unimpeded by meds, it's pretty much GUARANTEED that he'll be wearing a hair system by his mid to late 20s.

Sorry but what kind of presentation is this? Where's the shots of the guy's hairline?

If the guy wants to style his hair like that, fine but the idea is to showcase the quality of the result, right?

OK I'm just going to come right out and say it; I don't think this result looks great for nearly 4,000 grafts.

I think it looks a lot thinner than it should for that number of grafts and the bouffant hairstyle really draws attention to that fact in picture number 8.

Don't get me wrong; I don't think this is a poor result by any stretch of the imagination but I've seen guys with similar loss get a far fuller-looking outcome from 3750 grafts.

Sorry but WTF is going on with that donor scar?

Never seen one of those before. Doesn't that just make it more difficult to conceal the fact that you've had a procedure?

Your hair will never be what it was when you were 25. A HT cannot accomplish that. Your expectations and knowledge of this topic seem to be something that scream a negative result. First and foremost, if you cannot take Propecia due to side effects or are not willing to take it because of fear of side effects then a HT is not something you should ever do, end of story.

 

I am very skeptical of side effects from Propecia; however as they are way over estimated by patients who suffered from or would have likely suffered from erectile dysfunction regardless of the Propecia. Then of course they blame Propecia thinking it was the cause. As you will likely see, it was probably not the cause. Most reputable research will show this fact.

 

If you are that concerned about finances then you should seriously think twice about moving forward with what is a very expensive journey for most. But again, if you are not a candidate for medication then you are NOT a candidate for a HT and any doctor that tells you otherwise should be publicly discredited.

 

I feel the best option for you at this point is to embrace the hair loss and go with a buzz cut until you have the confidence to shave your head. It is not a bad look on most people. But until hair cloning or some other futuristic HT technique is mastered I do not see you being happy with the results, regardless of the surgeon.

This!

Feeling for you, mate. You could probably have gotten away with a buzz cut if you'd had FUE but, since you didn't, you're gonna have to ride this one out.

I can't fault the surgeon's ethics. He did best by the patient and by himself by being conservative.

The patient's bitching and whining at the start of the thread is truly a wonder to behold. I mean, 18 bloody DAYS post op and the guy's saying he doesn't "hold out much hope".

Absolute NIGHTMARE patient.

I'm certain that if the surgeon knew the patient would buzz his hair down to a 2 grade, there's no way he'd have told him that he'd look like he'd never had anything done within two weeks. .

I'd normally give the patient the benefit of the doubt but having read this thread and listened to the rollercoaster of panic, insecurity and bipolar swings from rational to irrational, I'm inclined to believe that the patient probably heard what he wanted to hear.

How many "Who is the best FUE surgeon?" threads there have been?

After 171 posts, the topic starter purports to be unable to use the forum to find contact details for some of the most prolific doctors in the community.

You already know the answer to your own question.

It would've been laid out in the post-op instructions given to you by the highly professional Dr. Konior and you would almost certainly have read many threads by people who've had hair transplant surgery on this forum before selecting that particular doctor.

Have to agree with 1978Matt. Diffuse thinning on top and what looks like low-density on the sides. There's another thread here with a patient with a similar balding pattern to yours. In fact, his wasn't as far gone as yours.

He had a strip procedure and ended up regretting it in a BIG way.

http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/173454-poor-result-coalition-surgeon.html

He blamed the surgeon but he was warned about his diffuse thinning and the risk of shock loss before the surgery.

Some people just don't have the right characteristics for this type of surgery.

Anyway, good luck

Good result but would have preferred if the comb-through of the hairline wasn't speeded up. Really don't see the point of that especially when the comb-through of the donor area was at normal speed.

Don't bother then.

After two weeks, it'll will be fairly obvious that you've had a procedure if you don't have enough native hair to cover the recipient site with.

You may have scabbing in the recipient area and the overall area will almost definitely still be red. If you have FUE, you could be ok after 2 weeks but FUT us going to leave a big linear "smiley" scar across the back off your head that only the longest native hair will be able to conceal.

I'm sorry but I can't really see where the 2750 grafts went. My first reaction is to attribute the guy's seemingly younger appearance to the fact that the "after" pictures show him with his hair grown out.

That hairline is NOT densely packed.

The standard of his results presentation is outstanding.

With respect, you misread what he said.

I understood it to mean that 1000 grafts of mainly 2, 3 or 4 hair grafts would greatly help with the illusion of density in an area OTHER THAN the hairline.

Surely this cannot be right? Let's say the surgery took 8 hours for 4,500 grafts. That is 28,800 seconds. 28,800 seconds divided by 4,500 grafts equals 6.4. So they are extracting, punching AND implanting one graft every 6.4 seconds? What about implanting? I know they use the choi implanter to save the incision/insertion phase but if they did 4,500 grafts in 8 hours, that would mean they are extracting/punching one graft in much less than 6.4 seconds. This is not factoring in the possibility of a break for the patient. This is VERY concerning that they work at such a pace.

 

I'm not questioning you BFA, I'm questioning the Hakan clinic.

Well there's an obvious answer here; in addition to the techs doing the punching and implantations, there must be more than one person doing the extractions.

Not my cup of tea at all but if someone doesn't mind techs doing the procedure, fair enough.

Sorry I am a patient of hakan doganay and I haven't vanished,but there's nothing to post,I am waiting on 10 month result to post,I am disappointed so far,and will be going back to Antalya for round 2.And I believe Dr.Hakan will get it right this time,because it will be my last.Probably no one is posting because nothing spectacular has happened.I will post on the 20th of july

I suppose there are cases where returning to a surgeon who failed you the first time is warranted but can I ask why you're not going to another doctor?

His result was probably far worse than he wanted.

Pretty simple, really