Hairfree

Pre-op Side

Pre-op donor Area

Pre-op Front Shot

Tomorrow evening I leave for Ottawa to visit Dr. Rahal's clinic for a HT on Wednesday, April 4th 2007. Dr. Rahal looked at my photos and reccomended 3000 grafts during an online consultation. I am looking to possibly fill in as many grafts possible in my front 1/3 maybe close to 4000. I will write more about my journey when I return. I will be staying at the Days Inn Ottawa Airport and expected to arrive at Dr. Rahal's office at 7:05 am to sign consent forms and for the pre-op consultation and rest of the day will be surgery.

It is only an hr and half flight from Philadelphia to Ottawa and I am expected to arrive at 7:30pm. I plan to check out downtown Ottawa and eat at one of the restaurants in the market area. I figured it will keep my mind of the HT and help time go by. I know I will be anxious and excited at the same time. It wont be easy to sleep tomorrow night.

I want to thank everyone on this forum for the support especially Bill. We had a good time at dinner on the past Thursday night. He brought along his wife and my fiance' joined as well. He was able to answer all of my questions and concerns about the HT. I asked if he would be willing to come over after I return to take a look at my bloody scalp and take some pics. He said he would be glad to stop by. Its nice to have someone with HT experience nearby who can help me out with the post op advice especially if I feel something went wrong.

I will post my pre-op photos.

Bill...thank you for taking the time to write. Now I feel better about going in and attacking the entire front 1/3. I wasnt sure how it would work for me but you make a solid point. No matter what in my case I will have a positive net gain in the thinning area even if I have shockloss.

Me nervous??? NEVER! J/K I think that the reality of going in for a HT hasn't hit me yet. It will all hit me Wednesday morning when I walk into Dr. Rahals office. I will try not to chicken out

I plan to post my pre-HT pictures again tonight and write about my entire experience.

Hey guys thanks for your input. I have a better understanding now what a diffuse thinner is classified as.

In my case, I think that I can ask Dr. Rahal to focus on dense packing into the bald spots (my hairline). I have non existent hairline and behind it is an area of receding very thin hair (shaped like a V) and can ask him to be conservative planting into my existing hairs left in the front 1/3. I guess Dr. Rahal will know the best answer to my case for getting good results. Should I leave it all entirely in his hands or should I offer my input on what I think? I just started on Proscar two weeks ago and scheduled for 3000 or more grafts Wednesday, April 3rd

I saw on another forum that Diffuse Thinners are not good canditates for HTs. What is a Diffuse Thinner??

I was concerned after reading the post because I know that my front 1/3 is very thin and the rest mid-back 2/3 isnt showing signs of thinning yet. Some people have said that I am a good candidate for HT. However, after reading the post about diffuse thinners not being good candidates I wonder if I fall into the class of what people would call a Diffuse Thinner? Is a Diffuse Thinner someone who is losing hair on entire top scalp at same rate in all regions?

CURIOUS HAIRFREE

I saw on another forum that Diffuse Thinners are not good canditates for HTs. What is a Diffuse Thinner??

I was concerned after reading the post because I know that my front 1/3 is very thin and the rest mid-back 2/3 isnt showing signs of thinning yet. Some people have said that I am a good candidate for HT. However, after reading the post about diffuse thinners not being good candidates I wonder if I fall into the class of what people would call a Diffuse Thinner? Is a Diffuse Thinner someone who is losing hair on entire top scalp at same rate in all regions?

CURIOUS HAIRFREE

HAHAHA I should have left out the part...confident well built guy. It made it sound differently

Anyway, Bill and I are going to meet up next week for dinner with our ladies. He will be able to answer any last min questions that I have before the surgery. Its nice to have that kind of support!

Glad you enjoyed the story!

I am looking for some help from those who went through the Ht experience. I am working on creating a shopping list of items/meds I should get for pre/post surgery. I am having the HT on April 4th.

Here is what I have on my list as of now:

New Hat, MSM, Muli-Vitamins, Protein powder (to help healing), proscar, Fish oil.

What should I add to the list??

I am looking for some help from those who went through the Ht experience. I am working on creating a shopping list of items/meds I should get for pre/post surgery. I am having the HT on April 4th.

Here is what I have on my list as of now:

New Hat, MSM, Muli-Vitamins, Protein powder (to help healing), proscar, Fish oil.

What should I add to the list??

Bill...I will give the scalp exercises laying down on my back a try. Thanks for the advice!

I am glad that most of you enjoyed the story. I think as we see HT become more popular over time we will have more people on the forums coming into contact with each other out in the world. When things like this happen its always a positive sign. People will be open about it and more people will get sound advice and reccomendations from others. Most importantly the poor doctors will be held accountable for their actions. This will put more pressure on the HT industry to offer the best to every patient.

Hairbank..Id love to have your results. I think you hair looks very natural and even in the sun it has great density. There will always be someone out there who will ask a question that can come across as an insult, whether if they have good or bad intentions. I applaud to your way of approaching this.

Thanks Bill. I will start doing more scalp exercises. I have done some for a least 5 mins each day but they make my neck hurt. Its hard to stay motivated when doing scalp exercises. How many minutes each day is reccomended??

I think that its neat that everyone is working on pulling off a get together event. Keep me in the loop on it. Bill..I will drop you an email about dinner or lunch with our ladies.

After taking some time to read the forum I realize that some deep respect and friendships have developed on this forum. Everyone has helped each other out in some way. I have learned a lot in the past few weeks.

I am glad that I picked one of the surgeons from the coalition rather than going to some local random doctor. Everyone has helped me take in consideration that distance should not be a factor when picking a HT doctor.

I am feeling those usual feelings of being anxious and excited in the days leading up to the first HT. I am now almost two weeks away. I think I am more nervous about how I will look when I return to work 7 days after surgery but I really want to get it done and I plan to wear a hat and come up with some excuse. I'll deal with that problem when the time comes I really believe that things always work out for a reason. I could wait till a later date when I have more time off but I really would like to get this done sooner than later because my wedding date is Oct. 27th.

Maybe I can post some wedding pictures ..only if the head of hair turns out good

I enjoyed reading about our awesome experience today from Bill.

Ok, here is what happened. I got up this morning to hit this gym and decided to take a peek at the Coalition forum beforehand to catch up with the new posts. I noticed that Bill posted some new updated photos of his 5 month mark. I checked them out. I knew he was from the Philly area because he had sent me a private message last night offering to help me with anything if I had some questions and he mentioned the area he lives in. I was a bit surprised to see that he lives only about 10 minutes away. Philadelphia is a big area!

Anyway, when I got the the gym I went in the locker room to hang up my jacket and I had some feeling maybe Bill worked out at the same gym because I had seen some of his postings about lifting and nutrition. As soon as I walked out of the locker room there was a confident well built guy standing in middle of the machines and I instantly knew it was him. It was a very rare experience and I felt very comfortable approaching him because I knew he was a very down to earth guy. I walked up to him and said "Hi, my name is Hairfree." He was puzzled and when he took off his ipod and after I mentioned Hairfree a couple times a big smile came across his face and was just as happy as I was to meet each other. He motioned his lovely wife to come over an meet me. We had a very nice discussion and he took a big chunk out of his workout time to answer some of the questions I had. The whole time I didn't even think of the fact that he even just had a HT (let alone one only 5 months ago), his hair looked unbelievably real and at this point it is not even at the halfway point to full development! There is no way that anyone would be able to tell that he had a HT. I was completely shocked when he showed me a photo from his drivers license. He went from a NW5 or 6 to having a completly full head of hair! His hairline has a very natural thickness and the overall HT is going to give Jotronic some serious competition for the #1 spot within a few months. Dr. Hasson did a great job. I can't imagine the life changing experience that he went through and getting the chance to meet him and hearing his story has given me more confidence to go forward with my April 4th date with Dr. Rahal. Meeting someone is person is definately worth a thousand images

I completely agree with Bill about the bond that we all share. We can be honest with each other because we all have experienced the same thing. I am thankful for this forum and feel that our unexpected meeting is meant to be. What are the chances that we would run into each other?? Meeting him and seeing his HT in person definately helps me go forward with getting the HT done!

Bill has offered to meet up again and we plan to have lunch or dinner soon. We plan to bring along our significant others as well.

I hope you all enjoyed this story!

Hahaha I work for a HT doctor up in Canada NervousNelly..thank you for your sense of humor and for helping to put things in good perspective.

You make a good point about not get complacent too easily and to do the homework before getting into something serious.

Makes sense Pisa..thank you for explaining your HT experience with Dr. Rahal. I am hoping that I fall in the same category as you.

Pushing 40..Thank you for your interesting analogy. I feel that I have a good judge of character. From what I have been reading I feel that this is a very honest group on this forum. I think I became defensive when coming across a negative post and I can't let one bad apple spoil the bunch. Thank you Pushing 40 for putting me at ease. For me its such a big decision, I plan to go forward with and because I am new to all this I don't want to take everything lightly. I look forward to hearing what others have to say.

I just happened to come across this post and I am glad that I did. I am now sitting at home and snowed in. I live outside of Philadelphia and just watched a couple movies with my fiance' and she is now asleep on my lap as I write this message on the laptop placed on the side. I want to clearly say...that I am NOT an advertiser for all those out there that came across this post. I really am going to visit Dr. Rahal on April 4th for the surgery. Now coming across this post makes me more nervous to get the surgery. I know I can trust most of you on this forum and agree that most people are doing this to help others to return the favor to those who helped them before. I also understand that we all need to be aware of those giving false hope.

I'd like to see more posts from others out there to help me restore confidence that going for 3000 grafts is a good and realistic decision. I look forward to hear what everyone has to say.

Hairbank..Thank you for answering my question.

This forum has turned into an interesting discussion. I am opting for a mega session (3000 grafts) to fill in my front 1/3 and hope that propecia will slow down the loss on the back 2/3 so I won't need a 2nd HT for some time. I dont have any loss in the crown area yet and my hairloss has progressed slowly back from the hairline so I feel a bit safer to take the aggressive approach and try to fill it in with one session. I might get hair greed and want a 2nd HT with FUE to work on the hairline within a year. Who knows..like everyone say we can't predict our hairloss. I am being optimistic! I hope I am making the right decision. If you were in my shoes would you approach it the same way?

Anyway I have never taken propecia or proscar. I am going to see if Dr. Rahal will send me some in the mail to start on it ASAP. Has anyone experienced major side effects from propecia?

Anyone experience regrowth with propecia?

I am going to start shopping for a loose fitting hat. I look forward to hearing from all of you..

Do you move the scalp up and down? Press hard on the scalp to move it? Im curious

I can pinch about a half inch with my fingers. The scalp feels thick. Is that normal? I am able to squeeze and get one fold.

Congrats on making it thru. I had seriously considered Dr. Epstein. He didn't have the date I was looking for (April 4th). If he did I would have gone with him. I hear great things about his work. I am now 3 weeks away and counting the days to the surgery with Dr. Rahal. If I am counting the days to the surgery I can't imagine how hard it will be to wait till the hair grows! I guess I am excited about going through all this

Good luck and happy growing! Keep us posted on your progress!

I watched the video Pat provided for us by Wong&Hasson's staff. I am going to have my first HT by Dr. Rahal on April 4th. I am wondering how do I know I have enough in my donar area for 3000 grafts? If I am able to push the back of my head up and down 1 inch am I in good shape? Or do I need to do those exercises?