wantego

4-5 weeks for you is amazing. I dont use concealers because I'm just thinking in terms of my real results. The 4-5 week period has me at my worst so far.

6 months? wow only 5 more to go, lol. Did you have any shock losss? Did it grow back?

How long was your ugly duckling period? What week did your ugly duckling period start? finish? Did you lose most of the transplanted hairs? All of the transplanted hairs? Or only a few of the transplanted hairs during your ugly duckling period.? Thanks in advance.

How long was your ugly duckling period? What week did your ugly duckling period start? finish? Did you lose most of the transplanted hairs? All of the transplanted hairs? Or only a few of the transplanted hairs during your ugly duckling period.? Thanks in advance.

Money is a factor for many but I personally wouldnt want to make that the only factor and go somewhere like Thailand. Canada and the USA seem to have many of the best doctors. I dont think I would want to play around with a HT

That is a heck of an endorsement.

Would you consider posting some pictures? You can block out your eyes or face for privacy sake

I'd like to see the pictures. 19 is very young so please do as much research as you can. Good luck.

The only real pain I felt was late in the procedure when the numbing started wearing out. The doctor will give you 2-3 pain medications for after the procedure that do a very good job. I saw Dr Rahal in July. If you are curious you might want to read my post in the experience section. I wish you the best of luck with your procedure.

Hey Adrian. Thanks for answering some of these questions. I really did not pay much attention to how many techs were working at a time so I'm glad you were here to answer that question. It was nice meeting you as well. Hopefully if we ever meet again I will have a lot of new hair to show you!

Just Grow, There were definitely more than 2 techs. I'm not exactly sure how many but I do remember at 1 point saw 2 techs working on the grafts under the microscopes, at least 2 techs working on putting the grafts in and 1 tech handing them the grafts. That would make at least 5 techs at once in the room. I also noticed another room with microscopes but I dont know if they were used during my surgery. The doctor also was in there at various times after he made the strip and the placement sites. I was in a chair not too much different than a dentist chair and I only have 1 "small" head. The techs were very nice to me. I'm not exactly sure how long I was in the chair. I would guesstimate around 8-10 hours. I arrived before 6:45am and we may have got started by 7:30am-8:30am. I'm not sure what time I finished but probably somewhere around 5pm I did not ask how many years the techs had. That is a good question but I did not think of several good questions before or while I was there. Thank you very much for the kind words about the scar.

They are great in my opinion! Light as a feather and do not do any damage.

Thanks Janna. I hope that is true. I can never tell anything from anyone's pictures. All the right after surgery pictures look the same to me. So many people say so many nice things based on counts and pictures but being in month 1 I'm very worried and optimistic at the same time.

I dont know the answer to your question but when I saw no replies I thought I might try to help. When I had a question about going to Mexico and Canada I simply called the US state department. They were very helpful and if you want I can find you the phone number.

LOL Thanks? I have no idea how you guys judge who will get a good result and who will get a bad result from pictures. When I look at guys after pictures they all look the same to me. I'm glad to hear my hair count was good. These are things I'm learning from the boards that I had no idea about.

I was curious how many FUE doctors use a mechanical device and how many do not. I have heard that 1 doctor who claims he does mega sessions of fue uses a drill of some sort. I really have no idea what is true regarding that. I have seen some questions asked but never really answered.

I have noticed some people will have more grafts than myself but that my hair count was more. That got me curious. Which is more important? Does the hair count matter? Often I only hear people speak in terms number of grafts.

I have noticed some people will have more grafts than myself but that my hair count was more. That got me curious. Which is more important? Does the hair count matter? Often I only hear people speak in terms number of grafts.

LOL I'm in my 5th week and its not a pretty sight. Hopefully we can look back on this and laugh when we have our new hair!!!!

Thanks Bill. I really enjoy this board so it was my pleasure.

That is a good question. Please keep in mind my hour statement was just an guesstimate on the time. It was a long day and I did not watch a clock. I dont think I would be doing the question justice by guessing. I really was not paying much attention to who was in the room and when. Aldo recently had surgery with Dr Rahal so you might be better off asking him since his surgery was so recent. Sorry that I could not give you a more specific answer.

I have had some questions via PM and phone call in the past so I figured I would post about my HT experience with Dr Rahal. Now this post is not to promote anyone it is just my way to "demystify" the process. I have seen promotion posts for a different doctor on another board and I do not like those kind of posts. I'm just going to stick to my actual experience. I arrived in Canada. Customs are really thorough there. My letter from Dr Rahal helped ease the process. I arrived in my hotel on a Monday. It was a national holiday called Canada. Despite the holiday Dr Rahal wanted me to call him on his cell phone when I arrived. That did impress me. We spoke briefly and we were ready to go for the next day. I arrived at his clinic around 6:30am. Soon Adrian arrived and had me start on the paperwork. The paperwork was a bit intimidating but only took around 10 minutes. Next to arrive was one of the doctors assistants. She treated me very nice and put me at ease. I was then given some pain medication I believe. When Dr Rahal arrived we had a brief consultation. He took some measurements and explained to me what he planned to do. We then took some pictures. We then went in to the room that the surgery would be done. The doctors tech gave me a cereal bar and some gatoraid to make sure I did not have an empty stomach before my surgery. The doctor asked if I had any concerns and explained the process. I told him I had a pretty high pain tolerance so I was not worried about the pain. The doctor then gave me some pain reliever I believe via shots in my head. I'm not sure about that part. The doctor started making some incisions to remove the strip and to sew me up. I know this will sound strange but I did not feel any pain when he did this. In fact I did not feel much discomfort at all when he was cutting my scalp or sewing it up. The doctor then started to make the recipient sites. Once again I did not find this painful. The techs then started to go to work on the strip. They had 2 microscopes set up side by side to do this. The techs were very nice and offered to put in some dvds. The techs then started the process of inserting the grafts. I watched pretty much every episode of Seinfeld more than once during the long day. The doctors sister is a caterer I believe and she made me a very good turkey sandwich for lunch. The techs were often asking if I was OK. During the whole process I was attached to a medical machine that kept an eye on my vitals such as blood pressure. The only pain I felt during the process was near the end when the freezing started wearing off. The doctor came in 2-3 times to give me another dose of numbing in that last hour or so. After the procedure was done the doctor went over all the medications he was giving me as well as the paper instructions. He also gave me dinner that his sister had made for me. That way I could just go to my hotel and rest. Since I live far away the doctor had requested I stay some additional days. He scheduled follow ups during those days. I went in with an agreement for 4000 grafts. The doctor told me we got an extra 374 grafts. They gave me 124 grafts for free and I paid for the remaining 250 grafts. I was wearing a blue surgical hat the doctor gave me so my grafts were not touched by any sort of cap. The doctors office called me a cab and had it waiting for me when it was time to leave. They did that every day I was there including the follow ups. During the next days follow up the doctor showed me how to drizzle the vitamin e oil on my grafts and gave me some baby shampoo. The doctor and his techs seemed very nice during my visit. On my last follow up the doctor let me use one of their computers to confirm my plane flights. I also asked if I could have a few of those blue surgical hats. I really liked wearing them instead of a cap. He gave me 4 of them. I also received another letter to help me get through customs again. Thanks to the letter they did not even ask me to remove the surgical hat. In fact the lady at customs must have seen a lot of those hats because she assumed I was somebody she had seen before. So that is my actual HT experience. No fluff. No hype. So far so good. I'm very optimistic! If anyone has any questions feel free to ask me at any time. I will always give you a straight forward honest answer.

I have had some questions via PM and phone call in the past so I figured I would post about my HT experience with Dr Rahal. Now this post is not to promote anyone it is just my way to "demystify" the process. I have seen promotion posts for a different doctor on another board and I do not like those kind of posts. I'm just going to stick to my actual experience. I arrived in Canada. Customs are really thorough there. My letter from Dr Rahal helped ease the process. I arrived in my hotel on a Monday. It was a national holiday called Canada. Despite the holiday Dr Rahal wanted me to call him on his cell phone when I arrived. That did impress me. We spoke briefly and we were ready to go for the next day. I arrived at his clinic around 6:30am. Soon Adrian arrived and had me start on the paperwork. The paperwork was a bit intimidating but only took around 10 minutes. Next to arrive was one of the doctors assistants. She treated me very nice and put me at ease. I was then given some pain medication I believe. When Dr Rahal arrived we had a brief consultation. He took some measurements and explained to me what he planned to do. We then took some pictures. We then went in to the room that the surgery would be done. The doctors tech gave me a cereal bar and some gatoraid to make sure I did not have an empty stomach before my surgery. The doctor asked if I had any concerns and explained the process. I told him I had a pretty high pain tolerance so I was not worried about the pain. The doctor then gave me some pain reliever I believe via shots in my head. I'm not sure about that part. The doctor started making some incisions to remove the strip and to sew me up. I know this will sound strange but I did not feel any pain when he did this. In fact I did not feel much discomfort at all when he was cutting my scalp or sewing it up. The doctor then started to make the recipient sites. Once again I did not find this painful. The techs then started to go to work on the strip. They had 2 microscopes set up side by side to do this. The techs were very nice and offered to put in some dvds. The techs then started the process of inserting the grafts. I watched pretty much every episode of Seinfeld more than once during the long day. The doctors sister is a caterer I believe and she made me a very good turkey sandwich for lunch. The techs were often asking if I was OK. During the whole process I was attached to a medical machine that kept an eye on my vitals such as blood pressure. The only pain I felt during the process was near the end when the freezing started wearing off. The doctor came in 2-3 times to give me another dose of numbing in that last hour or so. After the procedure was done the doctor went over all the medications he was giving me as well as the paper instructions. He also gave me dinner that his sister had made for me. That way I could just go to my hotel and rest. Since I live far away the doctor had requested I stay some additional days. He scheduled follow ups during those days. I went in with an agreement for 4000 grafts. The doctor told me we got an extra 374 grafts. They gave me 124 grafts for free and I paid for the remaining 250 grafts. I was wearing a blue surgical hat the doctor gave me so my grafts were not touched by any sort of cap. The doctors office called me a cab and had it waiting for me when it was time to leave. They did that every day I was there including the follow ups. During the next days follow up the doctor showed me how to drizzle the vitamin e oil on my grafts and gave me some baby shampoo. The doctor and his techs seemed very nice during my visit. On my last follow up the doctor let me use one of their computers to confirm my plane flights. I also asked if I could have a few of those blue surgical hats. I really liked wearing them instead of a cap. He gave me 4 of them. I also received another letter to help me get through customs again. Thanks to the letter they did not even ask me to remove the surgical hat. In fact the lady at customs must have seen a lot of those hats because she assumed I was somebody she had seen before. So that is my actual HT experience. No fluff. No hype. So far so good. I'm very optimistic! If anyone has any questions feel free to ask me at any time. I will always give you a straight forward honest answer.

I think price pays a role in many people's decisions as well as location, reputation, etc.

Thanks for the reply but my doctor used normal sutures not disolvable.