UPDATED 6 Months - Dr. Rahal Surgery 3489 grafts

[Hairfree]

Surgery day 4/4/2007:

 

Number of grafts: 3489

 

Singles - 455

Doubles - 1986

Tripples - 1048

 

Total number of hairs 7571

 

 

 

[hairbank]

Hairfree-

 

Thanks for sharing, my friend. Looks like solid work. That number in the frontal 1/3 should give you a nice, dense appearance to blend with your hair. Can't wait to see it come in for you!

[Bill - Seemiller]

Hey bro,

 

About to run out to dinner, but I wanted to comment real quick. It was nice seeing you and your fiance today...nice talking and chilling. Everything looks great in the pictures and great in person. You are going to be one hairy beast in 8-12 months my friend. We'll talk and get together soon!

 

Bill

 

Ah...I see you added the photos I took of you also! Well done.

[Hairfree]

Hey Bill,

 

Thanks for all of your help today. Its a relief to have someone with experience to check it out and see if its moving along in the right direction. Also, thanks for resizing my photos and showing me how to post them. It would have taken me hours to figure that out.

 

 

I hope you had a nice evening with the wife and friends. Ill be in touch this weekend.

[Pat - Community Publisher]

Hairfree thanks for sharing your photos and providing a detailed account of your experience at http://www.hairrestorationnetwork.com/eve/showthread.php?t=147884

 

You look like you got a truly dense and refined session that will make a huge difference in your look in 8 to 12 months.

 

Best wishes for rapid healing and growth.

 

Pat

 

P.S. Bill - thanks again for being there in person for Hairfree. If we could all only be so lucky.

[Bill - Seemiller]

P.S. Bill - thanks again for being there in person for Hairfree. If we could all only be so lucky

 

It's been my pleasure Pat. It's rewarding to be able to be here in person for someone going through the experience. And the best part is...I have a new friend to hang out with

 

Bill

[MrJobi]

Hey Hairfree

 

Surgery looks great! You will be looking very full in 12 months my friend. I wish I had your degree of hairloss when I started as i needed crown work as well.. You will probably have swelling at about day 3 due to the extensive frontal work .. Don't worry, just use ice on the forehead ( NOT ON GRAFTS) and it will go away. Also don't sleep lying down..

 

Looking forward to growing with you !

[its-only-hair]

Congratulations. Your going to have a great head of hair.

[Hairfree]

Hey Thank you everyone for being positive! Its nice to have a team behind you to give you the encouragement to look at the bright days in many months ahead. There is no way that I would have been able to accomplish this without everyone's help on this forum. I seriously would have ended up going to a non coalition local doctor and recieved only 1500 grafts which would not have been enough in my case.

 

Pat - I agree with you that I am lucky to have a mentor in person. Bill is a great person with good intentions on this forum. Also, both of us gained a new friend from this forum as well as hair! At least I hope I am on the way to having hair again

 

Hairbank, Mrjb, and its-only-hair - your comments mean a lot. Thank you!

[Bill - Seemiller]

At least I hope I am on the way to having hair again

 

You are bro, you are. You will hardly recognize yourself in about 6-8 months (12 months for final result)!

 

New friends and new hair and great women! What more can anyone ask for?

 

Bill

[NervousNelly]

Hairfree,

 

Glad to see that you made a great decision with a top rated doc. I was one that was pushing you in that direction because I knew that he provides great results and would get optimum density and have you looking like a champ by wedding time.

 

Yes the results look superb. We have all commented on the technical and artistic skills and how refined it looks, but what about the 1st class treatment you receieved. I'm impressed with customer/patient care. As a business person myself I can't believe the level of attention they demonstrated. Didn't you post that Dr. Rahal offered to pick you up at the airport and his staff member drove you to the airport for your return? Wow!

 

Do you mind me asking what you paid? I guess it probably isn't a secret as he posts pricing on website but just curious? Are you aware that the Canadian gov't will reimburse you the GST(goods and services tax) portion of the cost since you are not a Canadian citizen?. Don't quote me on that as they might have stipulations for surgeries or no longer give this tax back to noncitizens. It is worth looking into as it might mean approx. $400 in your case.

 

Good healing and I look forward to seeing your results. Take care buddy.

 

NN

 

P.S. Glad to see that you have a great mentor to help with things. Careful though as he might recruit you to be one of his clones.

[stumper]

very clean

[Hairfree]

Nervousnelly -

 

Its good to see you back on here. Both you and Bill are excellent mentors. I know you needed some time off. Well deserved time off! Its good that you are still able to jump back in every once in while and share your thoughts. Im glad that I listened to you and followed you advice along with some others on the forum. I am glad I went with Dr. Rahal and got more grafts than if I would have received if I went with my 1st choice before I learned about Rahal on this forum. Right now I am hoping that the final result turns out nicely!

 

I was able to get a bit better price than average because I was a last min fill in for a cancled appt. I assume its like that with any doctor. I set surgery the date less than 3 weeks away. Rahal does offer reasonable and fair pricing in canadian dollars. I did not know that its possible the Canadian gov. can reimburse me the tax portion! I will look into that. Thank you!

 

Bill - I agree with you. Things could not better any better. A new friend from this forum and a great woman in our lives.

[NervousNelly]

rHairfree,

 

Doh!! Looks like the Canadian gov't changed things in regards to their GST rebate program. Here is the site http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/nonresidents/visitors/qa-e.html so you can look into things but I think that as of April 1st, 2007 you are sol in terms of getting the money returned.

 

Oh well, you got new hair! Styling in less than a year!!

 

Take care,

 

NN

[Gorpy]

Looks very nice Hairfree. Looks like you got about 40-45 per cm2. Should be a very nice result for you!

[Hairfree]

I am waiting to hear back from Dr. Rahal on Tuesday regarding the density of grafts. I just sent him another email to ask again. I was under the impression from what he told me in person the day after surgery that I recieved per 80 grafts cm/2 at the hairline and it decreases behind that to 60-70 grafts per cm/2 and its 50 per cm2 way in the back.

 

From what I undstand from reading postings the dcrease in density as it works its way back is similiar to another Doc in Toronto that Rahal used to work with methods. Does the numbers above sound possible or did I get it wrong?

 

Let me know what you think.

[Gorpy]

Hairfree,

From my rough estimate it looks like you covered approx. 80 cm2. If you take your approx. 3500 grafts and divide them over 80 sq. cm, you get a little over 40 per cm2. I'm usually pretty good at these estimates. In the worst case, let's say you covered only 70cm2 (I know you covered at least that much). The calculation would be 50 per cm2.

 

No matter how you spread them over that area, there is no way you got 80/cm2 in some areas, 60-70 in others and 50 for the rest.

 

Gorp

[Hairfree]

I just heard from Dr. Rahal via text message. It was nice of him to take the time to respond to my question that I asked by email last night. He said I am in the 70% range in the front hairline decreasing to the 40% range in the back. I am not sure what he means by this in terms of grafts per sq cm. Can anyone help me here?

 

Gorpy - You were right. I misunderstood the doctor and thought he was speaking about grafts cm2. You estimation is pretty close. I am hoping that I do achieve appearance of fullness. What do you think he meant by percent?

[Hairfree]

Gorpy,

 

I just heard back from Dr. Rahal again via text. I asked him what percent he is using relevant to cm2. He said that 65-70 graft/cm2 is 70%. Thats only at the hairline and back from there it decreases to 40%. Its a dense packing method that creates an illusion of fullness.

 

Does it make sense mathmatically to you? You are good at this stuff. I like to hear your thoughts on this.

 

John - Thank you for jumping in to help me understand. I am still new to all of this graft estimation and understanding what it takes to achieve a nice full look.

[Gorpy]

Hairfree,

Glad I could be of help. When a doctor talks about percentages, I think they are referring to percentages in relation to your natural density. So, since people have varying natural densities, it becomes much more difficult to translate into grafts per cm2 without knowing the base density he is using to calculate the percentages.

 

Let's look at this. If he is starting from a 100 grafts per cm2 as your natural density, which he seems to indicate by the 65-70 per/cm2 = 70% comment, then I think the math could make sense. What this indicates is that he front loaded 65-70 grafts/cm2 in the front (but we don't know how deep that goes), then gradually dropped off to about 40 grafts/cm2. We don't know how gradual that drop of is. Let's say you averaged 40 grafts/cm2 for 60 cm covered (2400), leaving 10 to 20 cm to cover with 1100 remaining grafts. In that case, depending on the exact measurements of your area covered, the math does make sense.

 

I think you will have a nice result from this.

 

Gorp

[NervousNelly]

Gorpy,

 

You got it bro. That is precisely what he is referring to. Possibly going with a natural density figure of 95 Fu/cm2, but yes that is what he is referring to.

 

As you pointed out however, I'm not sure of the definition of "hairline" in terms of the depth of this density and whether it is congruent in frontal zone and temple area??? I think that with this type of technique they tend to heavy load the front and taper slightly at temple to blend, just as they will taper as you head back. This is an Armani approach to hairlines, but I am careful when I say that because it doesn't imply any negative connotations. It will be an awesome result for Hairfree.

 

Laters

[Hairfree]

Hey guys..thank you for educating me on this. It all makes sense now. You are putting me at ease that the number of graphs in the area covered should be enough to have positive results. I didnt know that the natural density falls in the range of 95fu/cm2 and also that everyone's natural density differs. I know I never had extremely dense hair when I teenager and my donar area is currently characterized at medium density. I am looking forward to the final results and most of you have already pointed out that I can get a 2nd HT if I am not satisfied. I know I will need one eventually down the road for the mid scalp and crown area. I am working on retaining it now with 1/4 proscar tablet every other day and starting up Rogaine again in a couple weeks.

 

I know the sentiment on this forum about Armani. Nervousnelly..I know where you are coming from. He does produce great results and not everyone agrees with where he stands on ethics but I think that he is a great HT surgeon and I love his results. I know you meant it in a postive manner. Armani was one of the reasons why I went with Rahal. He didn't personally reccomend him but they both have similair techniques.

 

As I become more educated I plan to reach out and help others on this forum as others before me has helped me. Thank you Gorpy and Nervousnelly for your time!

[Bill - Seemiller]

Glad I could be of help. When a doctor talks about percentages, I think they are referring to percentages in relation to your natural density. So, since people have varying natural densities, it becomes much more difficult to translate into grafts per cm2 without knowing the base density he is using to calculate the percentages.

 

Hairfree,

 

Gorpy is right on! I couldn't have said it myself. I wouldn't think that 100 FU/cm2 is the average...that's a bit on the high side...I would guess you may be more like 70 FU/cm2 from looking at your donor area...but that's just a guestimate! We could know with certainty if Dr. Rahal provides the measurements of the strip length and width. We could use simple math to determine what your donor density is! That being said...you will have excellent results! Even if your hairline was approximately 50 FU/sq cm, this would give you an outstanding result. It will all blend nicely by the time it all grows out. Rest well thinking of such things

 

Bill

[Hairfree]

It is all very interesting. I didn't know that we could possiblily etimate the density by looking at the area covered and using math to determine the likely result.

 

We should promote Gorpy on this site to the title of HEAD DENSITY ESTIMATOR!

 

Everyone can go to him to make sure they got the results promised from their doctors. Pull that calculator out GORPY

 

Thats me just being silly. I hope that I didn't give you more work

[Gorpy]

I feel honored to be the HEAD DENSITY ESTIMATOR . I enjoy doing it. It was no trouble at all. With B Spot as our LEAD STRIP ESTIMATOR we have all the bases covered.