Great transplant with Dr Rahal (3918 Grafts)

[Colorado42]

Hi, I'm new to posting on forums so I hope I've done everything correctly. Apologies if not!

 

I travelled from Australia recently to undergo a 4000 graft hair transplant with Dr Rahal in Ottawa, Canada.

 

I found the information on this and a few other sites invaluable and wanted to contribute to be able to help someone else in the future.

 

The transplant went really well and I felt very little discomfort. I'm a little over a week past the procedure and am busy performing my post operative care. Now I just have to wait and see how things develop!

 

Dr Rahal and his entire team were really awesome and I couldn't have asked for better service or care. I've started a website with the full details of my procedure and some initial photos which I hope are helpful. I'll continue to update it with more photos in the future.

[Cant decide]

Congratulations!!! I look forward to your progress. I will be in the same boat as you pretty soon with Dr. Rahal.

 

Can you tell me what your average garfts per sq cm and if possible the breakdown used?

 

Thanks for sharing

[Colorado42]

Sure thing, I probably should have included that info in my first post!

 

The breakdown of the grafts were : 803 (3's), 2460 (2's) and 655 (1's).

 

Regarding the density - the hairline and frontal zone is around 57.8 grafts / sq cm, the midsection is approx 57 grafts / sq cm and behind that to the crown is between 41 - 44 grafts/sq cm.

 

I wish you all the best with your procedure too!

[Cant decide]

Thanks so much.

 

What was the total area covered in sq cm?

[Colorado42]

You're welcome!

 

I'm not sure so rather than posting a guess, I'll contact Dr Rahal's office early next week and find out exactly what the final density was so I'll post something back here when I get the info.

[Cant decide]

Ok thanks because it seemed like the area you had covered was relatively large and the counts per sq cm seem very high for such a large area and 3918 grafts. But then again, maybe your head is pretty small.

 

Thanks for the feedback and congrats again. I am sure it will look great when it all grows in.

 

Take Care

[Colorado42]

I think the reason I may have achieved these densities is because we set the hairline quite high on my forehead. Doctor Rahal suggested I keep it relatively high (to maintain higher overall density) and suggested I might be able to lower it down further with another procedure in the future.

 

I'll ask them about it but that is my sense of how I achieved these numbers.

 

I attached an image of the graft mapping to help demonstrate but the hairline is higher than I would have liked in a perfect world but alas, in a perfect world I would have hair down to my knees

[Cant decide]

I assume the smudges on the forehead are from erasing the original proposed lower hairline?

 

All the best.

[Sparky]

Got some rivering going on up there, normal though. Good thing you went to Canada because theres no one good in OZ.

[Colorado42]

Yes, the smudging on the photo was from some revision work on the proposed hairline.

 

I did read on a number of websites that Oz didn't have much to offer in the way of quality work so I was most willing to travel as needed.

 

I had a colleague who got a hair transplant in Australia last year and I am sorry to say that it certainly wasn't well disguised and looked quite obvious to me (very straight and artificial looking hairline).

 

Getting a HT is a big deal (in my opinion) and you have to live with the outcome so I would happily go out of my way if it meant I was going to get a better result!

[Sparky]

Well imho you went to one of the best

[Sparky]

I read your story, and it looks like you really did your homework. I'm very interested in seeing your HT progress, please post lots of new updates

[Colorado42]

Sure thing! Will do...Any suggestions on how often I should post new images? Is once a month appropriate?

 

I'm very glad I went to Dr Rahal. I'm sure there are many other great and talented surgeons out there also but there were so many complimentary threads about Dr Rahal's work that it was tough to pass up the opportunity to have him perform the operation.

Edited August 21, 2010 by Colorado42

[Blake Bloxham]

Colorado42,

 

Congratulations on your hair transplant procedure with Dr. Rahal! Like others have said, you definitely did your research and picked a first-class hair restoration surgeon. Nicely done.

 

Also, feel free to upload pictures as often as you would like! The community loves to follow any and all progress. Good luck.

[TakingThePlunge]

Colorado42,

 

There's nothing I can add that hasn't already been said. Dr. Rahal is top-notch and it looks like he gave you some very practical advice regarding hairline design. I'm sure you're going to be very pleased with your results. I look forward to following your progress.

 

Best of luck!

[Sparky]

Yep once a month is about right.

[Colorado42]

I spoke to Dr Rahal's office today to clarify the density questions and the numbers provided are as follows :

 

Density from front to back :

 

60% approx in hairline

57% behind that

42%

43%

40%

 

Total grafts 3918 average density divided by 83 equals 47.20

 

I hope this is enough to give a decent look of coverage and I have to accept that was all my donor area could deliver at the time. Now I'll just wait and see how it all pans out.

[Cant decide]

Thanks Colorado. How many grafts were you shooting for since it sounds like you ended up with a lower total graft count than you were planning?

 

Thanks Again. You have been very helpful.

[Colorado42]

The original target was 4000 grafts so we ended up pretty close. Dr Rahal was trying to get more grafts if possible but that was all my donor area could provide.

 

Dr Rahal explained before the surgery that the density would be thickest at the front and then less so toward the back of the head and I was ok with that. I plan (all things going well with this procedure) to have supplemental surgery in the future once this one has played itself out.

 

I'm hoping with the quantity of 2's and 3's that there will be decent coverage on my head. Honestly though, I know the result will be much better than what I would have had without the procedure so, for that, I'm grateful!

[1966kph]

hello colorado 42,congrats on your ht with dr rahal,looks like imo you will acheive a excellant result if everything goe's smoothly from here on in,all the best and have a nice day....

[RCWest]

You have pretty good donor density. The densities he transplanted should look pretty thick! Congrats on choosing a great doctor!:cool:

[Colorado42]

The comments are much appreciated! As I've not had a HT before, it is really encouraging to hear people say that they think the density should look good!

 

Many thanks!!

[Colorado42]

I've taken a quick shot of how things look at 1 month post surgery.

 

I'm on Rogaine again in the hopes of speeding things up.

 

The transplanted hairs are falling out now (sniff...) but that's to be expected.

 

I'll post again next month.

[Colorado42]

So I'm just over the two month mark with my hair transplant and I'm starting to see some hair appear! I've been finding it fun so far because it's really a reverse process of going bald - I know that sounds obvious... Instead of looking in the mirror checking how much things have deteriorated (as in over the past 5 years), I spend 30 seconds (or more) looking at what's grown each day...! For me, it's exciting to find new strands coming to the surface. I'm still wearing a hat when I go out so I wouldn't say I've gotten away from the "Friar Tuck" monk look that is still very much apparent but, in the right light (dark!), I can see things progressing nicely.

I still have some slight numbness above my donor area (in the middle) but it's much less than before and I am confident it will disappear soon.

[Colorado42]

I'm just past 3 months post my hair transplant and things are still progressing nicely.

 

 

 

Over 90% of the initial numbness is gone now and more hair is popping up all the time. I can still feel little tiny hair spikes when I pass my hand through the top of my head so that makes me think there's more to come.

 

 

 

I've decided it's ok now to leave the house without my hat. That's not to say that I think everything is peachy yet - just that I think I have more hair now than before my operation. I get no weird looks when I'm without my hat so that's reassuring!

I've taken a bunch of shots of my scar (as best I could so my apologies about some of image quality) and it's still healing well. My right side is the side with the least amount of progression but, that said, it's getting much better every week.

 

 

 

I've got more detail about my photos on my hairloss blog but here are a few shots of my progress. (photo of top, photo of top, photo of right side, photo of right side with hair down, photo of rear, photo of rear with hair down, photo of left side).