Sugar Goes to Ottawa - My 2822 FUE with Dr. Rahal

[spile]

what has dr rahal said about the failed result? why did it happen. you had 2600+ grafts in a small area, your results should be much thicker and fuller than what the pics above are showing.

 

Ya I agree. I originally estimated about 1800-2000 grafts but we agreed to go with 2200 grafts for a fuller density. He ended up getting 2617. It was either a bad estimation or maybe the density was better than normal. But whatever it was, thats 400 extra grafts to work with.

 

I suspect that ironically the more grafts lead to more dense packing? What else are you going to do with extra grafts from a strip right? Throw them out or just pack it in.

 

I'm not sure but whatever the case I'm about 2000 grafts wasted! My poor poor grafts =(

 

But again I don't mean to hijack this thread. So anyone can PM me instead.

[alexiodg]

For all the people that have doubts about the condition of the first surgery of Sugar, I want to inform them that I've seen Sugar in Ottawa before doing the second transplant.

If I can say one word for his first hair transplant I can say AMAZING

And not only for my personal opinion, but for all the people 've seen him directly.

The work that has made Dr. Rahal in the first hair surgery was very very good, I think Sugar wanted the second hair transplant only for perfection, I wish I had the hair of Sugar in his first hair transplant

my personal compliment and wishes to Sugar for the second and final hair transplant

[Sean]

Sugar, hope your doing great and your surgery went well. Wish you the best.

[SugarHighs]

For all the people that have doubts about the condition of the first surgery of Sugar, I want to inform them that I've seen Sugar in Ottawa before doing the second transplant.

If I can say one word for his first hair transplant I can say AMAZING

And not only for my personal opinion, but for all the people 've seen him directly.

The work that has made Dr. Rahal in the first hair surgery was very very good, I think Sugar wanted the second hair transplant only for perfection, I wish I had the hair of Sugar in his first hair transplant

my personal compliment and wishes to Sugar for the second and final hair transplant

 

Thank you for the kind words, Alexio.

 

I was happy with my 12 months growth, but I was concerned about a couple of small areas.

 

I will be following your thread about your recent FUT, and wish the best for you in it.

[SugarHighs]

Sugar, hope your doing great and your surgery went well. Wish you the best.

 

Thanks Sean. I hope all is going well with you also.

 

[socates123]

Abit shocked after reading this thread. Sugar - hope you are well.

[jfables]

FUE is unpredictable. It grows well in some, while yield can be poor in others no matter what doctor is doing it. Spare me the nonsense about the European doctors being elite. Do you guys realize Bisanga and Mwamba were trained by C*le and performed FUE in Georgia, USA for several years? All the HT docs know each other and are connected in some way. Rahal was trained by Armani who himself "learned" FUE simply by having a 30 minute phone conversation with Feller.

 

I have great empathy for the many FUE patients who have blown a lot of money for very unspectacular results. Most of these guys never post on the forums unfortunately. The posting is left to the so-called FUE experts that have never had any FUE done themselves and a happy patient here and there.

[JohnnyDrama]

With all due respect to your experiences Jfables, but isn't it almost a decade ago that these docs worked on you? And were they not trainees at the time?

 

Do you think that it is in anyway possible that 8-10 years later they might very well have perfected a particular form of HT surgery, or at the very least vastly increased their skill set, given that so many years and several thousand patients have passed by their hands in the mean time?

[jfables]

I'm sure the procedure has gotten better recently, but I still hear firsthand about guys getting bad results from as recent as this past year and from well respected docs. I'm certain that some guys just are not going to get good growth because of the nature of the procedure. I'm not a doc or scientist so I can't explain why, but I guess you can say some people have follicles that are overly sensitive to the extractions and they don't survive.

[jfables]

With all due respect to your experiences Jfables, but isn't it almost a decade ago that these docs worked on you? And were they not trainees at the time?

 

Do you think that it is in anyway possible that 8-10 years later they might very well have perfected a particular form of HT surgery, or at the very least vastly increased their skill set, given that so many years and several thousand patients have passed by their hands in the mean time?

 

Also JohnnyDrama, It's not very cool for surgeons to practice and increase their skill set on you when you are paying them tens of thousands of dollars. This is the shady nature of the HT industry, and it's not likely to change.

[Mickey85]

Also JohnnyDrama, It's not very cool for surgeons to practice and increase their skill set on you when you are paying them tens of thousands of dollars. This is the shady nature of the HT industry, and it's not likely to change.

 

I certainly agree with jfables on this and on alot of other things he has said. When FUE was still in its infancy, the way that it was promoted and taught was an absolute joke. The actual inventor(not bernstein or rassman as many think, he is actually Australian) treates it as some kind of commodity and thus was charging surgeons an insane $150,000 just to 'train' them. FUE was an experimental procedure back then that was looked at with great skepticism and the inventor certainly did not help with easing it into the industry. It was also shrouded with secrecy as the inventor wanted all the glory.

 

FUE prices at the time did not reflect the quality of the work either. Why were surgeons charging more for an experimental procedure that had very inconsistent results back then? That part boggles the mind. Doctors like Feller performed very small test sessions free of charge which was noble but Feller never fully embraced FUE and now charges a ridiculous $10 per graft. Rahal charges $8 per graft and has inconsistent fue results and performs fue megasessions when it is clear it is not his forte. The doc from Atlanta, Georgia has been a huge pioneer for FUE and risked his business back in 2003 to convert it to FUE only but has been claiming a ridiculous 'less than 2% transection rate' for most of his tenure with fue. The inventor of fue has been forgotten and has now resorted to appearing and speaking about fue at international hair restoration meetings.

 

My views on fue as a procedure are alot more positive than jfables, i really do think as a procudure it alot more refined and has come a long way. But the way it has been handled by alot of surgeons has been a joke and is the reason it still is looked at with questioning eyes even today. It definitely should have been the new world standard but greed and ego got the best of a great method for hair transplantation.

[HARIRI]

Well said, Mickey 85

[Mickey85]

Well said, Mickey 85

 

Thank you Hariri, hope you have been well buddy

[Fue123]

Hi, all,

 

I've been a faithful reader of these forums for some time although this is my first post. In fact, this very forum led me to undergo FUE with Dr. Rahal.

 

I'm wondering of those of you who have had FUE with Dr. Rahals clinic had your extractions done by Dr. Rahal himself or by a member of his staff?

 

Is it common practice for the Dr to do all extractions or does the clinic routinely have other staff members perform the extraction procedure?

[Fue123]

Hi, all,

 

I've been a faithful reader of these forums for some time although this is my first post. In fact, this very forum led me to undergo FUE with Dr. Rahal.

 

I'm wondering of those of you who have had FUE with Dr. Rahals clinic had your extractions done by Dr. Rahal himself or by a member of his staff?

 

Is it common practice for the Dr to do all extractions or does the clinic routinely have other staff members perform the extraction procedure?

[stinger99]

hi, when was your procedure and how many grafts have you had.? from my understanding dr rahal has his head nurse technician mike do all the extractions and dr rahal only does the numbing shots and recipient sites while techs also place the grafts in the recipient sites. there is a great thread "techs doing fue" that discussing this at length.

some docs do it themselves and others have techs do it. if your going with a doc who has a tech do the extractions its crucial to ensure the tech has loads of experience doing it. my personal opinion is that i still do not understand how dr's can hav a tech do all the extractions. for larger sessions i get that the doctor might want a break and have a semior tech do some extractions, but to have a tech do all the extractions sounds weird to me. this is one main reason why i am reluctant to book with dr rahal.

[Fue123]

Hey Stinger,

 

I had about 2K and to be honest I think Mike was superb. The thing that bothered me was the fact that I wasn't aware of this prior. I didn't ask but feel that this type of information should have been offered up considering how vital it is. The reality (to me at least) is that you could probably train a monkey (ok I'm exaggerating for effect to do the extraction. However, after Rahal came in to,do the test extractions which Mike said he would do Dr. Rahal said that he and mike would be switching off doing extractions. I knew this wasn't the case because just prior to that Mike had said that after rahal does the test extractions that he (Mile) would then be doing all my extractions. I don't really have a problem with mike doing them so much as how it was communicated. I think it was more a matter of expectations not being met since I was not aware of this,prior.

 

I,wouldn't discourage you by any means from going to Rahal as I think they do great work and have a highly efficient and streamlined team with excellent protocol. However, they also do more then one procedure per day which I think was also a bit misleading. I know this forum has that as one of their criteria for endorsing a doctor and since rahal is no,longer allowed by ottawa law to be endorsed here that *may* have changed since them but I don't think so. Meaning they've likely been doing multiple procedures the entire time.

 

My work and after care was very very clean and while I do have some concerns it way to early for me to even worry about them just yet. I'm going to ride this out and wait for a final result before making a final determination on any of those concerns.

 

I do want to express that I started losing hair over 10 years ago and had researched the procedure back then but didn't feel confident about going through with it or having a strip. After seeing a rahal patient in person this year I decided to go through with it but for me this was a luxury purchase. I moved past my hair loss years ago and it ain't affected my life negatively in any way. I have the money and so it was no big deal.

 

How old are you and what is your level of baldness?

[stinger99]

thx for the detailed post. im 34 NW 5. how many grafts did the rahal patient that u met get? what nw was he and was it fue or fut? finally i assume his results were superb if u decided in the end to go with dr rahal.

[Fue123]

Hmmm NW5 I don't know if FUE is your best best although personally I know how you feel. I guess it just depends on your expectations. Do you plan on restoring hairline, mid scalp and keeping it short or what?

 

The guy had about 2k and at 8 months out I was very impressed with how natural he looked.

[stinger99]

plan to restore hairline mid scalp and then second half of head an crown. i dont mind the higher hairline and recesses temples. i just want to re-establish a hairline and great the illusion of density. i keep my hair short and it used to look good but nowthat my hairline has recessed and thinned out so much it no longer looks good. so looking to have it re-established.

[Mickey85]

Any update Sugarhigh?

[SugarHighs]

Hey guys, just wanted to update that I am post op of my 2nd procedure, and I am very happy with my results. I have been able to cut my hair extremely short, and it appears as though I have a full head of hair. I love that I can hop out of the shower and just towel dry my hair and go. I normally put a tiny amount of pomace in the sides of my hair at the back, due to the very thick nature of my hair at the back. It gives me a little shine and prevents the sides from puffing out.

 

I'm really happy and grateful to Dr Rahal; to say my life has changed would be an understatement. Will update with pics soon.

[SugarHighs]

1/2014

[agenteye]

Sugar-

 

Your hair looks incredible buddy! Congratulations! You must be very happy. How many grafts have you had in total now. Never looks like you lost a hair in your life! =)

 

Best,

 

Mike

[SugarHighs]

Thanks Mike!

 

I just want to add that not only is there nothing in my hair (no product) but the hair is also brushed out away from my scalp