My experience with Dr. Rahal - 2766 FUT Grafts

[youngandnaive]

Hey all, as of today I am 2 weeks out from my procedure with Dr. Rahal and wanted to document my hair loss journey. First and foremost, this write up simply cannot do justice in expressing my satisfaction with Dr. Rahal and company.

 

Preface

I had experienced a bit of loss at the bitter age of 20. Not too much, but enough to do something about it. My family has no pattern of extreme loss (my dad not even close to bald). However, two of my uncles on my mother’s side had stabilized at both Norwood 2’s. At the age of 22, in July of 2009, I had enlisted the services of Dr. Armani in reestablishing my hairline. Fast forward 2 years and 3200 FUE grafts later, I was still not satisfied. I had brought this to Dr. Armani’s patient coordinator, and he agreed that the results we’re less than acceptable and had arranged a free touch up. I opted not to take him up on the offer but move forward.

 

The months and years leading up to my decision to go with Dr. Rahal, I felt like I had lost my identity. The results from the prior procedure took me from a receding look to the somewhat of a thinning hairline. Each day I had found it more and more difficult to look at myself in the mirror. The time and money I had invested had yielded subpar results. I thus began living each day under a hat, everywhere I went, I had my trusty hat. I was truly ashamed and embarrassed. Days that wouldn’t allow me to wear a hat, I would spend nearly 30 minutes just trying to make it look somewhat acceptable, and even then, combing it a hundred different directions could not cover up my sparse hairline. Time to make a change!

 

Surgery Day

June 5th, 2012, I received a grand total of 2766 grafts into my hairline. The breakdown of the grafts are as follows, 1 unit grafts – 673, 2 unit grafts – 1728, 3 unit grafts – 365 for a total of 5224 hairs retrieved from a strip size of 23.8cm2. The first bit of the morning I ran down the standard paperwork procedure, nothing new here. Next up was the preop meeting with the famous Dr. Rahal. I have to admit I was pretty darn excited to meet him! I was eager to hear his perspective on my situation as I felt it required a well-executed plan, as does any other life altering surgery. Dr. Rahal had 3 concerns, the first being the placement of the hairline that Dr. Armani had given me, next was the overharvested donor, lastly was the unpredictable nature of genetics (I mentioned that no extreme cases of balding was prevalent within my family history). During my brief consultation with Dr. Rahal, I felt at ease and truly had placed everything in his hands as I figured that was what we all invest in, Dr. Rahal’s expertise. After we met, Mike, the head nurse, took me in to take some preop photos and suited me up for the operation! Mike, as well as the rest of Dr. Rahal’s staff are nothing short of spectacular. The donor extraction took around 30 minutes if I can remember correctly (painless!). The next phase of the procedure required Dr. Rahal’s undivided attention and focus as he began with the incisions. At this point, all I could remember was seeing Dr. Rahal “in the zone”. One can really see how much he loves doing this! The entire procedure was painless except for the initial freezing shots which weren’t too bad depending on one’s personal pain tolerance. If I were to estimate, I would say the surgery lasted around 6-7 hours. The time flew by extremely quickly being that I was in and out of conscientiousness. Before I knew it, I was bandaged up and sent on my way. Dr. Rahal has truly established himself as a well-oiled machine! I would return every day for the next 6 days for my daily cleaning with Mike.

 

The Following Nights

To pretty much sum up every night for the 7 days after my surgery, I would say it was somewhat uncomfortable. In addition to sleeping upright for the first few days (swelling), the back of my head felt a tight pulling sensation. However, all of this was to be expected as I had mentally prepared myself for this months in advance. As each day passed, the pain and discomfort decreased as reassured to me by Mike and Dr. Rahal.

 

Brookline Guesthouse (former Fox Bar Guesthouse)

Mahesh, the owner, truly exemplifies the kindness and hospitality as to be expected from my fellow Canadians. The entire house was kept clean and was extremely nice. In my opinion, the best part about staying at the Brookline Guesthouse, was the camaraderie and friends I had made during my stay there. HairGoesNothing (Jedi Master! Haha) was nothing but understanding and helpful, he even drove me to the airport at 2:30AM! Overall great guy! The rest of the crew was nothing short of wonderful as we have kept in touch ever since leaving Ottawa. Among the rest of the other housemates, we had the pleasure of staying with two Italians brothers who provided us with a few nights of delicious Italian dinner!

 

Overall, so far, I am extremely pleased with Dr. Rahal and would recommend him to anyone on the fence or even considering getting a hair transplant. It has easily been the best investment of my life. I’m sure I will be a happy camper in these next several months!

I have also scheduled my sutures to be removed here by Dr. Arocha’s clinic. Kira has been nothing but wonderful in coordinating this. From what I can gather from our emails, both Kira and Dr. Arocha are looking forward to seeing me! I’m highly confident in Dr. Arocha’s expertise in hair transplantation, more specifically, his ability to produce near invisible scars as I hope he can clue me into how well I have been caring for my donor scar.

 

I welcome any questions or comments! I hope I've covered everything

 

Preop

 

Surgery Day Preop

 

One Day Post Op

 

Three Days Post Op

[TommyLucchese]

Great write up, please keep us informed!

 

I will say though, from pictures at least, I was surprised how good your original hairline was after what you wrote about it in the write up! Still, I'm sure many would envy my hair right now....yet I'm still having 2000 grafts in the hairline, so I understand.

 

Hope it turns out great for ya!

[youngandnaive]

Thanks TommyLucchese!

 

I would have to say, the lighting conditions in Dr. Rahal's office were somewhat generous and certainly doesnt highlight the biggest problem, the gaps and the sparsity one would expect from 3200 grafts. I wish I could dig up old pre-op pictures I sent to the previous clinic, but I can't seem to find them unfortunately. However, in some of those pictures, you can clearly distinguish from my native hairline to my transplanted hairline. Luckily for me is that, my hairline hasn't seem to budge much.

[aaron1234]

Looks like Rahal to me which is good for you! Be patient. Good things await you.

[irishsailor]

Good write up! I think you made a wise choice in passing them up on their offer and moving on. You have chosen a fantastic surgeon, i'm sure you will be in for a fantastic result. Heal and grow well

[Hairgoesnothing]

I always knew you had some Hemingway in you! Great write up!

Please keep us informed of your progress and do keep in touch.

May the Force be with you (haha!)

All the best

[youngandnaive]

haha @HairGoesNothing

 

Thanks you guys, I'm stoked for these next few months!

[headbangerguy]

Waiting time. At least 4 months before you can see the real improvement. Great choice of clinic!

[Davis91]

Wow-6,000 grafts at age 25 mostly in the frontal 1/3rd? Questions:

 

A) I realize that no extreme cases of balding are present but what do you consider extreme?

 

B) To any posters: note the curved nature of the donor extraction. I am curious as to why some cases take this angle up and others do not. Probably an old debate on scar angle.

[TakingThePlunge]

youngandnaive,

 

Congratulations on your recent hair transplant with Dr. Rahal. The work and hairline look amazing. Can't wait to see this in all its bushy glory. . Keep us posted on your porgrss.

[alexdelarge]

Your hair is going to look amazing man!

[youngandnaive]

@Davis - I appreciate your concern! I do realize 6000 grafts in the frontal 3rd is quite excessive, but had I done my homework and due diligence before the first pass, I wouldn't have had to seek repair work elsewhere. As far as extreme cases, the only cases of baldness in my family are two of my uncles who have receded to norwood 2's. I am on proscar so I can only hope that will further stabilize.

 

@TakingthePlunge - I too am excited for what there is to come, I have already been lining up a few hairstyles to try, I hope i'm not getting ahead of myself!

 

@Alexdelarge - Hey bud! I hope you're coming along nicely as well, you need to tell me how much better it feels to get your sutures removed!

[chrisdav]

Keep us posted, Picked excellent surgeon.

 

That is a hell of a lot of grafts in the front I must say from two procedures.

 

Have you got any pics pre op before any Armani work?

[youngandnaive]

@Chrisdav - Thank you! I definitely feel confident in Dr. Rahal's abilities! But yes, I do realize it is very taxing on my donor to fill in the frontal 1/3rd. At the moment I cant seem to find any preop pictures of me before the surgery, but if you look at my hair in Dr. Rahal's preoperative pictures, you can sort of make out where my hairline is the start of any work. While it isn't fair to see there was 0% yield, inversely, there is certainly no indication that 3200 grafts were placed in the front. I will keep on digging for pictures!

[youngandnaive]

Just returned from Dr. Arocha's office! a very nice office by the way! The suture removal took about 15 minutes. Dr. Arocha and his tech's had nothing but good things to say about the scar and Dr. Rahal's suturing technique. Also, Kira if you are reading this, I really appreciate you for making all this happen, you are too kind! As far as meeting with Dr. Arocha, I cant say enough about the man. He is extremely compassionate and truly passionate about what he does. You can really tell that he loves what he does. He offered to remove my sutures free of charge as well! Not only that, but he took pictures and offered to help document my progress. Beats my point and shoot camera! Once again, Thank you Dr. Arocha, Kira, and the rest of the staff! I can easily see why he's on the very short list of elite doctors.

[savehair]

looks like excellent work man, congratulations

 

i also have scheduled a FUT with Dr. Rahal , do you mind showing the scar as of right now?

[youngandnaive]

savehair - Dr. Rahal's work looks extremely clean, when I went to Dr. Arocha's office, he took some high quality pictures of my scar, I will email the office to see if i can get the pictures!

[OttawaJay]

Looking at your images, it looks like he implanted hair into your widow's peak which still had hair left. I thought they went around your existing hairline with HT. No?

[youngandnaive]

OttawaJay - I don't believe Dr. Rahal focused too much on my widow's peak, but what you might actually be seeing is the hairline originally established by Dr. Armani. Upon the consultation, it was deemed too low and Dr. Rahal planned to re-establish the hairline while building on the density of the frontal third from the first pass. I am sure once grown in it will all look natural and blend in nicely.

[AGL77]

Hi Youngandnaive,

I’m glad you have nothing but good things to say about Dr. Rahal as I have an upcoming surgery scheduled with him. As Savehair said is it possible to see images of your scar? And how is the progress coming along?

Thanks

[youngandnaive]

hey AGL77, i will definitely get some pictures up tonight, beware it isnt pretty, still in the doldrums! but as for the scar, its filling in quite nice, i have some shockloss, nothing major, but enough to make out the line. With that said, it's adaquately covered considering i had a previous 3200 FUE surgery where i was told from Dr. Rahal had been overharvested. I will get back to you! thanks for your the patience!

[AGL77]

Thanks. I to had a previous HT with about the same number of grafts, but unfortunately it was not with Dr. Rahal and I am not as happy as I believe I could have been if I had seen Dr. Rahal first. One question I have is what do you mean by over harvested? And thanks for your help.