Dr Rahal FUE, January 2013

[Mickey85]

No growth at 5 months is a cause of concern...

[Fue123]

Any updates on this?

[Mickey85]

He will be up to 6 months next week, hope he updates us with good news.

[hairshopeing]

Me too!! I'm hoping he's had a real surge!!!

[tacolinowest]

 

im nervous for this guy

[BridgetJones]

Hello, I will upload some pix and comments from my meeting with Dr Rahal some time next week. There are no updates on my hairline, it has improved maybe by 10%. My colleagues, friends and family see 0% difference though.

[RecedingTide]

Not convinced by Rahal's FUE work. His strip results are amazing. His FUE with ARTAS work reminds me of Armani's results; hit and miss.

 

Surely Matt's FUE was manual? Anyone know?

 

*** Let me make a correction. Looking back at the first page it seems as if the extractions were done manually. Don't think FUE is matching FUT yet.

 

I sincerely hope you get this resolved and get the growth you're looking for if you decide to go with another procedure.

[agenteye]

Dr. Rahal doesn't use a manual tool for FUE. He uses a motorized punch. As far as I know, he has only performed one ARTAS procedure to date. Matt therefore had a physician performed procedure (NO ARTAS), but with a motorized tool!!

[Fue123]

Rahal uses ARTAS only for small procedures of around 500 or less. Personally I think ARTAS is more about the PR of it all. They use the SAFE motorized punch developed by Dr. Harris.

[RecedingTide]

Ah yes, thank you the Harris SAFE motorised drill.

[Fue123]

Agenteye,

 

I think saying he had a physician performed procedure is misleading. Rahal doesn't do the extractions.

[RecedingTide]

I think Rahal's clinic should stick to FUT. They're up there with H&W.

[Fue123]

I disagree. Strip takes minimal doctor time. That means he's free to do the extractions himself which I feel he should. Or lower his price for fue.

[agenteye]

Agenteye,

 

I think saying he had a physician performed procedure is misleading. Rahal doesn't do the extractions.

 

I am pretty certain he personally did Matt's extractions himself, although I can't comment on other FUE cases. I personally had strip, and Dr. Rahal did the extraction (obviously, as it involves a scalpel and an incision) and all of my recipient punches. The surgical techs did all of the graft dissection, and Dr. Rahal and his head nurse did all of my graft insertion alone.

[Mickey85]

Hello, I will upload some pix and comments from my meeting with Dr Rahal some time next week. There are no updates on my hairline, it has improved maybe by 10%. My colleagues, friends and family see 0% difference though.

 

Sorry to hear that... Thanks for being so honest.

[Mickey85]

Not convinced by Rahal's FUE work.

 

Me neither.

[Cant decide]

Agent - Dr. Rahal inserted your grafts along with Mike and no other techs?

 

Mike and the other techs inserted mine and the doc did none as I would expect.

[Fue123]

I am pretty certain he personally did Matt's extractions himself, although I can't comment on other FUE cases. I personally had strip, and Dr. Rahal did the extraction (obviously, as it involves a scalpel and an incision) and all of my recipient punches. The surgical techs did all of the graft dissection, and Dr. Rahal and his head nurse did all of my graft insertion alone.

 

Interesting. I had concerns about this following my procedure and this seems to confirm my concerns. It feels like I got the 'B' rate service while paying for the master mechanic and getting the apprentice.

 

Rahal didn't do my extractions nor did he place any of my grafts. It also seems that my grafts/cm2 was low according to the comments on the forum. Not to sure what to make of all this

[Slickers]

Interesting. I had concerns about this following my procedure and this seems to confirm my concerns. It feels like I got the 'B' rate service while paying for the master mechanic and getting the apprentice.

 

Rahal didn't do my extractions nor did he place any of my grafts. It also seems that my grafts/cm2 was low according to the comments on the forum. Not to sure what to make of all this

 

Fue I wouldnt sweat it. For many clinics it's typical for a tech to do the extractions. I think people get too caught up in this but the extraction process is a replicable, repetitive process once a technique is developed. People obsess about this stuff but you don't need a medical degree for every individual task. Frankly I don't care what qualifications that person has as long as they have excellent dexterity and have done it competently thousands of times before.

[BridgetJones]

With regards to my procedure:

I mostly slept through it. However I do remember that Dr. Rahal did a part of extractions for me. It was in the beginning and when I woke up it was also Dr. Rahal who was sitting and doing extractions. But of course a part of extractions were done by Mike as it is with other patients. As far as I remember Matt said his extractions were also done by Mike...

After the procedure Dr. Rahal did incisions and technicians inserted(implanted) the grafts. As far as I know surgeons do not implant the grafts. This is what I heard also from many clinics. I also felt asleep during the implantation part but when I woke up Dr. Rahal was in the room overseeing the process and giving instructions to the technicians.

 

I don't think I received a B class service or something. From the comments I heard from other patients and people I met in the guest house, this is how it works in general and this is how it is in many clinics.

 

P.S

They did NOT use robotic system during my procedure.

[agenteye]

Interesting. I had concerns about this following my procedure and this seems to confirm my concerns. It feels like I got the 'B' rate service while paying for the master mechanic and getting the apprentice.

 

Rahal didn't do my extractions nor did he place any of my grafts. It also seems that my grafts/cm2 was low according to the comments on the forum. Not to sure what to make of all this

 

Fue-

 

If you have concerns that you got " 'B' rate service", why don't you contact Dr. Rahal's clinic and discuss that with them? Dr. Rahal prides himself on providing excellent customer service and excellent results, and I'm sure he'd want to hear from a patient if he or she felt as if they received anything less........

 

Also, I don't think it's really fair to say that you got the "apprentice". I can absolutely assure you that if Dr. Rahal didn't personally perform the extractions (which kind of surprises me), then he had a HIGHLY trained employee that did. I know that when I was there in November, Dr. Rahal had another surgeon in the office that was assisting with procedures....so you might have even received the procedure from another skilled surgeon who was shadowing Dr. Rahal's techniques.

 

At any rate, I think it is way too early to start worrying about it, and assuming that you received a sub-par procedure/outcome. And if you are concerned about it (if it were me), I would reach out to the clinic directly for further clarification. You spent a good amount of money to feel totally at ease, and I think you deserve that!!

[agenteye]

Agent - Dr. Rahal inserted your grafts along with Mike and no other techs?

 

Mike and the other techs inserted mine and the doc did none as I would expect.

 

I don't recall seeing any other tech's behind me inserting grafts, but I guess it's possible. I slept through the majority of my procedure (as I got in after midnight because of nationally delayed flights by United, and only got about 4 hours rest), but when I woke up, Dr. Rahal was always in the room.....and I know Mike worked on me a lot also. I don't recall anyone other than Dr. Rahal making the incision sites in my recipient area either. I guess it's hard to recall the full details though when you're drugged and loopy, and very short on sleep?!

[Fue123]

To be honest I didn't have any concerns until you said what you said! I think it was just a reflex reaction that spooked me for a sec. Rahal did my first few extractions to make sure the grafts were ok then mike took over. I'm actually not to worried as I agree with that its such a repetitive task and felt I was in good hands with mike. It's possible they switched while I was asleep but every time I woke up during extraction it was mike. Rahal obviously did all my incisions.

[BridgetJones]

6.5 Moths update

 

Mood: Not suicidal

Friends & Family: Asking where exactly did I have have hair transplant. They see 0% difference between now and pre-op.

 

Dr. Rahal comments:

In July I met with Dr. Rahal in London to review my progress. He said that it will continue to thicker, which is true. I do feel (like stubble) hair popping up.

Overall: Well it did improve form 4 moths but insignificantly. At the end of the "temples" I do see hair growth and it's good I should say. But there is no hairline which is what I need…

Dr. Rahal also said that he will do 400 grafts free of charge and we agreed to meet again later in 2013 to review the final outcome.

 

While I know that is not possible to predict the results for patients and I do know that Dr. Rahal and his team do want their patients to have great results. I still think that perhaps there could be some kinds of test or something that could help surgeons to delivery better results for patients like me. It looks like I am not suitable for FUE or maybe even for HT at all...

 

Below are the pics.

I know that some people may say. You should be lucky, you have enough hair anyway and blah blah blah. Well, yes maybe I do and my hair loss is not as noticeable as for some other guys. However the purpose of the hair transplant surgery is not be happy about what you had but to be happy about new results…

 

 

 

 

 

[Nick153452]

I will echo others who say that you should be lucky that you have nice hair. However, I do agree, if it's something that you did address, you should have a certain level of satisfaction in the results. I really hope things turn around for you and that you reach your future goals.