Dr. Rahal Consultation

[gxm100]

Please skip to the end where I've listed my questions if you'd like to skip my ramblings and details

 

I just spoke with an agent of Dr. Rahal's about my potential hair transplant and was given information on what Dr. Rahal thinks about my case. They suggest 1600 graphs to my hairline which, to me, seems like a low ball considering the grafts counts that I've seen for people who have similar hair loss.

 

Regardless, they said I have medium hair, above average donor density, and are content with the medications I am on. They say I am a candidate for both FUE or FUT and I can't decide. I am young, and before hair loss hit, I did really enjoy wearing hair as a 1 on the sides and long on top (i.e. every soccer player in the 20th century). However, I think FUT maximizes what you can do and is about half the cost.

 

Questions:

 

What are implications of first doing an FUE procedure and then FUT later on in life?

 

How short can you wear your sides after FUT procedure?

 

Anyone have experience with Rahal FUE as I feel I have mostly seen FUT and I think the only FUE I have seen posted by a patient on this forum was a failure.

 

Anyone know anything about Dr. Ross who now works at Rahal? I was a bit thrown off when they kept referring to "your RAHAL physician" in the email they sent - so it turns out you could get Dr. Rahal or Dr. Ross.

[gxm100]

I also must say I was very impressed with the communication from Dr. Rahal's representative. First class!

[gillenator]

To start with, 1600 grafts is not a large procedure by any means and if you want to wear your hair style short on the sides and back, you would not be able to do so with FUHT. The scar will show with hair cut that short.

 

The other consideration is the potential of more loss in the future. As you may already know, MPB is progressive over a lifetime so you really have to consider how much more loss is in your cards in the future. Consider family history of the men on both sides, maternal and paternal. If the men are in the upper Norwood classes, then you have to be very prudent about planning the future. If the men in your family history are all in the lower classes, then you can probably stick with FUE.

 

Men who have the potential to reach the upper Norwood scale generally go with FUHT to receive optimal yields and then do final touch-ups with FUE. But they will need to wear their hair longer in the donor area to hide the strip scar (roughly 2 inches). And that's the trade-off.

 

If you cannot live with the strip scar showing because of your desire to wear a short hair style, then stick with FUE or you will regret it my friend.

 

One other thing, you can always insist on choosing Dr. Rahal for your surgeon at the time you enroll for your procedure.