RAHAL 3082 FUT 6 month progress report (with pics!)

[Aftermath]

21 minutes ago, HARIRI said:

Well my experience wasn't that good as well. He drew my hairline and sent me to the surgery room without explaining to me what to be done. I told him to FUE out some of the grafts below my higher new hairline but did not and made my hairline straight line without natural curvature towards the center of my forehead which I wasn't that pleased with it.

My hairline growth and density was quite weak. It was estimated 55 but I got 40 and some areas 30 even, I was awake whole surgery as he was handling two surgeries plus he did not perform incisions or implanting. It was purely the work of technicians and a Mexican guy called Mike.

My 6 months result and one year was somehow similar however I wish you success. i just feel Dr. Rahal standard isn't as it used to be.

Strange considering the reputation this clinic had 5 years or so ago. Wonder what’s up with the dissatisfactory results as of late. It doesn’t seem confined to FUE either as this thread demonstrates. Have you spoke to the clinic about a resolution at all? If so what did they say?

[bruce90]

26 minutes ago, HARIRI said:

Well my experience wasn't that good as well. He drew my hairline and sent me to the surgery room without explaining to me what to be done. I told him to FUE out some of the grafts below my higher new hairline but did not and made my hairline straight line without natural curvature towards the center of my forehead which I wasn't that pleased with it.

My hairline growth and density was quite weak. It was estimated 55 but I got 40 and some areas 30 even, I was awake whole surgery as he was handling two surgeries plus he did not perform incisions or implanting. It was purely the work of technicians and a Mexican guy called Mike.

My 6 months result and one year was somehow similar however I wish you success. i just feel Dr. Rahal standard isn't as it used to be.

Sorry to hear that man. It sucks that you can spend so much money on a clinic that has such a good reputation and still end up with poor results. I was just thinking a month ago that I should stop being cheap and just pay the money here in Canada to get a hair transplant with rahal as it would be more convenient but really starting to rethink that. Really feels like all these clinics are the same now... even erdogan went from really excellent results to mediocre in only a couple years. Funny how quickly things change.

[Aftermath]

16 hours ago, bruce90 said:

Sorry to hear that man. It sucks that you can spend so much money on a clinic that has such a good reputation and still end up with poor results. I was just thinking a month ago that I should stop being cheap and just pay the money here in Canada to get a hair transplant with rahal as it would be more convenient but really starting to rethink that. Really feels like all these clinics are the same now... even erdogan went from really excellent results to mediocre in only a couple years. Funny how quickly things change.

There are still surgeons out there that care about their patients and reputation and putting out consistently excellent results, Hasson, Wong, Lorenzo and a couple of others. I’ve seen some nice results from gabel, konior is well regarded on here (although I have t seen enough of his results). There are still those top quality clinics it’s worth paying for imo. But yeah the two you mention have really slipped as of late unfortunately in my opinion judging by recent threads on here.

Edited July 12, 2019 by Aftermath

[Jacuzzi]

15 hours ago, Aftermath said:

There are still surgeons out there that care about their patients and reputation and putting out consistently excellent results, Hasson, Wong, Lorenzo and a couple of others. I’ve seen some nice results from gabel, konior is well regarded on here (although I have t seen enough of his results). There are still those top quality clinics it’s worth paying for imo. But yeah the two you mention have really slipped as of late unfortunately 

It's really upsetting to hear all of this stuff about Rahal. I've had a consultation and everything, and I'm so close to pulling the trigger for surgery in september... 

[lovinitl9]

Rahal does nothing during the surgery, he just makes money off of it. He gave me the worst shock loss ever. He opted to fix my results for free, but I just took the money because I didn't want him touching my scalp and wasting my hairs. He might be nice, but it's all marketing! I really hope the admins don't get paid to defend him!

Edited September 25, 2019 by lovinitl9

[Aftermath]

On 7/12/2019 at 4:13 PM, Jacuzzi said:

It's really upsetting to hear all of this stuff about Rahal. I've had a consultation and everything, and I'm so close to pulling the trigger for surgery in september... 

Did u pull the trigger on Rahal after? 

[Aftermath]

6 minutes ago, lovinitl9 said:

Rahal does nothing during the surgery, he just makes money off of it. He gave me the worst shock loss ever. He opted to fix my results for free, but I just took the money because I didn't want him touching my scalp and wasting my hairs. He might be nice, but it's all marketing! I really hope the admins to get paid to defend him!

The marketing seems to be unravelling lately on this site when I look at certain posts, there doesn’t seem that there’s that presence in the clinic posted results lately either. What do you mean by your last sentence though? You hope the admins get paid to defend him? Do you mean you hope they don’t get paid to defend him? This is a great site that helps a lot of people out but there are clinics on here that shouldn’t be endorsed imo, numerous surgeons who have either questionable ethics or questionable results or in some instances both.

do you have a thread with your Rahal results?

[lovinitl9]

23 minutes ago, Aftermath said:

The marketing seems to be unravelling lately on this site when I look at certain posts, there doesn’t seem that there’s that presence in the clinic posted results lately either. What do you mean by your last sentence though? You hope the admins get paid to defend him? Do you mean you hope they don’t get paid to defend him? This is a great site that helps a lot of people out but there are clinics on here that shouldn’t be endorsed imo, numerous surgeons who have either questionable ethics or questionable results or in some instances both.

do you have a thread with your Rahal results?

sorry I mean't I hope the admins don't get paid to defend him. ya, I changed it. 

I am very conscious about having myself up on the internet, but I did post my shock loss and it was BRUTAL. The hair did come back after about 4 months, and then I think I got my final result at around 6 months. As others have mentioned,  the density falls off after that 6 months, where I had to get another surgery after to work on areas that he already had. such a joke, he was in the operating room for about 30 mins. The techs do all of the work, I don't get how on earth could he possibly be recommended by this forum!

-- I have no reason to dispel this info other than to give patients my thoughts and advice from my circumstances. 

[LonelyGraft]

2 hours ago, lovinitl9 said:

sorry I mean't I hope the admins don't get paid to defend him. ya, I changed it. 

I am very conscious about having myself up on the internet, but I did post my shock loss and it was BRUTAL. The hair did come back after about 4 months, and then I think I got my final result at around 6 months. As others have mentioned,  the density falls off after that 6 months, where I had to get another surgery after to work on areas that he already had. such a joke, he was in the operating room for about 30 mins. The techs do all of the work, I don't get how on earth could he possibly be recommended by this forum!

-- I have no reason to dispel this info other than to give patients my thoughts and advice from my circumstances. 

Who did the incisions in your case? I’m sorry to hear your unhappiness

[lovinitl9]

he scalped me(huge scar), made the holes and then peaced out for most of the time. the place should be called mike, the technician, institute of hair. look rahal is a nice guy, but I dont think anyone cares, they want results. 

[Melvin- Admin]

14 hours ago, lovinitl9 said:

sorry I mean't I hope the admins don't get paid to defend him. ya, I changed it. 

I am very conscious about having myself up on the internet, but I did post my shock loss and it was BRUTAL. The hair did come back after about 4 months, and then I think I got my final result at around 6 months. As others have mentioned,  the density falls off after that 6 months, where I had to get another surgery after to work on areas that he already had. such a joke, he was in the operating room for about 30 mins. The techs do all of the work, I don't get how on earth could he possibly be recommended by this forum!

-- I have no reason to dispel this info other than to give patients my thoughts and advice from my circumstances. 

Honestly, without pictures this post is as good as the posts who rant and rave about a surgeon. 

I never understood how posting a picture of your hair would count as posting pictures of yourself on the internet. It’s not as if someone is going to walk up to you and say “I recognize that scalp” sounds like nonsense to me. Not questioning you as a patient, but questioning your reasoning as to not wanting to share your story.

Me and Pat are the only admins left and we don’t get paid to defend any surgeon. In fact, we take these concerns seriously and part of what I do is keep surgeons accountable, but without sharing your story and pictures there’s nothing I can do. Furthermore, the credibility of your story is significantly impacted by not sharing.

best wishes, 

Melvin

[lovinitl9]

36 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

Honestly, without pictures this post is as good as the posts who rant and rave about a surgeon. 

I never understood how posting a picture of your hair would count as posting pictures of yourself on the internet. It’s not as if someone is going to walk up to you and say “I recognize that scalp” sounds like nonsense to me. Not questioning you as a patient, but questioning your reasoning as to not wanting to share your story.

Me and Pat are the only admins left and we don’t get paid to defend any surgeon. In fact, we take these concerns seriously and part of what I do is keep surgeons accountable, but without sharing your story and pictures there’s nothing I can do. Furthermore, the credibility of your story is significantly impacted by not sharing.

best wishes, 

Melvin

you got it melvin. the first pic is the before, followed by three afters. keep in mind this is 2800 grafts

Edited September 25, 2019 by lovinitl9

[Melvin- Admin]

I see the concerns. It’s difficult to assess based on the photos. I will say that your before and after look similar, but could it be due to progressive hair loss? Are you on meds? 

[lovinitl9]

I take rogaine. pretty much I had a net gain of zero, lost tousands of dollars, and went through the torment of the shock loss in his hand. i see the problem stemming from different issues

a)he uses needles instead of custom blades that cause much more trauma. go look at his posts ops patients, much more swelling that other physicians that take use the blades. this led to my shock loss. i only had massive swelling from him. other patients that I met at the time of surgery had similar experiences

b)techs do the majority of the work

c) marketing machine- I remember he used to have like 10 patient advocates on this site. imho abosulutly disgusting that level of advertising/coercion was allowed on this site. I only want to see real people posting their own results, which I was posted mine. i got tricked by these “advocates”/sales people 

d) he does multiple surgeries at the same time, what a joke! funny thing is he is probably not in either room

i need to know how you guys could possibly advocate this physician. unacceptable

 

[lovinitl9]

21 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

I see the concerns. It’s difficult to assess based on the photos. I will say that your before and after look similar, but could it be due to progressive hair loss? Are you on meds? 

 

22 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

I see the concerns. It’s difficult to assess based on the photos. I will say that your before and after look similar, but could it be due to progressive hair loss? Are you on meds? 

I take rogaine. pretty much I had a net gain of zero, lost tousands of dollars, and went through the torment of the shock loss in his hand. i see the problem stemming from different issues

a)he uses needles instead of custom blades that cause much more trauma. go look at his posts ops patients, much more swelling that other physicians that take use the blades. this led to my shock loss. i only had massive swelling from him. other patients that I met at the time of surgery had similar experiences

b)techs do the majority of the work

c) marketing machine- I remember he used to have like 10 patient advocates on this site. imho abosulutly disgusting that level of advertising/coercion was allowed on this site. I only want to see real people posting their own results, which I was posted mine. i got tricked by these “advocates”/sales people 

d) he does multiple surgeries at the same time, what a joke! funny thing is he is probably not in either room

i need to know how you guys could possibly advocate this physician. unacceptable

[Melvin- Admin]

2 hours ago, lovinitl9 said:

 

I take rogaine. pretty much I had a net gain of zero, lost tousands of dollars, and went through the torment of the shock loss in his hand. i see the problem stemming from different issues

a)he uses needles instead of custom blades that cause much more trauma. go look at his posts ops patients, much more swelling that other physicians that take use the blades. this led to my shock loss. i only had massive swelling from him. other patients that I met at the time of surgery had similar experiences

b)techs do the majority of the work

c) marketing machine- I remember he used to have like 10 patient advocates on this site. imho abosulutly disgusting that level of advertising/coercion was allowed on this site. I only want to see real people posting their own results, which I was posted mine. i got tricked by these “advocates”/sales people 

d) he does multiple surgeries at the same time, what a joke! funny thing is he is probably not in either room

i need to know how you guys could possibly advocate this physician. unacceptable

Could it be that you've continued to lose more hair? It does look like you had quite a bit of hair before you started with surgery. This is why some surgeons don't like to perform surgery on patients with a lot of hair who don't take finasteride. Not saying that is the case, but the possibility exists.

If you don't mind creating a thread and sharing your story I will be more than happy to reach out to him for his direct response over some of these concerns. As hard as it is to hear, every surgeon has had patients with bad results. I've seen some great results from Dr. Rahal on this very forum @Ernie is a prime example. I want to clear one thing up, we do not advocate surgeons, we are patient advocates. We exist so that patients have a voice. 

[LonelyGraft]

5 hours ago, lovinitl9 said:

 

I take rogaine. pretty much I had a net gain of zero, lost tousands of dollars, and went through the torment of the shock loss in his hand. i see the problem stemming from different issues

a)he uses needles instead of custom blades that cause much more trauma. go look at his posts ops patients, much more swelling that other physicians that take use the blades. this led to my shock loss. i only had massive swelling from him. other patients that I met at the time of surgery had similar experiences

b)techs do the majority of the work

c) marketing machine- I remember he used to have like 10 patient advocates on this site. imho abosulutly disgusting that level of advertising/coercion was allowed on this site. I only want to see real people posting their own results, which I was posted mine. i got tricked by these “advocates”/sales people 

d) he does multiple surgeries at the same time, what a joke! funny thing is he is probably not in either room

i need to know how you guys could possibly advocate this physician. unacceptable

Did they approach you to sign an nda?

[lovinitl9]

honestly, I’m over it all. just trying to give people my two cents. dont care about the money as much as much as the wasted grafts and time. he is becoming a chain with offices all over. this should be first sign that this board should no longer sponsor him. would love to hear a response to that. 

[Gasthoerer]

In second the idea of an own thread, as it derails this case report and gets confusing.

However, even if I never considered Rahal (even though I have seen nice hairlines) as Belgium is much closer to me, many raised concerns are normal in the way of industry standard. Of course, if you have a bad result you will be unhappy and question everything, but:

- Shockloss is normal (in Donor and recipient)

- Doc doing the strip and the incision and techs the rest is also standard (with a few exceptions) even H&W has a similar approach

- Unfortunately bad results can happen at any clinic

[Melvin- Admin]

7 hours ago, lovinitl9 said:

honestly, I’m over it all. just trying to give people my two cents. dont care about the money as much as much as the wasted grafts and time. he is becoming a chain with offices all over. this should be first sign that this board should no longer sponsor him. would love to hear a response to that. 

How would we remove a surgeon based on one review with little to no information. That's definitely not how we operate and I personally would be weary of any organization that would operate in this manner. If there is an issue we need to investigate it thoroughly. We have removed several surgeons in the past decade and some have even sued us, but we had good cause to remove the surgeons. This was thanks to the community who shared their stories and information. 

[lovinitl9]

5 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

How would we remove a surgeon based on one review with little to no information. That's definitely not how we operate and I personally would be weary of any organization that would operate in this manner. If there is an issue we need to investigate it thoroughly. We have removed several surgeons in the past decade and some have even sued us, but we had good cause to remove the surgeons. This was thanks to the community who shared their stories and information. 

There are three bad reviews just on this one thread. i’ve told you all if the pertinent info, posted pics as you requested, and gave my opinions. he has more swelling than most doctors-this has to be because more trauma was done. with so many offices, different doctors, and techincians, this has become a hair mill. there can’t be consistency with all these factors and I dont understand how you can argue otherwise. he was fair in giving me a partial refund or another session. i took

the money, didnt want him wasting anymore precious grafts. he realized my reSults were shit. fyi i chose him because I got duped by all the people working for him on this forum 

[Sean]

Lovinitl9,  hope you heal.  Glad you didnt go for another session and waited this one out.   Situation could have been more stressful.  Hope you get what you seek.  Going through this isn’t easy and it really sucks.  Hoping some good things and positive things come your way.  Best wishes

[hairlossPA]

are any of these people the same? literalno, lovinitl9, bman3082?

 

im having a hard time following whats going on in this thread.

[lovinitl9]

sorry to have stolen the thread a bit. we are all different people 

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, hairlossPA said:

are any of these people the same? literalno, lovinitl9, bman3082?

 

im having a hard time following whats going on in this thread.

My thoughts exactly. This is why creating a separate thread is essential.