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


bman3082

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Hello Everyone,

Many of you may know me formerly as 'literalno'.  I want to preface by saying that username was made in complete negativity before I knew anything about hair transplants and what they can do for people. I was aimlessly searching for answers to my fears associated with propecia and stumbled across a particularly unsightly before/after ultimately assuaging me from ever becoming one of "those hair transplant guys"; hence literal(ly)no(never). I decided to make this thread around the 6 month mark ( I am now a little closer to 7) to promote good vibes for the second leg of the process since I am quite frankly not at my end goal, but very optimistic for what should be the most productive leg of this often tumultuous journey.

Much of my skepticism stems from how my hairloss occurred in the first place, and the measures I have taken thus far to fix it. It started very suddenly a few years ago during a rough time in my life. I was going through a tough period and the stress seemed to spur its onset seemingly overnight. I knew what had happened, but everyone around me obviously assured me "its all in your head" (yeah right). About two years ago I was at my wits end before coming across Dr. Amaya Prasad's "Hair Regeneration" treatment in New York (this guys should honestly be put in jail for making these claims, complete snake oil). This miracle injection featured A Cell AND PRP (WOW) as he claimed it halted and in some cases reversed hairloss all together. I was sold and flew to New York within a month, paid the $15 000 up front, got the injection, and slowly but surely thinned some more only this time more rapidly. By a few months time, I knew it was failure and I needed to try something else. Next thing I know I'm on a plane to Boston getting A Cell + Adipose Derived Stem Cells injected into my scalp (I have the lipo scars to prove it) and finally my hair would be saved. Of course, this was not the case, however the only saving grace was that the Dr. in Boston kept recommending finasteride. It took my a few more months to finally bite the bullet and get on the drug. Been on it for about 2 years, with a brief stint of Dutasteride until my doctor felt uneasy about that one, and I halted everything to a snails pace at long last. Of course after all of these experiences with Dr's who "have my best interest in mind", I remain skeptical of everyone and everything until I am proven otherwise (on my own scalp that is).

Finally deciding to get a hair transplant was not a task I took lightly. I got to the same point as everyone on this forum does, an inflection point where you choose to suffer and wear hats 24/7, or take a step towards fixing the situation as scary as it may seem. I researched thoroughly for about a year, combing through result after result, and was conflicted between Hasson and Wong and RAHAL. I was able to meet three Rahal patients before my surgery, and the results spoke for themselves. There was also one bad H and W result floating around that ultimately confirmed my choice, and I chose Rahal and FUT to maximize my yield since I am young and want to conserve as many grafts as possible. I was assured during consultation by Sita, some of you may know here here, that Dr. Rahal has close to 100% yield and I believed (and still believe) her words.

I don't want to go into details about the surgery itself as I plan to do a big one year post to look back on the last year, I hope in fondness. There's really no point in delving too deep into the minutia of anything until at least that date. It could have been the best time of life or not but that doesn't change the only thing that matters: the end results.

I would like to bring attention to a few concerns I've had along the way in hopes of getting some feedback from members who I'm sure have shared my sentiments at some point. 

  • I was grafted at approximately 40 grafts/cm squared (roughly 70+ hairs per cm). In my opinion, this would provide me with the coverage I am after, however after my 10 hour surgery, Dr. Rahal did mention it may look thin in some instances. Though I appreciate the honesty, it did get my mind spinning especially after what I had just endured moments before. I reached out to Dr. Nadimi at around 3 months to get her opinion on what that may look like, and her feelings were quite the contrary as she assured me that in the area I showed her, 3000+ grafts would indeed provide a pretty dense result. This may simply be a difference in opinion between the two doctors, but of course contrary information leads the mind to wander. Does anyone know or have a result similar to 40 grafts/cm and like to comment on how that appears in person? I would like point out that my reaching out to Dr. Nadimi is in no way a slight to my trust in Dr. Rahal. I would not have gone to any clinic if I did not have the utmost conviction in their ability to produce a good result. It is merely me as a patient seeking a second opinion on a matter that concerns me, and that's it. In now way does it reflect any negative connotation towards Dr. Rahal and the credibility of the clinic.  
  • Unlike many threads I've looked at, my grafts were very scabbed over within 5-7 days of my surgery. Many of the hairs had definitely released themselves from their respective follicle at that point, so I never really got to see a 'buzzcut' representation of what I should expect before the shedding phase as is common among this forum, particularly with Asmed patients. Having not seen too many similar examples, I questioned whether those grafts has survived or not, but have been assured that there is no real way to know until the final result. I've read from a few different doctors online that the visual presence of grafts in the scalp about a week after surgery is a sign they have survived, so naturally it has been on my mind somewhat.
  • My surgery took just over 10 hours. After the surgery, the clinic's lead technician Mike commented on the procedure was like placing "9000 grafts instead of 3000" because my skin was quite slippery and as a graft was placed, the adjacent grafts would slip out. Dr. Rahal has himself said this may slightly affect yield, but other Dr.s on realself say they have never heard of this phenomenon and attribute that to poor skill of implanters. Of course, I know this is not the case at a clinic with the reputation of RAHAL, but would like to know if other patients have experienced a similar thing and how everything turned out for them?
  • Lastly, at approximately 1month post op, I went into the clinic (I live in Ottawa) to see if Larissa (my patient advisor) could try and apply some topik to the persisting redness of my scalp as I had a few job interviews coming up (for anyone in a similar position, the redness went completely unnoticeable and was not a factorv whatseover). The topik looked absolutely ridiculous and I wanted to rub it off almost right away. She proceeded to use an alcohol wipe to hasten the process, but her rubbing was very hard and did hurt my scalp quite a lot. Obviously after looking after transplanted area with extreme care for the previous month, being SUPER, SUPER gentle the entire time, I was very concerned with whether the pain and tingling I felt would affect the grafts. I've read many times before the clinics such as Asmed and Lorenzo say not to even use clippers for the first 6 months as it could damage the area, but I'm not sure how necessary that really is. Larissa and Dr. Rahal assured me that the grafts were deep within the skin and could not be harmed, but I'm sure you can agree that any painful sensation on a newly grafted area is worrisome at the least. Anyone have any thoughts as to what they have heard from their respective clinics, if anything at all?

As for those results, I wanted to hold off on starting a thread until I had something closer to the final thread, but there seems to be a lack of posts by actual Dr. Rahal patients, so I figured this would as good as any for prospective patients looking to track a result as it dues completion. It's tough to comment on my progress in terms of percentage of total grafts sprouted (doesn't appear to be 50% if looking by grafts/cm as most have well below 20 atm), I'll let my pictures show everything and the forum can decide objectively how it's looking. I will say that I appear to be a very slow and gradual grower, so I'm just letting time do its trick for the time being. I have read and seen many results that improve night to day between 6-7 months and a year or later, so I am hoping I am on track for the same. It's easy to get fixated on those that are early growers, so for now I'd prefer to spread positive vibes. This procedure is does not come free of anxiety, we all know that, but I gain solace in knowing that this clinic performs multiple surgeries each and every week and has been for the last 15+ years. They are masters and though the process may be long, they know what they are doing. 

The following pictures start with my pre-op photos, then post-op, 7-days post op (scabbing), a dr. frietas result at 10 days that shows what I mean about being able to see the majority of individual hairs still attached to their grafts before they shed, and finally photos photos taken by me at 6 months. Would love to hear everyone's thoughts on the progress so far.

 IMG_3542.jpg.3425584d4a8e9d1bb5bdeed117ea9db3.jpgIMG_3549.jpg.8b241ae2a25922b193085719b3c81414.jpgIMG_3555.jpg.66cd495a218bd9ec092a3e3f27a789e0.jpgIMG_3560.jpg.1c9e12d537ddc25483a40266e58e795b.jpgIMG_3873.jpg.ec1da9ea43e8176c8ba0f17a8f27d90c.jpghair15.jpg.be76fcd725d5dcd98e5241e6433f1b0f.jpghair16.jpg.a8e5e6a979f3f943add77f68c92bd854.jpghair17.png.55657a299cc7b1d351116043f97aa977.pnghair9.thumb.jpg.d990aedcac40ac6c70a21ca0bd0b5257.jpghair11.thumb.jpg.5cd94739ee59669eaf3a36c30778ade0.jpghair12.thumb.jpg.e260527530aedfc0f9194dea8c75572b.jpghair13.thumb.jpg.dca7f2b617d9b14b1647721ee28ed8c3.jpgh1.jpg.e8fcbb2fa85832ffdbc00ffe623d8da9.jpghair1.thumb.jpg.2c39864c8d53cf7c78232a19dc969ea3.jpghair2.thumb.jpg.b6fe94fe88232693db9396f7633e94ec.jpghair3.thumb.jpg.23b469467f237795c921e93aff0b2155.jpghair5.thumb.jpg.35fd72bb2074ca335021983d2124e809.jpghair7.thumb.jpg.10060b65ca8670b67b58219330afc631.jpghair8.thumb.jpg.96705e12bf714a8b70c61a1f013fae06.jpghair14.thumb.jpg.aa225b237d8a17cf7177cd83adb8a21c.jpg

 

hair4.jpg

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great write up. we all appreciate the post!

technically you are halfway there, so it’s fair to not have the full result right now. obviously all you can do it wait it out and see what happens in the next couple of months. try not to worry about it.

so just to clarify: you are or are not on finasteride still?

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1 minute ago, hairlossPA said:

great write up. we all appreciate the post!

technically you are halfway there, so it’s fair to not have the full result right now. obviously all you can do it wait it out and see what happens in the next couple of months. try not to worry about it.

so just to clarify: you are or are not on finasteride still?

Thanks i appreciate that. I am very much still on finasteride 1mg every day

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@bman3082Thanks for such a great write up. Documentation such as this really helps guys.

Whilst I can completely understand your concern, you are between 6 - 7 months. The next 2 months can hold a lot of maturation and rather growth. Rahal as you said is amongst the best and most ethical Drs. Trust the process and let see what the next few months bring. I know thats easy for me to say.

Have you spoken recently about any concerns with the clinic?

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1 minute ago, Raphael84 said:

@bman3082Thanks for such a great write up. Documentation such as this really helps guys.

Whilst I can completely understand your concern, you are between 6 - 7 months. The next 2 months can hold a lot of maturation and rather growth. Rahal as you said is amongst the best and most ethical Drs. Trust the process and let see what the next few months bring. I know thats easy for me to say.

Have you spoken recently about any concerns with the clinic?

I have my almost 7 month follow up this saturday. Will post those pics

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My initial thought is that was a pretty ambitious hairline and that a dense result would require a LOT of grafts.  A lower and wider hairline looks more natural more dense imo. There is still a lot if time left so let's see where it goes. 

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19 minutes ago, Spanker said:

My initial thought is that was a pretty ambitious hairline and that a dense result would require a LOT of grafts.  A lower and wider hairline looks more natural more dense imo. There is still a lot if time left so let's see where it goes. 

I agree but i trusted the doc to pic one he felt he could accomplish properly of course

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6 months is still early, there is still plenty of time for things to improve. I think it's important to remain patient and give it time.  From this point forward, I suggest updating us monthly with your progress. Also, are you keeping the clinic updated with your progress? If for any reason you're concerned, you should always consult with your clinic and let them know your concerns. 


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14 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

6 months is still early, there is still plenty of time for things to improve. I think it's important to remain patient and give it time.  From this point forward, I suggest updating us monthly with your progress. Also, are you keeping the clinic updated with your progress? If for any reason you're concerned, you should always consult with your clinic and let them know your concerns. 

Not that concerned ik that its really early just wanna document and also voice i havent met my goals yet

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Hey lit . Nice story . I feel u man.. experiencing hair loss and start taking action n trying all these hairloss products .. I was interested in doctors Prasad from YouTube in New York too ..Scamming folks with his one shot PRP therapy costing $5000.. what a joke .. I was tempted at trying him too until I did more research n seeing negative reviews of him .. charging people $5000 for PRP+ACELL matrix kinda crap .. he’s definitely ripping people off .. glad to hear a review from someone that tried it . :) 

.. as for your ht, u should get a magnifying mirror or something , so u can zoom In to see if there are small hairs poking through that can’t be seen with the naked eye .. or else u going to be worrying .. I bought a 15x magnifying mirror on amazon for $25 .. .. if ur results aren’t great , at least rahal has a gurantee .. n ur current native hair seems to be plentiful right low .. still have volume .. n ur donor looks strong. so there’s always options if things don’t go as planned ..

how did ur temporal points turn out? 

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Hey man, great write-up, will be following your progress.

I don’t want to sound too “negative”, but, in my honest not-going-to-sugar-coat-it opinion, the hairline is a bit low for my comfort, i don’t know your age but you look to be in your mid-to-late 20’s going from your photos so I would have gone with a hairline just a bit higher like in-between the 2 blue lines the Dr drew on your scalp for the grafts to be placed in, around 1/2 an inch higher from his drawn hairline, reason being is the whole area/coverage/density/graft amount and further native hair thinning/loss native hair concern.

Now with that said, you do look to be a slow grower/progressor so it’s still early in the game for you so I’m wishing you good luck, happy growing and positive 🤙🏻

Oh, and just curious, you paid $15K to that Dr in NY for prp/Acell snake oil injections...or did you mean $1,500?

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10 hours ago, Legend007 said:

Hey lit . Nice story . I feel u man.. experiencing hair loss and start taking action n trying all these hairloss products .. I was interested in doctors Prasad from YouTube in New York too ..Scamming folks with his one shot PRP therapy costing $5000.. what a joke .. I was tempted at trying him too until I did more research n seeing negative reviews of him .. charging people $5000 for PRP+ACELL matrix kinda crap .. he’s definitely ripping people off .. glad to hear a review from someone that tried it . :) 

.. as for your ht, u should get a magnifying mirror or something , so u can zoom In to see if there are small hairs poking through that can’t be seen with the naked eye .. or else u going to be worrying .. I bought a 15x magnifying mirror on amazon for $25 .. .. if ur results aren’t great , at least rahal has a gurantee .. n ur current native hair seems to be plentiful right low .. still have volume .. n ur donor looks strong. so there’s always options if things don’t go as planned ..

how did ur temporal points turn out? 

Yah but if it doesn’t work out the growth gaurantee is not a concern for me as i will not be going back of course. I am simply reserving all judgement and giving it a fair shot until 12 months as I feel is my duty to the clinic as a patient

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10 hours ago, Legend007 said:

Hey lit . Nice story . I feel u man.. experiencing hair loss and start taking action n trying all these hairloss products .. I was interested in doctors Prasad from YouTube in New York too ..Scamming folks with his one shot PRP therapy costing $5000.. what a joke .. I was tempted at trying him too until I did more research n seeing negative reviews of him .. charging people $5000 for PRP+ACELL matrix kinda crap .. he’s definitely ripping people off .. glad to hear a review from someone that tried it . :) 

.. as for your ht, u should get a magnifying mirror or something , so u can zoom In to see if there are small hairs poking through that can’t be seen with the naked eye .. or else u going to be worrying .. I bought a 15x magnifying mirror on amazon for $25 .. .. if ur results aren’t great , at least rahal has a gurantee .. n ur current native hair seems to be plentiful right low .. still have volume .. n ur donor looks strong. so there’s always options if things don’t go as planned ..

how did ur temporal points turn out? 

And for the temple points, looks as though none of the hairs have started growing from there yet, to be completely honest, so can’t say for sure

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1 hour ago, VicTNYC said:

Hey man, great write-up, will be following your progress.

I don’t want to sound too “negative”, but, in my honest not-going-to-sugar-coat-it opinion, the hairline is a bit low for my comfort, i don’t know your age but you look to be in your mid-to-late 20’s going from your photos so I would have gone with a hairline just a bit higher like in-between the 2 blue lines the Dr drew on your scalp for the grafts to be placed in, around 1/2 an inch higher from his drawn hairline, reason being is the whole area/coverage/density/graft amount and further native hair thinning/loss native hair concern.

Now with that said, you do look to be a slow grower/progressor so it’s still early in the game for you so I’m wishing you good luck, happy growing and positive 🤙🏻

Oh, and just curious, you paid $15K to that Dr in NY for prp/Acell snake oil injections...or did you mean $1,500?

Hey vic,

the hairline looks a lot lower in those pics than in real life. In actual pics, it is actually still a bit high but i do think i should have recessed the corners a little more. To fix that i might lower the temple points a little slightly in the future to create more of a recession. 

No i mean 15k....

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Sorry to hear you are still not happy. The density at 40 FU’s / cm sounds a bit lower than Rahal’s normal hairline density. When I first went to him (12 years ago), he talked about 70-80 FUs/cm, although when I went back to him last year he said he would go about 50. It sounds as though he has gradually lowered the density he plants at over the years (I am sure he has a good reason for doing this). It also sounds as though there may have been technical challenges with your particular case too that he has been up front about (slippery grafts that were more difficult to place). I think you will definitely get more growth over the next few months. Have you discussed with Rahal yet what will happen if you do not get enough growth to make you happy? He is a good guy and I am pretty sure he will want to do whatever he can to make you happy.

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7 hours ago, JohnRoss said:

Sorry to hear you are still not happy. The density at 40 FU’s / cm sounds a bit lower than Rahal’s normal hairline density. When I first went to him (12 years ago), he talked about 70-80 FUs/cm, although when I went back to him last year he said he would go about 50. It sounds as though he has gradually lowered the density he plants at over the years (I am sure he has a good reason for doing this). It also sounds as though there may have been technical challenges with your particular case too that he has been up front about (slippery grafts that were more difficult to place). I think you will definitely get more growth over the next few months. Have you discussed with Rahal yet what will happen if you do not get enough growth to make you happy? He is a good guy and I am pretty sure he will want to do whatever he can to make you happy.

Yah “complications” that should be standard after 15+ years of doing this! Slippery grafts are not an isolated case of course. I’d say probably 500 haira have grown total, that’s it, max. I don’t need anything but my eyes to see that. I still believe in the process but it is excrutiating especially when seeing results like yours look so much better in the same amount of time. I will reserve all comments until the 12 months but damn I truly feel like crap after this whole ordeal

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7 hours ago, JohnRoss said:

Sorry to hear you are still not happy. The density at 40 FU’s / cm sounds a bit lower than Rahal’s normal hairline density. When I first went to him (12 years ago), he talked about 70-80 FUs/cm, although when I went back to him last year he said he would go about 50. It sounds as though he has gradually lowered the density he plants at over the years (I am sure he has a good reason for doing this). It also sounds as though there may have been technical challenges with your particular case too that he has been up front about (slippery grafts that were more difficult to place). I think you will definitely get more growth over the next few months. Have you discussed with Rahal yet what will happen if you do not get enough growth to make you happy? He is a good guy and I am pretty sure he will want to do whatever he can to make you happy.

Honestly if it doesnt work i would not go back to the same surgeon, regardless of who it is. It’s funny because i was literally ‘warned’/contacted by SeanFUE (im sure we all know who he is) before my surgery and i dismissed his concerns since he went with fue. Knowing he’s done repairs with rahal that have not worked are the only lesson i need that if it doesnt work the first time, go somewhere else. 

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I have a feeling Lit won’t just stop posting if this isn’t a success as many rahal patient mysteriously do when things don’t seem to be going right. And I’m with you, I’m not about to go back to a surgeon if they failed the first time.

having said that 6 months is early days so I’m hoping things turn around for you

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45 minutes ago, Aftermath said:

I have a feeling Lit won’t just stop posting if this isn’t a success as many rahal patient mysteriously do when things don’t seem to be going right. And I’m with you, I’m not about to go back to a surgeon if they failed the first time.

having said that 6 months is early days so I’m hoping things turn around for you

1000% i really don't care about a growth guarantee if the first one didn't work out. I would be way too stressed out the second time around and can't afford to waste any grafts. Like 3000+ grafts, 5000 hair should provide an effective hairline result, that I'm sure of! 

Thanks for the comment, I really do hope things turn around as well. Approaching 7 months and can honestly say if it stopped here, I'd be devastated. 

My thoughts about this whole website/industry atm are: 

Some clinics market better than others, this forum clearly has a bias for some clinics over others. Some members are treated unfairly when trying to find a solution for something as stressful as a bad ht (looking at recent asmed threads for example). Amazing results from overseas surgeons are not nearly discussed enough because they have no interest in this forum, and are thus discarded as being "the best in the world", a title given to surgeons on this forum rather easily. 

if this doesn't work, I will probably not go with a clinic where the surgeon does not do 95% percent of the work, even though your result with hasson and a few others are the best I have ever seen period. I am too afraid of techs ruining my super fucking precious grafts. 

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4 minutes ago, bman3082 said:

My thoughts about this whole website/industry atm are: 

Some clinics market better than others, this forum clearly has a bias for some clinics over others. Some members are treated unfairly when trying to find a solution for something as stressful as a bad ht (looking at recent asmed threads for example). Amazing results from overseas surgeons are not nearly discussed enough because they have no interest in this forum, and are thus discarded as being "the best in the world", a title given to surgeons on this forum rather easily.

agreed. pulling for you bro...

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Totally agree with the marketing comment. Tbh I’ve always hated the arrogance of the self proclamation of being the “hairline king”, always been a turn off with rahal for me. He has some great results, but also a lot of not so great results, for me personally he lacks the consistency to be one of the top surgeons, but that’s just my opinion 

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2 minutes ago, Kiwi Guy said:

I'm disappointed to see this result for you bro, I really hope it gets a lot better, I was considering going with Rahal myself but something like this is definitely a put off.

honestly man if you can just wait until im at about 10 months (which would be in June). At that point I'll know with certainty whether it was a success or failure. Like I stated originally, I am still optimistic since ive honestly only been in the growth phase for about 3-4 months but looking at JohnRoss is really deflating to be frank

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1 minute ago, Aftermath said:

Totally agree with the marketing comment. Tbh I’ve always hated the arrogance of the self proclamation of being the “hairline king”, always been a turn off with rahal for me. He has some great results, but also a lot of not so great results, for me personally he lacks the consistency to be one of the top surgeons, but that’s just my opinion 

rahal does have strong marketing, but so do so many others on this forum. I'd say the only surgeon who could care less and has more business than anyone is konior and that speaks volumes. Again, obviously rahal is a great surgeon, but there is more to a surgery like this than just the surgeon...

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