Rahal patients: Did you require a second procedure and are you satisfied with the results?

[TortoiseHair]

I had a surgery in Michigan (terrible decision), which now requires a corrective surgery.  I‘ve been debating between Dr. Hasson and Dr. Rahal for a corrective FUT surgery of 3500 grafts.

I had a great consultation with his team but I‘ve read some mixed reviews of Rahal‘s results lately which makes me feel a little uneasy about moving forward with him.

I‘ve searched the forums and other places thoroughly and I mostly see very impressive results, but I’m wondering if I should be concerned about moving forward with him as my choice.

Have many of his patients required second surgeries to correct the first or are patients of his generally satisfied with one procedure of his?

How is he when it comes to correcting other surgeons work?

thanks

 

 

[LonelyGraft]

I have no idea about Rahal because his patient coordinator Aaron bugayong was the most annoying person I’ve dealt with in my life. Aaron single handedly made me cross rahal off my list

[kirkland]

My negative experience with Dr. Rahal was also because of his rep; in this, case it wasn't Aaron but Chris. Dr. Rahal should be aware of this issue because it is turning away potential customers.

[TortoiseHair]

These responses are a little off topic, but I appreciate you both communicating your issues with the reps.  I’ve been working with Tara and she’s been very pleasant

[krusher7]

I think it is a little bit unethical when complex transplant patients are receiving advice from his relatively inexperienced reps and not from Dr. Rahal himself. If you are a repair, or in need or a fairly large transplant(s) to achieve your desired result, Dr. Rahal should be reviewing your profile on an in-person basis and not trusting his reps who a lot of the time have very little transplant experience to make the decision. It's such a big decision for an individual to make I found it almost insulting that it wasn't the surgeon that was providing life-altering recommendations, but the patient advisor.

 From experience, I truly believe he has gotten 'too big to care' about the long term impact on some of his patients. It's sad. Go see H&W and get it done right.

[Melvin- Admin]

It’s a bit concerning that some of his reps are hurting his reputation. I’ll definitely be passing along this information. 

[LonelyGraft]

18 hours ago, krusher7 said:

I think it is a little bit unethical when complex transplant patients are receiving advice from his relatively inexperienced reps and not from Dr. Rahal himself. If you are a repair, or in need or a fairly large transplant(s) to achieve your desired result, Dr. Rahal should be reviewing your profile on an in-person basis and not trusting his reps who a lot of the time have very little transplant experience to make the decision. It's such a big decision for an individual to make I found it almost insulting that it wasn't the surgeon that was providing life-altering recommendations, but the patient advisor.

 From experience, I truly believe he has gotten 'too big to care' about the long term impact on some of his patients. It's sad. Go see H&W and get it done right.

Just to be fair h&w also have reps dealing with patients too. I couldn’t even send a very complex question directly. it had to be sent to the rep, then relayed to the doctor, then relayed back to the rep, and back to me. 

[John Doe]

I had a much worse encounter with H&W rep than I did with Rahal reps.  Main reason why I did not give them a second look.  The person I spoke to from H&W acted like him calling me was a bother, was on the phone for about 1-2 minutes total and when I said asked a question or said I did a few months of research, he seemed more bothered.  Tara from Rahal was very personable and stayed on the phone for quite a while to explain everything in detail.  I eventually did a video conference with Dr Rahal and one of his office managers.  Blanking on the name.  Money isn't everything with hair transplants, but Rahal actually converted USD and CAD.  The rep I spoke to with H&W said $8 per graft regardless.  

[LonelyGraft]

3 hours ago, John Doe said:

I had a much worse encounter with H&W rep than I did with Rahal reps.  Main reason why I did not give them a second look.  The person I spoke to from H&W acted like him calling me was a bother, was on the phone for about 1-2 minutes total and when I said asked a question or said I did a few months of research, he seemed more bothered.  Tara from Rahal was very personable and stayed on the phone for quite a while to explain everything in detail.  I eventually did a video conference with Dr Rahal and one of his office managers.  Blanking on the name.  Money isn't everything with hair transplants, but Rahal actually converted USD and CAD.  The rep I spoke to with H&W said $8 per graft regardless.  

The h&w pricing policy is def a scam. Why does a Canadian business charge in US dollars? Makes absolutely no sense other than to squeeze out more $ from US patients 

[Wicky]

since we are talking about the reps i had Aaron from Rahal and he was very fast and easy to work with! 

As for OPs original question, no matter where you go their will always be a chance for a bad result. However ive only seen minimal "bad" results from Rahals FUE cases. Never from his FUTs.

[TorontoMan]

I had a similar experience to @John Doe. I had two consultations with Rahal's reps (one was with Aron while he was still with the clinic), and after the second consultation I e-mailed the rep to request to meet with Dr. Rahal. He set that up for me with no problem, and the next time Dr. Rahal was in Toronto I got to meet with him while another rep took notes of our conversation. Many clinics as busy as theirs use reps to coordinate because imagine how much time would be taken from the Doctor. Again when I asked to see him they accommodated me. 

My experience with HW rep was also less impressive. He seemed to drive the conversation with his ego for no reason and it felt like a negotiation. Another thing i was disappointed with was that unlike Rahal's reps, he did not take any measurements of my donor area or measured for density. On all three of my visits that was standard at Rahal's clinics, they gave me numbers to work with in my head which I think is absolutely important. After eyeballing my head, the HW rep gave me an estimate and told me my donor looked to "in good shape". I shouldnt make it out like it was entirely bad, I just had different expectations coming into it. 

Regardless, I understand that the reps are obviously not direct representation of the doctor's work... and both are still top clinics and atm I'm having trouble deciding between them. 

[Melvin- Admin]

5 hours ago, LonelyGraft said:

The h&w pricing policy is def a scam. Why does a Canadian business charge in US dollars? Makes absolutely no sense other than to squeeze out more $ from US patients 

It’s not a scam, several clinics charge Americans in US dollars. Do you really think Turkish people pay the same as Americans? No.

A scam implies that they’re secretly charging you extra, it’s no secret they have a policy, and it’s been the same policy for years. Nothing’s changed, careful saying things like “scam”, when they’re not. 

[LonelyGraft]

39 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

It’s not a scam, several clinics charge Americans in US dollars. Do you really think Turkish people pay the same as Americans? No.

A scam implies that they’re secretly charging you extra, it’s no secret they have a policy, and it’s been the same policy for years. Nothing’s changed, careful saying things like “scam”, when they’re not. 

I've never heard of clinics charging one demographic of patients by one currency and other demographics another currency. There are clinics in turkey that charge in Euros across the board for all patients wherever they live so the exchange rate applies. If you know of examples please give them. But to directly charge US patients USD instead of accepting CAD is an obvious money grab/scam (IN MY OPINION). Nobody has to agree with me on this one but facts are facts even if its their policy thats been instated for years

[rev333]

On 4/17/2020 at 1:33 PM, TortoiseHair said:

I had a surgery in Michigan (terrible decision), which now requires a corrective surgery.  I‘ve been debating between Dr. Hasson and Dr. Rahal for a corrective FUT surgery of 3500 grafts.

I had a great consultation with his team but I‘ve read some mixed reviews of Rahal‘s results lately which makes me feel a little uneasy about moving forward with him.

I‘ve searched the forums and other places thoroughly and I mostly see very impressive results, but I’m wondering if I should be concerned about moving forward with him as my choice.

Have many of his patients required second surgeries to correct the first or are patients of his generally satisfied with one procedure of his?

How is he when it comes to correcting other surgeons work?

thanks

 

 

Hair transplants are rarely if ever one and done. My first was with Rahal got great density but design was off so didn’t go back. Everyone was personable and even Rahal drove me to the guesthouse. That said either of your choices are top clinics so you can’t go wrong. Will it come out perfect to your desires? Maybe. Might you need a further touch-up no matter with whom you go? Possibly. Why? This is the nature of hair transplants. Get it done some or most hair grows well. But You then want to tweak it with another in areas that didn’t grow well then do another procedure to adjust the design, too etc. That is a common course of action with patients, which is normal. Going to either one of these guys gives you the best chance of your grafts growing. But it doesn’t mean you may not need a third round. There is only so much density that can be achieved during one operation. Hope this helps. You will be fine with your choice.