Dr Rahal FUE - 3200 Grafts (April 2022)

[PA2]

Hey everyone,

Completely new to this forum, but introduced to it by a good friend who went through the process a few years back.

Been noticing hair loss in pictures for a while, dating back to maybe 2016, and finally enough was enough.

I couldn’t deal with basically having a permanent layer of Toppik on my head, so I reached out to different clinics. Decided to go with Rahal (for many reasons) and flew out the day before. 

I basically did everything wrong the night before in terms of food and sleep, but the surgery went very well, and now I’m on my second week of recovery.

Rahal and his team were fantastic. I enjoyed the simplicity of the guesthouse, as I was flying in from out of town. Waltzed over to the clinic at 4:45am and we got started. Originally, Dr Rahal seemed skeptical that we could get the consulted upon 3000 grafts, thinking it would end up being more around ~2800, but we ended up actually getting more - 3201. Left the clinic at around 4pm. Promptly googled “how to fall asleep in a recliner.”

To sum up the last week in a sentence: I overestimated how much pain I would be in; I underestimated how much maintenance and care is needed afterward.

The recipient area is completely painless. The donor area has been extremely painful. On the night of day 3, I couldn’t fall asleep, as the donor area had a big burning sensation. Since then, I’ve been taking Advil and icing my donor area before bed, and it’s been better, but sleeping is still difficult (I’m not great at sleeping on my back).

Summary:

Beforehand:

Day 1:

 

Day 2:

Day 3:

1 Week:

 

Will update at the week 2, month 1, month 2-3-6-9-12 mark! If you have any questions about the Rahal guesthouse, process, how many Hawaiian button up shirts to buy, and my definitive stance on Advil v Tylenol now, let me know. 
 

PA

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by PA2
Additional info, removed picture

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

PA2,

Congratulations on your recent hair transplant with Dr. Rahal.  I'm sorry you're experiencing more pain in the donor area but it won't take long to heal and the pain will go away in only a short period of time.

It's not surprising that your surgical experience went well.  Your postoperative photos look great and I'm confident that you'll be very pleased with the results when they grow in.  If you have any questions or concerns at any point along the way, please don't hesitate to drop me a PM or email me at info@rahalhairline.com.  

I encourage you to share regular updates with photos on this forum so we can all encourage you and follow along with your progress.

Welcome to the REAL hair club for men :-).

Best wishes,

Rahal Hair Transplant

[Melvin- Admin]

Everything is looking excellent, happy growing 🙌🏼

[johnto]

Question for team Rahal.  I'm sure this will be a home run result as you guys are very experienced and obviously know what you are doing...

My question is....if you look at the post op day 1 photos from the front and back sides, it looks like the grafts are very spread out.  Will this be an issue with density for the end result? 

 

[PA2]

Here we are at the two week mark! Other than the discomfort in the donor area, everything has been very simple and easy. I’ve managed to not hit my head on anything, and the maintenance has been a breeze (just ran a constant 90 min timer on my phone to remind me to spray with the saline solution). 
 

I felt my head for the first time in two weeks yesterday and, to my surprise, the recipient area was completely numb. Strange feeling, that. I was assured by the team at Rahal that this is completely normal. 
 

I washed in the shower, some scabs came off, and some didn’t, but I will keep washing once per day going forward. I can see what the ugly duckling phase will look like and BOY OH BOY this is going to be difficult. 
 

Result after my Day 14 shower, two different types of lighting:

 

I’m thinking I’m going to have to shave off the wispy hairs on my forehead going forward until they fall out; the same ones I was so desperate to keep before. 
 

You can see how he moved my hairline back a bit. When I was in my early 20s, those freckles were covered. Then, late 20s, I lost my temple area hair. Now, all that’s left is that small section at the front. Those will fall out soon enough and my new permanent hairline will be the transplanted one.

Time to start the ugly phase. Good luck to me. See you at the 4 week mark!

[Lionel]

On 4/25/2022 at 1:37 AM, johnto said:

Question for team Rahal.  I'm sure this will be a home run result as you guys are very experienced and obviously know what you are doing...

My question is....if you look at the post op day 1 photos from the front and back sides, it looks like the grafts are very spread out.  Will this be an issue with density for the end result? 

 

I agree - the graphs do look pretty spread out. Also I find it a little odd they're claiming to have treated zone 1 when they moved your hairline back.

[PA2]

One Month

 

They call it the ugly phase for a reason. Bye bye to the new hairs. They’ve been going away slowly for the past week as I’ve been Rogaine-ing and showering, and should expect to keep going over the next couple weeks.

I am now hat man everywhere I go, and becoming quite well versed in hat styles. Gonna try and make the Indiana Jones hat work, as well as a sombrero. Good luck to me.

Basically life as normal now, and just a waiting game until about the 4 month mark when things will start to get going. Anyone have the remote from Click to fast forward until then?

Edited May 10, 2022 by PA2

[Britanium]

3 minutes ago, PA2 said:

Anyone have the remote from Click to fast forward until then?

😂👌

[SuperC]

I would really like to see an update on this!

[PA2]

Haven’t updated in a while, but here’s the quick version:

Time has passed without much incident; it really is a waiting game. Basically suffered through until four months and then went back to using Toppik whenever I feel like not wearing a hat. Today marks the five month mark, so here’s some month 4 pictures and a month 5 update pic.

It honestly feels normal at this point, because I used Toppik so much before to draw in a hairline that now it just is starting to be more hair/less Toppik as it all fills in. I imagine I’m about 50% of the way there in terms of growth, so now comes the fun part!

[Rahal Hair Transplant]

PA2,

I’d say everything is looking right on track for only five months. I know a lot of people think that they should be seeing almost full growth at five months but the truth is, many patients don’t even start experiencing signs of new growth until five months. That’s why every time I post and explain when new growth begins I always told people it’s between three and five months. And that’s only when the new growth begins. At this point, I expect you will see a lot of changes over the next couple of months.  In the meantime, hang in there and please keep posting your progress so we can see how things develop over the next several months.

Best wishes,

Rahal Hair Transplant 

[BaldingEagle1]

agreed. 6 month onwards is where results start to shine. Here's to an amazing result!!

[LookMaxx]

Can you please post your donor pictures at a week or month old? 
 

The result looks good by the way 👍 

[PA2]

[John1991]

On 9/19/2022 at 10:23 AM, BaldingEagle1 said:

agreed. 6 month onwards is where results start to shine. Here's to an amazing result!!

I see this written often, but rarely see it in photos.  6 months and onwards seems to be far more about thickening and getting long enough to match the rest of the hair than about new grafts sprouting.

[BaldingEagle1]

7 hours ago, John1991 said:

I see this written often, but rarely see it in photos.  6 months and onwards seems to be far more about thickening and getting long enough to match the rest of the hair than about new grafts sprouting.

Results start to shine doesn’t mean new grafts sprout. 
 

it can also mean the hair thickening…

[John1991]

Fair enough, but I pretty regularly see 6 month progress pics not look much different than the final result.  I believe that thickening and texture improvement occur, but it seems they often aren't very well picked up on camera.

Edited September 24, 2022 by John1991

[Steady45]

Hey man, how you going? any update?

 

[PA2]

WELL. 
 

10 months! Basically, all went according to plan. You can see my little natural hairs in the front still, but those will fall out in the next few years as I age.

 

[Bucky O Hair]

15 hours ago, PA2 said:

WELL. 
 

10 months! Basically, all went according to plan. You can see my little natural hairs in the front still, but those will fall out in the next few years as I age.

 

 

Damn!  That's a good result.

 

You can always trim away the little hairs if you want.  People who don't even suffer from alopecia trim their hairlines all the time.  You could always play around with it to see what you like (as leaving some of the miniaturized hairs gives it a natural effect).  

Now you get to experience the HAIR GREED phase, where you will look to fill more in the crown with a second HT, then go back every so often for some unnecessary resculpting and reshaping of hairlines in an attempt to fulfill your unsatiable lust for NW1.

 

[johnto]

How's the donor?

[PA2]

Aesthetically, donor is good and can’t tell anything was touched. 

Only note would be: very randomly and infrequently, say once every two weeks, I’ll have a moment where a spot above my ear gets sensitive for a moment where the donor site was particularly unhappy, but that’s about it.

[PA2]

#CaliVibes

[Melvin- Admin]

Looks excellent 👌

[AnonymousOpinions]

Damn awesome turnout, you looked to be a bit of a slow grower. Love the result