Dr. Rahal’s Post Op

Now that I have provided a clear history of where I started pre 1st Ht and provided the results up to 9 months post HT1 – its time to delve into the Dr. Rahal experience and results to date!  I will try to remain brief and provide only the most important details that best describes the experience and results. 

I first met with Chad, one of Dr. Rahal’s associates who was excellent in setting up a meeting in my own city in Canada where Dr. Rahal was visiting prospective patients that were considering a HT.  I will say that Chad was and remains an excellent source of information diligently answering all kinds of questions as it relates to doing a HT with Dr. Rahal.  He never got tired in fielding my questions and always got back to me promptly and provided a solid explanation of what was to come.  I later met with Dr. Rahal who very quietly looked at my hair loss and immediately suggested what needed to get done in order to achieve a more youthful result that would blend into my existing native hairs. (Very important point b/c my 1st HT failed to blend appropriately as you could see the HT zones from my native hair- a mistake)  Dr. Rahal is very soft spoken, a man of few words and gets right to the point by addressing what you need and how it will be done!  You can ask him any question and he will provide you with a very straight forward answer and gives you a realistic view of what to expect.   As a side note, he was careful not to comment on what work had been done on my 1st HT  and didn’t really care where or who did it as he was focused on what needed to be done in order to yield the best result- a consummate professional!  After seeing him that day, I booked and got scheduled in a few months later that suited my schedule.

The clinic is modern, clean and well appointed and what I did notice most of all was that there was a heck of alot of staff there supporting him that day- perhaps 8+ people doing various things- all assisting him to complete his task!  As I had said in my 1st post, its important to understand that its a team effort and you need a well oiled machine with appropriate numbers of staff to operate efficiently in allowing him to provide you with volume or what is better appreciated- giving you density!! Remember, he can only provide you with the density if his team is providing him with grafts that need to be transplanted and faster the better as grafts left outside the scalp are always at risk during transplantation.  Each member of his team from the head nurse, Mike who is excellent, keeping you super comfortable to the technicians who are incredibly nice and efficient making the experience pleasant as far as this can be said of a hairtransplant.  The only slight pain I felt was the freezing (needles) and to be honest, going to the dentist is far more traumatic from a pain perspective than getting the proceedure done.  After the proceedure, you are given adequate pain killers which I barely used and I have a low tolerance for pain and felt perfectly fine.  You will likely get swelling around the eyes and forehead but it goes away within the week- no big deal. Plan on taking off a week to 10 days from work.  Stitches come out 14 days later if you are doing FUT … In short, on the transplant process, everyone does whats expected of them with precision timing and professionalism and the results literally speak for themselves. The worst part in getting a HT with Dr. Rahal is waiting for the hairs to grow. 

Attached, I have provided immediate post op pics, 3 weeks,  3, 4 and 5 full months pics.  Notice the immediate post op pics from the Dr. Rahal experience and the 1st HT that was not done by Dr. Rahal- only a blind man couldn’t see the difference in density!  The hairline established by Dr. Rahal was excellent and lowered to give me what I wanted given that at my age- 47, I had experienced minimal hair loss allowing me to get a more youthful hairline given that my donor area was well endowed.  Thus, far, I noticed a vast improvement in hair growth between 3 to 4 month period.  Between 1-3 months you get very modest hair growth or at least that’s what I got and everyone is different.  Between 3 – 4 months, I noticed a marked cosmetic difference.  Now at 5 months, I see that my hair is getting thicker and denser by the week. (everyone is different, some get results early and some get results later) Typically, between 4-8 months is when 70-80% of the cosmetic impact of a HT is realized leaving the last 20-30% to be realized between 8-12 months.  (typical not everyone)

Notice the hair line, undetectable that any work was done at such an early phase as the hairs are NOT fully mature yet.  At only 5 months now, no one has said anything about my hair other than utter praise that the result is looking fantastic for only 5 months.  Its in very important to achieve optimal density especially the hairline b/c if there isnt adequate density it looks unnatural and it looks like one is thinning.  Dr. Rahal is truly an artist !!  More growth, more density and more maturing is ahead of me and I expect the next 3 months to yield the biggest cosmetic impact yet.  The best is yet to come as they say !

As I have said, in my 1st post, we as patients ultimately want great results and this is what I have received thus far!  I remain very happy and continue to look forward to more growth and maturing … As they say, ” I am getting better with age and so is my hair…”  Stay tuned for next month’s results and I would be happy to answer any questions.