My FUE Procedure With Dr Rahal (mattj)

[mattj]

Hey guys,

I’m probably familiar to many of you as Dr Rahal’s forum representative and patient advisor, a position I’ve held for a number of years now. Well, as the title suggests, now I am posting as a patient!

I first discovered Dr Rahal when early onset male pattern baldness propelled me into the online hair loss community. The results he created always looked more natural, higher in density and simply more appealing that those being produced by other doctors. I had no idea that this sort of work was even possible! After talking with him at length, my decision was made - it would be Dr Rahal who would perform my hair transplant.

Then he asked me to work for him. Why? Well, I’m never one to jump into a decision, so in the lead up to choosing Dr Rahal I had done a heck of a lot of research and accumulated a fair bit of knowledge. Dr Rahal felt that this knowledge, together with my desire to help people, would make me a good addition to his team.

So if I’m working for Dr Rahal, why didn’t I have my procedure immediately? Personal reasons. Life. Things got in the way. Fast-forward to 2013 and the time was right, a date was set and here I am wearing the blue protective cap.

I underwent an FUE procedure totaling 2502 grafts.

Waiting Days

I arrived in Ottawa a few days before the procedure and this allowed me time to drop into the office and finally meet some of the staff who, until that moment, had existed to me as voices on the phone. A surreal experience, to say the least. Everyone at the office is extremely nice and friendly and it was a pleasure to spend some days in their company.

There was only one place to stay and that was Brookline Guesthouse. As many of you know, this B&B-style house is for exclusive use by Dr Rahal’s patients, is very convenient and we do encourage out-of-town patients to stay here. As expected, I really loved Brookline and was glad to see some familiar faces belonging to patients who had consulted with me. It deserves a separate write-up, which is coming soon.

Procedure Day

On the morning of the procedure, I turned up for my pre-op photos and consult with Dr Rahal, during which he drew the hairline position onto my head. A few strokes of the pen and it was done. I’m used to seeing pre-op photos so I could easily picture how the result would look once the pen line becomes a hairline.

After this I donned the surgical gown and Mike (the head technician) shaved my head. Patients always speak very highly of Mike. He’s a very nice guy who is highly skilled and has a sort of calming presence. You’re always glad when he’s in the room.

The extractions begin! I'm under there somewhere.

The procedure itself is broken into three key stages: extractions, incisions and implantation.

For the extractions, I was lying on my front, facing down and then to either side, allowing access to the full width of my donor area. I fell asleep. I drooled.

For the incisions, I was seated at around 45 degrees. Dr Rahal didn’t seem to mind me yapping, which surprised me as I thought talking would cause me to move and I’d be politely told to shut up.

Incisions being made


This is going on in another room. So many people involved!

For the planting of the grafts, I was seated at the same angle as the technicians efficiently placed the grafts into the incisions. The movie I chose to watch couldn’t hold my attention and I think I fell asleep a few times.
Duration - This was quite a lengthy procedure. The day was undeniably a long one, but I’ve had many ordinary days in my life that were more grueling than this one. The majority of the day was spent in quite a relaxed state as I was immobile, numb to the work being carried out and tired due to lack of a proper nights rest.

Pain and discomfort – as many HT patients before me have mentioned, the most painful part is the numbing injections. How painful will depend on your threshold. However, they’re over quickly and from then on I felt only the sensation of scalp contact – prodding and pushing – rather than pain. Later in the evening I had a bit of a headache, but in the days which followed, the only discomfort was some tenderness in the donor area when scrubbing it clean.

On the second day after the procedure, I no longer had any excuse not to go to work. Some of the other patients coming and going must have wondered why a fellow patient is sat at a computer terminal in the office! The ones who were staying at Brookline knew the answer.

I will be updating frequently over the next 12 months and beyond and hope you’ll follow with interest. I can tell you that I’m looking forward to finally having a Rahal hairline to call my own! Although it’s still early days and I’m wearing a hat, I actually feel a new sense of confidence just knowing what is beneath the hat and what it will become.

Mike removes the bandages

[chrisis]

Congrats on your procedure Matt. It's funny that mine is so soon after, just over a week now

Can I ask what hairline you went with and what led you to that choice? This is still something that's troubling me.

I look forward to seeing your photos and hearing about your progress. Looks like we'll be updating almost simultaneously, which will be very interesting as Dr Feriduni and Dr Rahal are two of the very best!

[Spex]

Congrats mate - welcome the the HT club

You are a great asset to Dr Rahal and his team and his patients are fortunate to have you as his representative. You are now his patient and this will only even increase you existing credibility even further, so well done!



You are a gentleman and and a well deserved recipient of what will undoubtedly be a remarkable HT. You know my thoughts on Dr Rahal. One of the very best!

I very much look forward to seeing your pictures and watching your transformation occur over time.

Best
Spex

[chrisdav]

Congratulations Mattj.

Look forward to seeing you progress and no doubt you will keep us updated.

[Still-Researching]

Congrats Mattj,
You are lucky and surely in good hands as you know, we can't wait to see the results.
Cheers

[garageland]

Congratulations on your procedure Matt, look forward to seeing the photos and following your progress.

[SL]

Hi Mattj

Welcome to the other side and as said it will really help with your work when you can speak in the first person and say "When I was in the chair" and even though I am sure you have great knowledge it will only add to the package when you've been through it firsthand.

All the best for your healing and growth and look forward to the updates.

[d2001chen]

Very clear explanation of the day of the procedure. Congratulations. Looking forward to more details on your progress.

[mattj]

Thanks guys. Time to get past the shyness and ante up with the photos.

Here are the pre-ops, taken the morning of my procedure. I never saw myself from above so it was a shock to see how deep the temporal recession was. Taken very early in the morning - much earlier than 'normal' patients need to arrive.

[mattj]

And here I am the next day. Another surprise was how much I liked the buzz cut.