Stingray

I don't really want to get massively involved in this but felt now would be a good time to remind people of my Armani results. My results are a long way shy of the 95% growth rates promised to me.

I think your FUE HT would need to be near on perfect in order to pull this off with complete confidence. I am not saying it isn't possible but there are many factors you need to have just right: 1: Matching density 2: Matching angulation 3: The caliber of hair must match 4: White dot scarring 5: If you continue to recede behind your HT then it is impossible to hide when you buzz it down I know I can't get away with the buzzed down look but I did have a bad HT. To conclude, I wouldn't count on it.

Hairjordan Thanks for the update. How much swelling did you have post-op? Thanks SR

Good luck JMorgan. Am sure you will have a great result. Keep us posted. SR

Do not let Armani touch your head. Stingray'a Armani Result

Chanyouzhe I am very sorry to see your results. Unfortunately it is all too normal for the Armani clinic. For the amount of loss you have I would consult with a respected strip surgeon (Hasson & Wong, Dr Ron Shapiro, Dr Feller etc) to see if they can get your hair back to where you want it to be. I would strongly advise against letting Armani touch your head again. SR

Hi LMS I am exploring options for getting a 2nd FUE procedure to recreate the hairline and get me back to where I would like to be. On the one hand I would really love to get my hair sorted so I don't have to constantly worry about it. On the other, the prospect of going through the whole procedure, travel, downtime, doldrums, anxiety, expense, hiding it from people etc is not something I am looking forward to. SR

7000 in one shot is a monster HT. It is gonna change your life. Just wait till those babies kick in.

I had a transplant with Armani. My thread is here: Stingray's Armani HT

Abedog Thanks for the updates. My redness lingered for about 5 months. It's a huge pain. How are your sides recovering. It looks like you had shockloss but I haven't really heard about that happening with FUE. Is it thickening up again? How do you account for it? All the best, SR

Balboa I had those bumps too and they do get less pronounced with time. I wouldn't say that I have no recipient scarring but it is nowhere near as bad as it was at 5 months and it even continued to improve past 12 months. I think the consensus from everyone including Pats and Dr Bisanga is that there isn't anything you can do until you have your final result. I know it isn't easy but I think you will have to wait it out and make a decision then. Try not to stress about it. I know as well as anyone how frustrating it is not to get it right first time but at least it is fixable. Good luck to you. SR

That is one of the best results from a single HT that I have ever seen. I would say that it is down to good hair characteristics. He appears to have pretty coarse hair. He styles it straight back which is going to make it look thicker. Note it doesn't look so hot when he brushes it forward. The vast majority of the grafts were placed on top of the head and the crown got very few. This makes the hairline look particularly good. Also, in the video when he is brushing his hair the lighting is a tad dark. He has been fair with the pics though and there are times when the hair is pretty see through. All in all an amazing result. Certainly not the norm for that many grafts.

The question is: how come it is only Belgium that is producing good results? Why is it that there is not one decent FUE or Strip surgeon in the UK? It is not like there isn't a market for it. Any thoughts?

Really???!!! Yes, as I stated earlier Dr Bisanga thought I had somewhere between 30-40% growth. I even said that I thought this was a low estimate but not too far off the mark. As for pics - they were taken with my macbook so , yes, they are not of the greatest quality. I am in the middle of a move and my digital camera is somewhere buried in a box. However, I took hi-res pics back in December (13 Months post op) which I sent to Pats. I have attached them here. Emperor, I would be interested to hear if you still think that my expectations were too high and what density you estimate the left side to be. LEFT SIDE RIGHT SIDE

Thank you. I have also been in touch with a couple other Armani patients who have similar feelings to me about their results. I am definitely not an isolated case.

Thank you very much. Reading that really meant a lot to me.

Hopeful, I understand what you are saying but I don't think this is a case of me having too high expectations. I knew going into this (despite what Dr's and reps told me) that a HT is the illusion of hair and in no way was I expecting to have the thickness of my teenage hairline, or even the thickness of my existing hair. And in all probability I would be fine with where I am even if both sides were as strong as my right side. I could live with a thin hairline but the hairline on the left side is non existent. I am lucky that at the moment I have enough native hair that I can fashion it into an acceptable hairstyle but there are times when that area is exposed and it screams "Hair Transplant". I take great care with styling products, haircuts and sometime concealer to minimize how often this happens. It is down to the forums that I went in with what I think were realistic expectations. I don't think it is unreasonable to have expected more than 50% growth. I knew that there was an element of risk by going with Armani but I was willing to take that risk as I was lured in by his ability to do 2425 FUE in one day. Saying that I am glad that I didn't do more grafts as he suggested. I am also glad that the hairline is a little bit conservative. I am happy with the design and I think it is age appropriate (I am 32). Although docs have quoted me a figure of 1500+ to recreate the hairline I am in fact leaning more towards a figure like 1000. I hope that this would be enough to essentially repair the left side and provide a little bit of thickening for the most sparse areas. My hope is that 1000 will at least allow it to look natural and to give up concealers for the next few years. Worrying about whether your dermmatch is going to come off on a woman's pillow sucks!! This should hopefully leave me in the region of 6000 grafts (through FUE and Strip) to allow me further coverage as my hair-loss progresses. Hopefully the Fin and minox will maintain what I have or there will be some fantastic new development to allow me to maintain my hair but in the likely event that my hairloss does continue that should leave me with enough grafts to have a thin but natural looking head of hair even if I one day I will have to accept a bald crown. Luckily at the moment my hair is holding up and at 32 I have a lot less loss than many. What I do know is I am not letting Armani's drill touch my head again. I figure I have lost about 1200 grafts (mostly single hair) which is upsetting but not the end of the world. I still have options. On HLH there was the suggestion that Dr Umar uses a drill. If this is true I would urge caution.

Thanks for all the replies. They are much appreciated. To answer some of the questions: 1) I haven't asked for any money back at this stage. I will certainly talk to PATS about it. 2) I haven't had any contact with the clinic in a few months since they offered the "touch-up". For a while I was considering it and only in the last month or so have decided to decline it. 3) It was Dr Armani himself who made the incisions and supervised the procedure 4) The hairline is not actually that low. It would probably be considered a NW2. And is higher than the hairline that DR Armani wanted to place. Unsurprisingly he wanted me to go with 1000 more grafts and square off the hairline more. There is no way that this could be considered a typical result. There is virtually no hairline at all on the left side and the right is thin at best. I have been quoted in the region of 1500 grafts by a number of DRs to repair it. As requested here is a pic one day post op:

Ha, thanks Spex. I think "some refinement" might be a bit of an understatement. If Dr Feller plans a trip over to the UK anytime soon for consults please do let me know. Best, SR

Thanks Swagger for your kind words. Although there is no concealer in these pics I do switch between Dermmatch and Toppik depending on the occasion, weather and how long my hair is. Thanks Latinlotus - Dr Bisanga thinks somewhere between 30-40% but I think that might be a a bit low. It is hard to say. Certainly nowhere near the 95-100% promised prior to the procedure.

I have now posted the pics over here too. Here is the link Stingray's Armani FUE

Hello, I am a regular poster on HLH and some of you will already be familiar with my case. Here are some pics taken today from my HT of 2425 FUE back in November 2007. I am not going to comment too much on them as I feel that the pics tell the story pretty clearly. None of the pics have any concealer. The first 4 pics are how I wear my hair normally and the next two are what I hope no one sees in everyday life. Finally there is a before pic. Dr Armani's office via PATS has offered to do a touch-up but I have decided that I don't want to risk damaging any more grafts and I think the amount of grafts needed to get me to where I want to be could in no way be described as a "touch-up". I am currently thinking about Dr Bisanga or HDC to get my hairline to where I would like it to be. Please note I DO NOT give permission for these pictures to be used anywhere outside of this specific thread.