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?

Originally posted by hopefull:

Originally posted by thanatopsis_awry:

He did have a doctor who does strip & FUE (Bisanga) evaluate his procedure and he stated ~30-40% yield.

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

Originally posted by PLEASE GROW PLEASE:

Yes you escaped with only some bruises and will be ok.

Umar uses a drill now and so does Dr True if you look in open topics their rep orangehair wont answer my question about pics.

Believe it or not Stingray your actually a hero to more guys then you think.

I know two guys that very much want to post their pics but are scared for different reasons.

Their results are similar to yours except alot more wasted grafts.

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.

Originally posted by lanthanos:

In my opinion Stingray you are a hero and inspiration. I think you've single handedly shut up a lot of questionable new posters asking for pics.

 

If the Armani clinic hasn't contacted you in months, I'm sure they will now. If you can, please let us know how they treat you.

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

Originally posted by hopefull:

Emperor makes some very good points...but i have to disagree on one thing, this is not how 2500 grafts should look like given the fact that they were used on the hairline and temples only.And thick native hair dont look thin in the picture

 

I ve seen results where doctors use that number of grafts on larger areas and to tell you the truth the result is about the same as this one on the same area.Doctors use the grafts strategically to create an illusion, because that what transplant are an illusion of density, compe them differently expose your self to winds, water and other lements of nature and the illusion starts to loose its effect.

 

Question that rises in thsi case is...

 

1.Poor growth?

 

2.Dense packing is overrated?

 

3.People were misleaded for years to think that they can have superthick hairlines if they went to the magic doctor when in fact only an illusion of density can be created and when different pictures appear the truth is revealed?

 

4.The hairloss dugs and transplants on people with minimal hairloss(relying on drugs something that transplant surgeons didnt have before) is the true revolution of the hair transplant industry and thats why the after pictures look so good

 

5. Manipulating pictures showing only the best angles

 

I think its a combination of all five...and to tell you the truth my best advice to stingray would be not to have another procedure over the same area.Keep what you got, you are not butchered or anything but adding more grafts to that area might be a waste.think of the future and think of your self.Propably the clinic would through in another thousand so that you dont complain online and other doctors would try to make it better ...but is it really that bad to have another procedure for the hairline and temples?Cant you just live with it and forget more transplants?

 

the way i see it you are not a failed case you were misleaded and misinformed from the start.

And for this there are many people to be blamed in these online communities

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:

Originally posted by spex:

Hi Stingray - hope you are well.

 

Some refinement does appear warranted. All the very best with it mate

 

Best Regards

Spex

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

Originally posted by latinlotus:

Welcome to the forum Stingray. How much do you think was your yield?

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.

Originally posted by Reverse the Curse:

mike

if you want to see an honest pic of dr armani FUE go on hlh & you will find. i would post it here but patient does not want it copied. i guess you only need to see 2 more bad patients now.

rtc

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.