Pat - Community Publisher

May 1, 2009

Dr. Arocha has been showing his ultra refined and large sessions of follicular units on this forum as a recommended physician for well over a year. Given these many impressive results, it came as no surprise when visiting his clinic to see that his technique and procedure are truly ultra refined.

However, I wanted to see it for myself and verify this before considering him for membership in the Coalition of Independent Hair Restoration Physicians. In my opinion he and his experienced staff have shown that they meet the demanding criteria and standards for membership in the Coalition. See Coalition standards at http://www.hairlosslearningcen...ership-standards.asp

Dr. Arocha's beautiful office studio is part art studio and part clinic, combining his interest in medicine with his talent for painting. This synergy is evident in his patient's final results, which are typically very natural.

Like so many patients I encounter during my clinic visits, the patient during the day of my visit did most of his research on the Hair Transplant Network. I enjoyed speaking with him and found him to be very well informed about hair transplantation. But what do you expect from someone who's a regular on this community 🙂

This patient in his early 40's wanted to restore and strengthen his hairline. To meet his goal of restoring a dense and natural hairline, Dr. Arocha and his staff intended to transplant approximately 3,000 follicular unit grafts.

I really liked Dr. Arocha's donor removal technique. He first scored the surface of the patient's scalp with a single blade rather than cutting all the way down past the base of the follicles, which can result in transecting (severing) the underlying follicles. Once the scoring incisions were done, he used his forceps to gently separate the follicles in the donor strip away from the underlying donor area. This minimized the chance of transecting the precious donor follicles along the edge of the donor strip.

Dr. Arocha also only took out one section of donor tissue at any given time so as to minimize the time the donor tissue and follicles were out of the body. Then when the medical techs were completing the trimming of a donor section a new section would be removed for trimming. Ultimately the donor tissue in total measured 1.2cm wide by 22cm in length.

Dr. Arocha closed the donor area by first using internal sutures to pull the subcutaneous tissues beneath the skin together. This greatly reduces the tension on the surface of the skin so it can be sutured together under minimal tension. Thus there is less tension and pulling on the external skin level sutures, which reduces the chances of stretching and scaring along the donor scar. The sutures are also more comfortable for the patients than either staples or single layer closure.

While doing such a double layer closure takes more time, I think it is optimal for the patient's healing and comfort. If I were to do another surgery, I personally would request a double layer closure.

Dr. Arocha also performs the trichophytic closure technique when he expects the surgery to be the patient's last procedure. He also took care to only shave the donor area that was removed so that the patient's hair right above the suture line could easily cover it.

Three of Dr. Arocha's medical techs ??“ Craig (9 years experience), Maria (10 years experience) and Lourdes (8 years experience) trimmed the donor tissue into follicular unit grafts, while Dr. Arocha made all the incisions for the grafts. He used the smallest incision that would accommodate the tiny grafts, while varying the angle and direction to replicate a natural hair direction.

The final graft and hair count was 572 one hair grafts, 984 two hair grafts, 921 three hair grafts, 391 four hair grafts and 187 five hair grafts ??“ for a total of 3,055 grafts comprised of 7,802 hairs.

In addition to performing a truly ultra refined top notch hair transplant procedure, I was impressed by Dr. Arocha's friendly 'bedside manner' and sense of humor. In my opinion, Dr. Arocha and his experienced staff have achieved the skill, experience and ultra refined procedure that puts their clinic on a world class standing.

To learn more about Dr. Arocha, visit his profile/recommendation at http://www.hairtransplantnetwo...Doctors.asp?DrID=636

April 25, 2009

Bobman,

You know I've seen my share of patient results. If we ever put together a before and after hall of fame you'll be at the front of the hall, close to the brightest light. As for me, after seeing the hair super stars of the past few years, I'll be putting my before and afters down the hall in a storage closet :-)

Always amazing to see you and your transformation! You are indeed a super star in the annuals of hair geekdom.

I'd wish you good luck but I don't think you need it any more.

Pat

April 5, 2009

Bill,

My first reaction in seeing your shaved head was - "My God, I work with a skin head Nazi with a zipper in his head". The Mr. T Mohawak photos didn't help either.

Thank God I know you better than judge you by your appearance. Now get busy growing some hair you greedy devil and stop alarming the members of this community.

Four weeks with staples? If you were a Catholic you'd earn enough penance to skip purgatory and go straight to hair heaven.

Best wishes for a bumper crop Zipper Head. Pat

March 16, 2009

We do not tolerate any clinic, recommended or not, encouraging their patients to cheer lead for them in exchange for compensation. That is why the very first paragraph of our forum's terms of service that every member of this forum agrees to in joining this forum states -

"All posters promoting or advocating a particular physician, procedure or treatment on this forum are required to divulge any compensation, monetary or otherwise, that they may be receiving in their posting signature. No links or references to websites or resources of a promotional nature are permitted on this educational forum."

I believe that the vast majority of clinics do not engage in covert marketing on the forums. Those who have found themselves removed. Members of this community have also be hyper vigilant about detecting such covert marketing and have helped us detect, call out and correct such behavior.

March 13, 2009

Pats,

This contract was signed not by you but by another patient of Dr. Armani's who suffered poor FUE results and is now in the process of having them repaired by a Coalition physician.

This patient signed this agreement because he wanted to get his next surgical session for free. However, in time, when he was disappointed with his results and came to feel guilty about being a covert cheerleader for your clinic he came clean and sent the contract to me.

I have spoken with him several times on the phone and I know that he was at first very fearful that he would be sued if he came clean and told the truth about the contract he signed with your office.

He certainly didn't rip off any contract that you may or may not have signed.

Pat's nice try but I don't know who in the world would buy your cover up story.

When are you going to come clean and be honest? I had hoped you might have learned a valuable lesson from the lawsuit controversy. But it appears you haven't learned a dam thing and are playing the same old games that earned you and the Armani clinic the wrath of the online patient community.

March 13, 2009

Pat's I see that you conveniently avoid my questions and information just as you do others who ask questions to hold you accountable. So what's left - more hype, chest beating and spin?

Since your claim that the contracts were only for you contradicts the information I have. I encourage you and all who are reading this topic to read the excerpts of this contract provided by one of your patients at " Free Transplants for Posting?". Pat's these excerpts from the contract should help jog your memory.

If you come on to this forum you better be prepared to answer questions and not simply evade them and hype your services.

Personally Armani and Co gets far more attention and wastes far too much energy on this forum than it deserves. There are many outstanding clinics who consistently and quietly do superb work without hype or controversy. So why should this forum devote so much attention to the Armani clinic - beyond protecting those who don't yet know the facts?

Einstein said the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Pat's it appears that you have still not learned that your spin is not fooling this community. Yet you continue to spin. Therefore you can expect to garner the same upset reactions. I suggest you stick to actual facts and answer questions if you are ever going to gain any semblance of credibility.

Pat with out the "s"

March 13, 2009

This community has a reputation for integrity because we uphold and defend the right of hair loss sufferers to express their genuine opinions and experiences, while holding physicians accountable for their actions.

However those who post must also be held accountable for their statements and actions so that our community is fair and just for all parties ??“ both patients and physicians. Thus when a poster makes an anonymous complaint about a physician it is only fair that the physician be given the opportunity to respond to such a compliant.

However, current HIPAA medical laws restrict doctors from responding without the necessary permission provided by the patient. In addition, a forum member's anonymity often prevents a surgeon from knowing who the patient is and responding at all.

Thus, in the interest of fairness, there may be times that we contact a poster and ask them to provide us with information to substantiate that they are a patient as stated. This may include the poster's full name, date of surgery, photos, and other documentation. This information will be obtained privately and a member's right to confidentiality on the forum will be protected. This information may then potentially be provided to the surgeon at our discretion so that the doctor may properly respond to the concern. The patient may also be asked to give the physician formal permission to discuss the particulars of their case.

We also ask that patients contact their physician to resolve their concerns in private before they post their concerns on our forum.

If the claims made by the poster do not prove to be genuine or are motivated by any attempt at coercion, we will make a statement to this effect on the topic where the poster has made such claims. Once our community has had an opportunity to view this update and for the public record to be set straight, we then consider archiving the post so that it can no longer be found or read.

As members of this community, we all need to do our best to assure that parties with ulterior motives do not use our forum for their unfair agendas. Just as physicians and web publishers must be accountable to high standards, so must those who have posting privileges on our forum.

We believe that it is best to take a case by case approach to each and every controversy as it arises. However, ultimately we as the moderators of the forum can't realistically be the final arbiters of 'truth'. We believe our role as the publishers should be to do what we realistically can to make our forum an even and fair playing field for all participants.

However, our attorney has often suggested that we not intervene at all in third party disputes since the Communications Decency Act of (CDA) makes it clear that web publisher and forum hosts are not liable for the statements made by others on their forum (see below).

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act - "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider". Effectively, this section immunizes ISPs and other service providers from torts committed by users over their systems, even if the provider fails to take action after actual notice.

However, while we are not required by law to intervene, we often have intervened in the interest of fairness.

Like the world at large, our community is never completely free from controversy and dissenting opinions. Believe us when we say that we wish it were as such issues can be very exhausting.

However, we are committed to balancing our hard earned reputation for running a fair and open forum with the need to assure that patients are free to share genuine experiences and physicians are not unfairly maligned on our community.

Onwards and Upwards,

Pat and Melvin - Publisher and Managing Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network Community

March 12, 2009

Pats (Eric),

You are indeed spinning your self into a deep hole faster than a high speed oil drilling bit in sand.

You need to remember that on this forum people will not be banned or spanked for calling you and Dr. Armani out nor will their genuine posts be removed.

The smart members of this forum also have excellent memories. Wantego certainly does when he recollects that there was indeed a contract presented to me by a patient of your clinic that required him to post on a regular basis in exchange for a future free surgery and threatened him with a $3,000,000.00 fine if he divulged his covert working relationship.

If you need me to jog your memory I can see that the highlights get posted here.

I suggest you keep your comments focused on actual truthful facts and steer clear of spin and misinformation.

The original Pat (without the "s")

P.S. Why did you have to choose a posting alias on this and other forums that might confuse me with you?

March 4, 2009

At the end of the day we should all be on the same team - a balding band of brothers. By pulling together to insist on transparency and accountability we have helped set the bar for the hair restoration profession/industry very high. This transparency has also applied to those hosting hair restoration websites and forums. It has kept forum moderators and publishers accountable for there actions. Farrel Manne, the publisher of Hair Loss Help, learned the hard way that no one can control or manipulate the truth indefinitely (see " Concerns about missing Armani threads on hair loss help - Farrel?"). Hopefully Farrel will some day come straight and stop falsely blaming others for his self inflicted ordeal.

We've all made mistakes. I've recommended physicians who I later regretted adding. I have caught plenty of Hell from this forum when I made such mistakes. But ultimately such mistakes were corrected.

Let's step back for a moment and see the big picture. Looking back over the past ten years there have been many up hill battles and lawsuits. Early on in particular, many physicians were extremely resistant to idea of patients critiquing them online and determining who should be recommended. Many also did not want to adopt follicular unit grafting, which was much harder for the clinic but vastly better for the patient.

But a minority of physicians who were truly patient centered and committed to quality accepted and supported our community through thick and thin. Together our patient/physician collaboration has helped revolutionize hair transplantation techniques and how patients find and share information about physicians and treatments. Together we have made hair restoration much safer and cost effective for all balding brothers who follow in our wake.

I expect that this community will continue to face lawsuits and challenges in the future. There are many who still have not accepted this community's right to exist. But this online patient community is strong and can weather and withstand even the nastiest lawsuits from the world's biggest law firm - as long as we exercise our freedoms responsibly.

See Free Speech and Accountability for more on this subject and lawsuit.

It is you and the members of this forum who will keep the entire hair restoration industry accountable and on their toes - physicians, treatment providers and web/forum publishers.

No one bats 1,000. But we all need to operate transparently knowing that our actions and decisions will be closely watched.

Onwards and Upwards, Pat

March 3, 2009

lost my swagger.

You're a real "arm chair quarterback". Where were you when we were paying tens of thousands of dollars to lawyers to fight the lawsuit? Oh yes, you were sitting back and spectating without spending a dime or months of your life fighting. Now you come online to criticize me and state that "this end is not a good one".

Bill and I could have settled this situation months ago at far less cost and aggravation if we had been willing to "bow down". But we were unwilling to compromise the free speech and integrity of this community and continued the long and costly fight to assure that these rights would not be impaired.

No doubt if I handed you a solid gold bar you'd complain that it was too heavy to carry.

March 3, 2009

PGP (aka Dr. Bosely), did you not read my above post?

March 3, 2009

Guys,

As many of you may know, it is typical that when a lawsuit is settled both parties are sworn not to divulge the details of it. Thus while me and everyone on this forum are free to express our opinions about Dr. Armani and any other physician, I'm not free to discuss the final settlement or gloat about it. To do so would invite yet another lawsuit.

However, thanatopsis_awry clearly understands why with the lawsuit gone the lawsuit topic has to go. I also appreciate that he knows my record and intentions and trusts them.

I agree that some real gems were posted by many of us on the lawsuit topic. I appreciate everyones efforts to shine bright lights on all the issues discussed in the lawsuit topic.

Together our vigilance and posts set the record straight and made it clear that our free speech would not be suppressed. I'm not sure that all our members fully appreciate the significance of what we accomplished here together.

However, that topic has served its purpose. The lawsuit is gone and so will the lawsuit topic. But hundreds of topics and posts critiquing Dr. Armani and his techniques will remain. One need only click on our "Find" feature and search for "Armani" to see this.

In addition, we are all free to again post our thoughts and experiences in existing or new topics on this forum regarding Dr. Armani or any other physician or technique.

The bottom line is we fought the good fight at great expense and our rights to free speech on this forum remain intact 100%! Let's be glad for what we accomplished and move ahead.

March 2, 2009

Byehair,

Your subject of this topic "Dr. Armani silences all critics" is complete conspiratorial bullshit.

I have fought hard and long for years to tell the truth about Armani and Co, while people called me a fool for not promoting him. But as we all now know - the truth came out - despite all the cheer leading, spinning and efforts at damage control.

Because of my many critical statements and those made by others on this forum, this community and myself were sued by Dr. Armani in June of 2008. Bill (our forum moderator) and I then successfully fought this lawsuit tooth and nail for months and at great expense.

The end result - all the members of this forum, including myself, continue to have the right to express their opinions and experiences with Dr. Armani and all physicians.

I never have nor will I ever let anyone put a muzzle on me or this community. I have not revised my opinion of Dr. Armani nor any of my many comments, which can be easily found by using our "Find" feature to search for them.

Byehair get your facts straight before you make and spread ignorant and incorrect assumptions.

February 24, 2009

Hopeful,

I certainly share your concerns. Lord knows I spent a great deal of time contributing info to this Armani Lawsuit topic as did many others.

But I decided that once the lawsuit was resolved that the lawsuit topic will have served its purpose - once everyone has their final say.

However, much of the information in this topic exists in the hundreds of other posts about Dr. Armani and his procedures on this forum. If posters use the "Find" feature to search for "Armani" they will find hundreds of posts expressing opinions and experiences regarding Dr. Armani and his clinic.

Posters are also free to post the same or similar comments in other new or existing topics as well - if they think it is appropriate.

Believe me I would not agree to any resolution that compromised the hard fought for integrity of this community or hindered any of our rights to free speech.

For more on this subject visit "Free Speech and Accountability on this Forum".

Onwards and Upwards, Pat

February 24, 2009

During the past several years this community has fought several lawsuits that were brought by physicians who were upset with comments made on this forum.

Rather than compromise, we have fought these lawsuits to preserve the integrity of our community. These legal battles have been expensive. Last year alone the Hair Transplant Network community paid over $100,000 in legal fees to preserve the right of forum members to post their genuine opinions and experiences.

The freedom of expression that we all enjoy on this forum is far from free. But the integrity of this forum and the need to hold physicians accountable for their results and actions is worth the price. We fully expect to continue to defend this hard fought for freedom for all our forum members no matter what the price.

Ultimately we want our forum to be free and open as well as fair and just to all participants both patients and physicians. Therefore just as we expect physicians to be held responsible for their actions we expect those who post to be responsible for their actions.

'Free Speech' is only protected by the law when it is free from intentionally malicious and false statements. Thus if we find that a post or poster is not genuine we reserve the right to remove such posts.

However, we will continue to vigorously defend the right of this community to host comments the good, the bad and the ugly about any and all subjects and clinics (recommended or not) when the poster/post is genuine.

Over the past ten years this community and its members have helped revolutionize the hair transplant profession. We have demanded the very best in techniques and results and many leading physicians have risen to the challenge and provided them.

At the very heart of these advances has been public ACCOUNTABILITY. The members of this forum community have held the hair restoration profession and the publishers of this community accountable for their actions. Thus physicians operate knowing that today's patients may be tomorrow's poster. We also carefully choose the physicians we recommend based on input from this patient based community knowing that our decision will be publicly scrutinized.

It's free speech on this forum that makes this accountability possible. That is why free speech is essential and why we will continue to pay the price needed to defend it.

Thanks to all the members of this forum for being the heart and soul of this community. We encourage you to post your thoughts and suggestions on the issue below.

Pat

January 2, 2009

Joe,

I can only imagine how demanding you will be in evaluating results with laser vision :-)

I actually did lasik in Vancouver about ten years ago. It was the most positive life changing medical procedure I ever had - next to hair transplants and my calf implants, of course.

Look for my calf implant before and afters on the soon to debut CalfImplantsNetwork.comm

Enjoy the sights, Pat

December 23, 2008

Who here believes in the expression "the truth shall set you free"? Does anyone believe that this so called "contract" can legally stop people from telling the truth?

Based on all the information I've seen over the years, in my opinion, Dr. Armani and Co. have conspired to manipulate the online patient forums by compensating patients for praising them on a daily basis and threatening to "fine" them $3,000,000 if they disclose the truth. Obviously this only works as long as their so called "partners" continue to be fearful of telling the truth.

Those who have signed such agreements and would like to discuss their experience are welcome to call our attorney, Deanna Shullman, of Thomas & LoCicero at (866) 967-2009. She's extremely bright, friendly and eats frivolous lawsuits for breakfast.

I look forward completely pulling back the curtain to reveal the scared little wizard manipulating the knobs and levers that control all the smoke and thunder.

Pat

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke

December 22, 2008

As many of you know, we are involved in litigation with Dr. Armani (see Dr. Armani Lawsuit Against the Hair Transplant Network ). We have been gathering ample evidence from patients, medical technicians and physicians to support our case. However, our attorney has advised us not to present all of this evidence publicly at this time.

The "contract" that I excerpted on this topic has been circulated by a number of Armani patients. Frankly, to those of us in the industry who share information, it's old news and no surprise.

We invite people to continue contacting us to provide more information about Dr. Armani and his staff and their medical and marketing practices. As you might imagine, we have a wealth of information already. But we welcome even more information.

As always, those who would like to share their information publicly by posting it should feel comfortable doing so on this forum.

Thanks for everyone's support in exposing and ending these abuses.

Pat

December 18, 2008

Apparently Dr. Alvi Armani has been offering some of his patients a free transplant if they join his online cheer leading squad. Interested parties are invited contact Dr. Armani or one of his agents. However, we advise that you carefully read all the fine print first.

According to the "Independent Partner Contract" that some of Dr. Armani's patients have signed, "The Independent Partner must participate on the globally recognized hair loss forums as per instructions from Alvi Armani. Participation in the forums must be daily and answers to queries from forum participants must be prompt."

Section 8 of this "contract" states - "The Independent Partner agrees not to make any negative comments or remarks about Alvi Armani, affiliates, related businesses, management, directors, and staff during or after the cancellation or termination of this contract."

Is it any wonder there were so many glowing daily testimonials about Dr. Armani on forums other than this one (we long ago recognized this covert marketing and prohibited it on this forum)?

The catch is that if the patient divulges the existence of this covert agreement they will be "fined" $3,000,000. This is detailed in section 9 "Breach of clauses 5 to 8 of this contract by the Independent Partner has a fine of U.S. $3,000,000.00. Breach of contract will be sufficient reason for contract cancellation."

However, if you do his bidding for 18 months you will get a complimentary FUE procedure, which might even grow hair.

"3. The above marketing contribution will be exchanged for a complimentary FUE Hair Transplant procedure which will be authorized by Alvi Armani once the above has been achieved."

What fantasy land does Dr. Alvi Armani live in that he thought he could slip this one by and deceive the online patient community forever? To his credit he did get away with this for years over at Hair Loss Help (read all about it on Concerns about it at " Missing Armani threads on hair loss help - Farrel? ". But not on this site.

Dr. Armani tried to intimidate us with a lawsuit that continues to be pending in court but we've held our ground. To see how that lawsuit is working out for Dr. Armani visit " Dr. Armani Lawsuit Against the Hair Transplant Network".

So any takers?

December 18, 2008

latinlotus,

Helping the good guys like you not get ground through the mill is one of the reasons this forum exists. You've certainly paid it forward to this forum many times over.

Pat

December 18, 2008

PLEASE GROW PLEASE,

I see you must be reading the same Dr. Armani "Independent Partner Contract" that I've read. As you know, some of Dr. Armani's patients signed it and agreed to covertly post patient testimonials on the forums on a regular basis as online cheerleaders in exchange for free additional follicles. It's interesting reading isn't it?

I found the clause stating that patients would be fined $3,000,00.00 US if they divulged the contract or made any negative statements particularly disgusting.

"9. Breach of clauses 5 to 8 of this contract by the Independent Partner has a fine of U.S. $3,000,000.00. Breach of contract will be sufficient reason for contract cancellation."

I also found paragraph C and D interesting:

"C. The Independent Partner must participate on the globally recognized hair loss forums as per instructions from Alvi Armani. Participation in the forums must be daily and answers to queries from forum participants must be prompt. Alvi Armani's local Consultant will be responsible in part for your progress and must be informed of the progress at all times."

Is it any wonder there were so many glowing daily testimonials about Dr. Armani on Hair Loss Help?

"D. The Independent Partner will be provided with an e-mail address that is available/accessible to Alvi Armani to view responses and frequency. . . "

Now that's great customer service and surveillance.

"3. The above marketing contribution will be exchanged for a complimentary FUE Hair Transplant procedure which will be authorized by Alvi Armani once the above has been achieved.

"8. The Independent Partner agrees not to make any negative comments or remarks about Alvi Armani, affiliates, related businesses, management, directors, and staff during or after the cancellation or termination of this contract."

So let me recap, as long as the patient sings Dr. Armani's praises each day with no negative comments or remarks he or she will not have to pay a $3,000,000 fine and will get a complimentary FUE procedure with power drill that might possibly grow hair?

What fantasy land does Dr. Alvi Armani live in that he thought he could slip this one by and deceive the online patient community forever? To his credit he did get away with this for years. But not on this site.

In my opinion, now that many of his patients are mad as Hell about their FUE results not living up to the hype, the cheer leading squad is turning into a lynch mob. They and a few other hair heroes certainly light some torches and stormed the castle gate over at Hair Loss Help. From what I see they succeeded in crossing the moat, breaking down the door and tossing Armani off the tower wall, while Farrel Manne sought refuge in the dungeon where he has locked himself in.

I suppose Armani will now have to seek refuge on an obscure fringe forum with the other doctor refuges/rejects. Dr. Armani certainly can't hide on this forum since he was called out a long long time ago by the bright members of this forum community who have a dam good nose for BS.

Sure he tried to intimidate us with a lawsuit that continues to be pending in court but we've held our ground. To see how that lawsuit is working out for Dr. Armani visit " Dr. Armani Lawsuit Against the Hair Transplant Network ". But we've been standing up to Armani and his legal intimidating over here for years so bring it on.

As for Mr. Grimm Reaper,

It's fools like you who make false, baseless and anonymous accusations that almost make free speech seem like a bad idea. You strike me as the type of person who would scream fire in a crowded room to exercise your free speech and then enjoy watching people being trampled to death :-)

Have you just come by to drop poison in the well here or do you have anything to contribute?

Yeah, Spencer Kobren is a real champion of the hair loss sufferer. Kobren promoted Dr. Alvi Armani as a member of his IAHRS physician group until removing him from the IAHRS only several days ago. In my opinion, Spencer knew for well over a year that Dr. Armani had numerous ethical issues such as deceptive advertising, misleading claims, covert paid posters on the forums and more recently numerous reported problems with his FUE procedure. Anyone who has been active on the forums in recent months could hardly avoid knowing this.

Yet only after Dr. Armani was virtually run off the Internet did he have his named removed from the IAHRS membership list. Did Armani run out of money to pay him or did Kobren decide that Armani had become so discredited that having Dr. Armani at the top of his recommended physician list was too much of a political liability?

There are other physicians recommended by Spencer Kobren who were shown the door on this site years ago and for good reason. But that doesn't stop Kobren from collecting their checks.

Reeper, have fun hanging out with your buddy Kobren on his site. You two seem like a good fit to me :-)

December 13, 2008

After 7.5 years of part time graduate school at Philadelphia Biblical University, Bill will graduate today with a masters degree in Christian Counseling. Apparently they did not offer an advanced degree in hair loss counseling or course work in miraculously multiplying hair follicles. But hopefully some of his course work will apply to this forum :-)

I expect that Bill will be able to throw his cap high up in the air during the graduation ceremony today without worrying about showing a bald scalp.

I have great respect for Bill's integrity, compassion and willingness to work extremely hard to help others. Is it any wonder that he pursued advanced work in counseling.

Bill, now get back into class and get that Phd so we can finally call you Dr. Bill. It has a nice ring to it.

Pat

December 4, 2008

I want to thank the members of this patient based community for the feedback they have posted and emailed to us privately.

I was aware that Dr. Jones' reputation was tainted a few years ago by complaints and concerns that were posted on various forums regarding the FUE procedure that he was providing and promoting.

My impression was that at that time Dr. Jones' FUE procedure in many cases disappointed both patients and ultimately Dr. Jones.

More recently Dr. Jones approached me to let me know that he was now focused on doing state of the art follicular unit hair transplantation using strip harvesting, while FUE was now being used on only limited candidates.

While I had my concerns and reservations, I felt that Dr. Jones deserved the chance to post examples of his more recent strip surgery results on this forum community. During the past few weeks, at our invitation, he did present several sets of patient photos and highlights of his current surgical techniques. I felt that the results he presented did appear to be solid and did merit that we at least consider the possibility of him being recommended.

To garner maximum input from the online patient community and from leading hair transplant physicians, we created this topic and sent a newsletter to the members of this forum inviting them to post their input and experiences.

While I knew there might be some controversy, I had thought that we might also hear from more recent patients of Dr. Jones who had positive experiences. So far the input we have gotten, as reflected in this topic, has not been encouraging.

Based upon the current feedback that we have gotten I do not believe that we can have the confidence in Dr. Jones to recommend him at this time.

Again, I appreciate everyones input and involvement with our review process.

November 28, 2008

Latinlotus,

Congratulations on what appears to be an outstanding surgery. The work look very refined, clean and the density looks great - without it going overboard. Your post op healing also seems excellent.

You've done a great deal of research online and have also helped others focus on getting the best results. You certainly deserve the first rate results you've gotten.

Pat

November 19, 2008

Hard to imagine, but in only one year Bill has gone from 5,000 to 10,000 plus posts - shattering all old records - which he previously set.

No forum member, including me, is even remotely close to this 10,000 post mark. So do we need a new title once again to acknowledge his posting karma?

"Follicular Grand Wizard" was chosen when Bill reached 5,000 plus posts. But now what - "Divine Follicular Wizard"? I'm open to suggestions.

I want to thank Bill for tirelessly answering peoples concerns on this forum and through the many messages he answers and for the excellent articles he regularly writes for our Q & A Blog and the news section of the Network.

Onwards and Upwards, Pat

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