Hair transplant with Dr Armani

[jbitb]

Has anyone had a hair transplant with Dr Armani, what were the results like? I have done a lot of research before making a decision and have booked in a transplant with him, he has recommended 4,000 grafts which will create maximum density.

[jbitb]

Has anyone had a hair transplant with Dr Armani, what were the results like? I have done a lot of research before making a decision and have booked in a transplant with him, he has recommended 4,000 grafts which will create maximum density.

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

Armani max density PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZE!!!!

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

Ok sorry about that I hope your one of the few mega fue patients that gets max density. I just havent seen it. I use to be a fan of his but he has really let me down. The fue results have been average at best with ALOT of wasted grafts that are limited and precious. You must of did you research on that other forum. Its the ONLY one that heavily promotes Armani. That should tell you something. If you havent made a deposit I would reconsider . Its hit or miss with him at this time .Maybe in the future but right now theres NO way I would pay a ton of money for average results .He overpacks grafts to try and make up for the death of the others.

When he did strip he was awesome at times.Not anymore.

[M&M]

I agree with PGP. His strip results - ethics aside - were simply stellar. They looked fantastic with thick hairlines and awesome temple closures. What I mean by ethics, though, is that he would dense pack the same way whether the patient was a NW1 20 year old or a NW4 38 year old. He essentially caters to the young who think of it as 'not surgery' and want their old hairlines back. He overinflates the number of donor hairs available (ie. 10-15,000 grafts, when most only get 6-10,000). This is a huge variance. Wouldn't you think twice about dense packing and lowering your hairline at 22 with 3500 grafts if you thought that was close to 50% of your total eligible grafts? Of course you would. And that would be bad for business.

 

HT55 also mentions another excellent point. Although they are called 'Armani', it is similar to Bosley in that you have to find out who exactly your doctor is as they are not all created equal. A recent Armani Doctor (McMillian) did 2500 FUE to Zone 1 on a 22 year old and left a noticeable gap between the new transplanted hairline and the original native hair. How could he possibly do this? Everyone commented on the noticeable gap and it was described as 'where hair was shaved down for the transplant'. Well, lo and behold but 5 months later and he had a 'touch up' of 400 grafts. Now this 22 year old had a doctor who left a bald spot (!!) and used 3,000 grafts for Zone 1 on a 22 year old and lowered the hairline more than he originally wanted. This in my opinion is unforgiveable.

 

http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=58&threadid=78184

 

As for his FUE results, I am also quite torn on the recent results I've seen. We keep hearing about the hundreds of successful cases, but we have yet to see them posted. And, all of the cases include graft quotes about 25% higher than they were for strip.

 

My recommendation? Steer clear, at least for now, until you see more consistent FUE results, as this is all they do now.

 

Good luck!

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

Those pictures were a slap on the face by that scam artist

[TheEmperor]

Yeah, that is a joke.

 

The 5 months pics looks like they were snapped with a blurry camera phone in low lighting.

 

Things that make you go hmmm. .. .

[M&M]

The funny part is that this patient will likely then not show any progress when he takes his typical 'normal' lighting 6 months pics. His 5 month pics will look thicker due the nature of the lighting in the photography used.

 

Also interesting to note that neither rep from Armani has commented back on that thread - Shane or Pats205. I would think that someone from the clinic would want to jump in and explain the situation?

[Bill - Seemiller]

Looking at 22's 4 month photos that he took and the 5 month photos in Armani's office makes me question EVERY Armani photo on his website.

 

HT55,

 

I have made my opinion of Dr. Armani very clear however, to be fair, a lot can change in one month in any patient's case. This is referred to as the "explosion". It doesn't always happen between 4 and 5 months, but this is not uncommon.

 

Bill

[jbitb]

Thanks everyone for responding,it has been very hard choosing a surgeon as there are so many with different views.

 

Yes he has recommended more than anyone else, some doctors have recommended only 1,500 but many have said 2,500 to 3,000 mark, with these lower recommendations no one has suggested temple closure, armani state they have the technology to do more at once.

 

It is Dr armani doing the HT, i will have to pay more for this.

 

A lot of the results from his website are from strip or combinations, if his strip work was good why would he change it to fue if that is worse, i understand your point their are not that many fue results on his website but to change it to be worse does not make sense.

 

Armani seems to be gung ho with younger patients which from what i read is a worse time to get one, I am 30 and have been losing my hair for 12 yrs, i am getting my hairline restored with temple closure.

 

He is expensive but if i can ahcieve the results that i have seen i will be thrilled, his other surgeons were 50% cheaper.

 

Thank you very much for all the advice

 

Not 100% sure now.

[dakota3]

A lot of the results from his website are from strip or combinations, if his strip work was good why would he change it to fue if that is worse, i understand your point their are not that many fue results on his website but to change it to be worse does not make sense.

 

It's all about the $$$$!

[jbitb]

As long as the results are the same I am happy to pay.

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

His fue results are not even close to his strip result. What they do is free touchups to at least "eventually" give a decent result.

Thats at the expense of a ton of wasted grafts and money and time

Im rooting for Armani but at this time hes in last place with the higest payroll.

Kind of like this years Mets and Yankees .

Alot of hype with a 500 record ,if that

[Anouar]

I would def wait for fue results. They are just begining to surface. If you are really adament about Armani I would def haggle the price with them. They offered me $5 for fue and I still backed off

[M&M]

It still begs the question - how could a reputable doctor let a patient leave their care with a gap in their hairline? Plus, I'm not hearing too much about Dr. McMillian lately. I wonder if he is indeed still practicing? I'm sure Armani is not too pleased with this particular case.

[jbitb]

I am having zones 1, 2 and a little in zone 3 done, he recommended 3,500, 4,000 with temple closure. It is the front 1/3 of my head, the rest is good. I met him in person in London, I have also met 2 people that had a transplant done by him and they looked like normal hair, undetectable.

 

With photo consultations I have been recommended 3-3,500 grafts by Dr Rahal, Dr Hussain & Dr Devroye.

 

A few others have said 1,500 but I really dont think they will give me what I want.

 

$15 a graft I was quoted. I have spoken to people that work for hair loss firms in London, one a friend of an actor that had an armani transplant said it looked brilliant, another rival firm admitted that there work was excellent but they were very aggressive but armani admit that.

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

ok have fun

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

95% OF THE PEOPLE WITH GREAT ARMANI RESULTS WERE HIS STRIP PATIENTS

[Dewayne]

jbitb:

 

Here's my suggestion:

 

Change your username and type in a sentence similar to this one....

 

Has anyone ever heard anything about Dr. Wong, or Dr. Feller, or Dr. Cooley, or Dr. Alexander, or Dr. Charles, etc. etc. etc......

 

See if you get any negative feeback, or if it goes on over several days and as many posts as this one.

[M&M]

Originally posted by jbitb:

I am having zones 1, 2 and a little in zone 3 done, he recommended 3,500, 4,000 with temple closure. It is the front 1/3 of my head, the rest is good. I met him in person in London, I have also met 2 people that had a transplant done by him and they looked like normal hair, undetectable.

 

With photo consultations I have been recommended 3-3,500 grafts by Dr Rahal, Dr Hussain & Dr Devroye.

 

A few others have said 1,500 but I really dont think they will give me what I want.

 

$15 a graft I was quoted. I have spoken to people that work for hair loss firms in London, one a friend of an actor that had an armani transplant said it looked brilliant, another rival firm admitted that there work was excellent but they were very aggressive but armani admit that.

 

PGP mentioned the most important thing and that is that the patients you are meeting and the results that others are speaking of is Armani's strip procedures. Ethics aside, his results from strip were simply fantastic. Costly? Yes, especially since he charged 2x the amount of anyone else if you already had any prior work done, but the results - density, naturalness, etc. looked great.

 

But, then he changed over to strictly FUE and the results have been less than impressive.

 

Claims of 10-14,000 grafts. Haven't seen any in well over a year. Just this week I asked again... and still nothing.

 

4,000 grafts taken in one day, but the growth is less than stellar (closer to the old 3,000 graft strip sessions).

 

And just recently, one of their 'consultants' on the phone said a patient had 18,000 grafts which was 'enough to cover the head 2.5 times over'. None of which is true.

 

Anyway, if have already made up your mind, I wish you nothing but the best and certainly hope you will keep us posted on your progress afterwards right through and after 12-months.

[M&M]

HT55 - I agree with you fully. Pats seems like a good guy but he should have quickly pointed out that his first procedure was not FUE, but strip, which is no longer performed.

 

I'm also still waiting to see a 10,000 graft patient despite months (years?) of promises that they exist and 'they will be posted when the new website is launched'. I've seen the new website, but still no 10,000 graft cases. And not even Shane (who is easily 10-12 months out) has posted any updates on his FUE case. If not even the rep of Armani posts photos of his FUE results, what is a lay person like me supposed to think of the results?

[jbitb]

THanks again for your response guys but the point i mentioned earlier on - why would he change technique? I know fue is longer therefore costs more but if his results were amazing using strip then why would he change to be at a disadvantage. I only expect his results to be the same using fue, not better.

 

How long has he been doing solely fue, not as long as strip therefore there will not be as many results, there are some pure fue on website.

 

The patient i met had fue, an english guy and it loooked undetectable.

 

I will post pictures for you and keep you posted, i am not bias to armani but his results stand out a mile, i can only see his results getting better not worse.

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

This is what Dr Feller said about the drill Armani uses. He started off by saying hes not sure what he uses but its been verified by two posters . Thats why he has to place twice as many grafts in the same size area that he did with strip because alot of the grafts are too damaged to grow. Wasted grafts will haunt you some day and wasted money is never very fun.

Ive compared his strip vs his fue when it comes to similar graft count and there is no comparison. Even a national league pitcher hits a few homeruns in a season and thats all you see from their clinic. Good luck we will still be here for you .

 

I have no idea what Dr. Armani uses in his clinic, however, since someone made reference to the use of a drill like device I can offer what I know about such a device.

 

About a year or so ago I read a review in our industry journal about a new powered FUE tool by the same company that invented the "hand engine" which was the device used to drill out the big old plugs in the bad old days.

 

This new device employed stepper motors that allowed a reciprocating action which could mimick the twisting of a punch in a human hand. The frequency and degree of rotation were programmable. Clearly, the idea was to simply speed up the "scoring" process and NOT to minimize the damage to the grafts. The minimizing of destructive forces should be the number one goal of any FUE device, and any device that does not do this is a useless device indeed. In fact, this new device would cause MORE damage to fue grafts, not less.

 

I wrote a review of the device that was rejected for publication by the editors of our industry journal. They felt it was too harsh a criticism, not to mention too long. (They were right about the length). But since it came from the same inventor of the "hand engine" the device that more than other HT device caused the butchered scarring of literally thousands of innocent patients, I didn't think the review too "harsh" at all.

 

The bottom line is that while such a device will speed up the extraction process, the quality of the extraction is severely reduced. The end result will be poor growth yields as most megasession FUE surgeries already demonstrate

[TheEmperor]

Yes, I have heard one patient describe a buzzing noise from behind his head during extraction.

 

Train an army of techs to use that tool, and you have GREATLY CUT DOWN THE TIME REQUIRED BY THE DOCTOR. The doctor no longer needs to spend 2 hours extracting and closing a strip, which can be a risky proposition and which is probably where most of the liabilty lies. The doctor just needs to create slits for the grafts -- and im sure in some jurisdictions, you dont need to be a surgeone to do that -- so the surgery can be completely done by techs wielding this tool and a simple push needle to create recipient sites. It doesnt get any easier!

 

In fact, you dont need microscopes or a wide array of tools. This means you can do a procedures in about 1/4th the space which means you can schedule x4 as many patients a day. And charging them twice as much . .. what a cash cow!

 

I'm sure this is why armani has adopted FUE. 99% of the labor can be handled by techs.

 

The apparent approach they are taking is to blast an area with FUE grafts, gamble with the growth, and offer touch ups down the line for dissatisfaction. Being non-invasive, I suppoise this is easy for them, but WE all know how many grafts they are wasting.

 

I suspect that Dr. Armani tells himself that HM or gene therapy will be available in 5-10 years, so its not "unethical". Really, if you think about it.

 

[PLEASE GROW PLEASE]

Yes its true unless his own patients are lying.

Emperor you hit the nail on the head.

I heard its called the black n decker hair graft wrecker