HT with Armani? Doesn't his method make sense at all? Please help.

[NYCguy]

I am 26 and most likely going to get an HT from Dr. Alvi Armani in couple months. I've read a lot of things on this site that make me a little nervous about him and suspicious of his intensions, but his reasoning behind the way he works is seems logical to me.

 

Please give me your opinion on this; Someone on his staff told me that it's a matter of preference. Alvi gives a thick full frontal hairline and then implants less in the mid to crown area of the head due to the amount of donor hair a person has and people who come to him would prefer to have a thick frontal hairline and be thinner in the back especially since u can rely on propecia, rogaine and products like topik for the mid to corwn area.

 

Doesn't that make some sense? Or is there something else that I don't know about. Please help.

[NYCguy]

I am 26 and most likely going to get an HT from Dr. Alvi Armani in couple months. I've read a lot of things on this site that make me a little nervous about him and suspicious of his intensions, but his reasoning behind the way he works is seems logical to me.

 

Please give me your opinion on this; Someone on his staff told me that it's a matter of preference. Alvi gives a thick full frontal hairline and then implants less in the mid to crown area of the head due to the amount of donor hair a person has and people who come to him would prefer to have a thick frontal hairline and be thinner in the back especially since u can rely on propecia, rogaine and products like topik for the mid to corwn area.

 

Doesn't that make some sense? Or is there something else that I don't know about. Please help.

[MrJobi]

Hi NYC

 

First, do a search on here to see the feedback for yourself. From what I have viewed on here, it seems some object to the strategy of utilizing limited donor hair for dense packing the frontal area on younger patients without thinking about future loss which comes with MPB & age.. Personally, I prefer a more cautious approach in order to plan for long term.. It would look odd in my opinion to have a full dense front and then significant hairloss in the mid to back region.. Minoxidil and Proprecia can only do so much .. You have to make the decesion for yourself but I would suggest getting multiple opinions if you havent done so already. This goes for any doctor regardless of who they are

 

Good luck

[NervousNelly]

NYC,

 

It definitely is a preference thing and from what I have heard and seen, he does appear to be a very skilled physician. However...

 

The previous poster made some good points. You have to be very concerned about the future. At your age you might be able to restore the frontal region to keep the appearance of youth for several more years, but once you start to lose more hair, things might look odd.

 

Regardless of propecia, toppik or other products you will likely lose more hair and if it is substantial you could end up with a strange appearance. I think that most of us on this site will argue the importance of the hairline but not to the extent of utilizing all of the donor hair. This is not wise and in my opinion is unethical for the physician to do so at a young age.

 

I would avoid Armani. If you have researched this site you will have noticed that we all recommend the coalition physician members. There are I believe 3 in NYC area. Good luck.

[the B spot]

Work from "middle out" or "front to back" ?

 

That is the real question.

 

I have stated several times that I no longer argue the methodology employed by the Armani clinic and others.

 

When I mentioned the finite donor supply, they simply began to quote donor supply estimates of 12-15000 grafts, so my argument is essentially non-plussed.

 

The facts are quite simple-- you only have a certain amount of donor, regardless of what you may hear.

 

Any "frontloading" of a HT can result in disaster later in life.

 

Anyway, the choice is yours, but have a plan in place.

 

Just for the record, I would LOVE to go to Dr. Shapiro and say "I want this low, dense hairline, I don't care about the future, or I will take my chances" Regardless of what I want or how much money I have, he will refuse me, period. My donor will not allow me to do this, and I am only 30.

 

At 26 you have some really big questions to answer and the choices you make will have life-long ramifications, so choose wisely.

 

I have been in your shoes, so I feel for you.

Just make sure you use your head instead of your heart when you make a decision.

Have a Safe, Happy Holiday!!!1

[NYCguy]

Thanks guys, I really do appreciate it.

I've actually seen two NYC HT docs and they both turned me down...Feller and Bernstein

 

You're right B spot it is hard...Do I want to be happy for the next say 10 - 15 maybe 20 - 25yrs (I only have a receding hairline - everything else is full, but my head looks sooo odd like this..)or do I just wait 5 - 10 yrs and feel like an outcast among my friends, who happen to all have insane full heads of hair, and just feel old b4 my time, and get an HT from a coalaition doc...I know there are much bigger problems in life, but this is a hair site ! lol

[Pat - Community Publisher]

NYCguy,

 

Welcome to our community. There is always a hair transplant physician who will do surgery on a patient when other physicians, for ethical reasons, choose not to take their money and do their surgery. If you continue looking you will always find a surgeon willing to take your money.

 

You stated that both Dr. Feller and Dr. Bernstein said no to your money, yet apparently Dr. Armani is ready and willing. That says it all as far as I'm concerned and I've heard this same song time and time again.

 

Just because one can use a small blade and poke holes closer together and charge you for each one doesn't mean they should. Knowing when, how and on who to apply such techniques is not only called wisedom it's called ethics.

 

So do you want to listen to the doctor who is choosing your best interest over his or to the one who will pander to you and take your money? It's your choice.

 

Best wishes, Pat

[NervousNelly]

NYC,

 

2 of the best in the business turned you down, that should tell you something.

 

Many of us have been in your shoes and it is a shitty thing. We can all attest to the emotions that you are going thru. I personally felt exactly as you do and did have a HT at the age of 22. I will openly admit that it did give me several more years of instilled confidence that has helped me in life, however it now haunts me somewhat. Back in that time frame, the technology wasn't what it is now so I had old school grafts implanted. Things were cool because it gave me instant gratification with more density but as my native hair started to leave me you can now start to notice the poor quality work. I am now 38 and more confident in myself and would be OK with having less hair but I have no choice but to seek out another HT. If I don't have another surgery I will someday have that freakish look of a dolls head. I got off lucky because surgeons now are going to be able to conceal everything and it will turn out perfectly natural, but again I am lucky. What if I didn't have enough donor hair to conceal it? What if the previous surgeon put hairline too low? What if my financial situation wouldn't allow me to correct it?

 

The moral of my story is that we do understand your situation. Your actions today will affect you tomorrow. Please give things a lot of thought and proceed slowly.

[Guest Cousin_It]

NYC...

 

I would be interested the in the reason these 2 doctors turned you down, could you please elaborate?

 

It is not uncommon for someone your age to have a transplant, were you asking for an inappropriate amount to be transplanted or perhaps an uneven distribution of hair?

[NYCguy]

Again, thanks for all of your input. I know it's a personal choice, but it's pretty obvious that everyone thinks it is a bad idea for me to go with Armani and that definately weighs on my descion. From what I've read online everyone seems to agree that he does good work, but it wont really matter if you are 45 with a thick patch of hair in front and nothing behind it.

 

Cousin it

I want to apologize to u and everyone else for my previous post, I in no way wanted to be misleading when I said I was turned down by Feller and Bernstein. I was turned down by both, but I was turned down by Feller when I was 23 which was three yrs ago and Bernstein about ten months ago. I should have mentioned that.

I didn't make any specific requests with either of them. I don't want to misquote Feller...It was three yrs ago, but he basically said I was too young and joked about how he would love to take my money and pay off his Ferrari, but I would be one pissed off person in ten yrs if he did. Again I don't want to misquote, But Berstein said something to the effect of..If you were 40 with this hairline you would be happy...and at this point you don't need one, but come back in a yr.

I know he was a little more articulate than that and a bit more specific, but that's what I remember. He was also very pleasant...

 

 

Most of you have more experience and knowledge about this than I do and thinking about the possible consequences of going with armani's methods torture me, but I really want to believe that he isn't completely full of it as I guess anyone in my situation would. I don't want to keep asking the same question and I don't want to sound as if I don't respect what everyone has said because I really do, but isn't it possible that his method can work? Wouldn't there be a lot of angry people on this website and others who have went to him complaining and telling their stories?

 

I wish I could hear from people who have had Armani HTs more than once maybe even three or four times and see their reults.

[Bill - Seemiller]

NYCguy,

 

There is very little left for me to add to this discussion because I agree with my friends above. Dr. Armani is a very capable surgeon but his ethics are certainly questionable in many (including my) opinion.

 

As Pat said, the fact that Dr. Feller and Dr. Bernstein (two extremely talented physicians) turned you down for ethical reasons (and for your best interested aka: you don't need surgery yet) should alarm you that Armani is ready and willing to take your money.

 

As BSpot pointed out, donor supply is limited, and whoever is stating that 12K-15K grafts is what most people have are full of it. It's best to plan conservatively and you can always lower the hairline later if you want, after your hairloss is under control.

 

The logic is simple to me, but seems complicated for some...if you are 20 and just start getting a receeding hairline. Sure any qualified physician can dense pack and give you a low hairline, but what happens IF you end up becoming a NW6? Not only will you have to keep up with surgeries, but it will look quite ridiculous and shall I say unnatural to have a low high school-like hairline but thin everywhere else.

 

If you go to Armani...you are taking a risk...that's what it comes down to. It's not necessarily true that you WILL regret it...but you MAY regret it, depending on how much hair you lose in the future. Dr. Feller and Dr. Bernstein are looking out for your best interest. I strongly encourage you to WAIT and then go back to see them after some time to see what they advise.

 

Good luck to you and keep us posted.

 

Bill

[Bill - Seemiller]

P.S. I always tell people this and I'll say it again now. Think and plan LONG term not short term. Hair transplantation is not a cure for hairloss, it only helps you recover SOME lost hair. It's best to start conservative and then later go more liberal if you have the grafts for it.

 

Bill

[Gorpy]

but it wont really matter if you are 45 with a thick patch of hair in front and nothing behind it.

 

 

Sorry, but that is a big fallacy. I know, at your age you think that being over 40 is time to sit down and get fat, but it is not. I can guarantee you that at 45, if you have a thick hairline with nothing behind it, it will bother you as much as your receeding hairline does now. BTW - I'm 50.

 

With age comes wisdom (at least we're left with something).

[GrowPlease]

ooohhh after reading this thread, I'm so glad I went with Dr. Hasson. A thick hairline in the front with nothing behind it blows big time. And looking at my family tree, it would've happenned- no questions there.

 

Conservative is the way to go.

[Bill - Seemiller]

What Gorpy says is true. It's easy to think when you are only 20 that you won't care what you look like at a later age, but it doesn't change. I'm only 29 (going to be 30 next year), but I care just as much about my appearance now as I did when I was 20, even moreso maybe. This could be because I know age will start to creep up on me soon so I'm doing anything i can to maintain my looks the best I can. At 20, you care about what you look like but don't have to fight aging yet...but as you get older, you care just as much about your appearance AND have to fight against aging and gravity!

 

Bill

[NYCguy]

Gorpy you misunderstood what I wrote. WHat I meant was that even if he does good work that good work won't matter if you are 40 with a thick patch of hair and nothing behind it...so you are really just agreeing with me....

[nikkop23]

Please don't trust the oversimplifications the Armani staff will give we about just "making it really dense up front and less dense behind." Unlike someone like jotronic at Hasson/Wong, they are not there to educate you about the subtleties of hair transplantation, and making preference the issue is itself one of their grand oversimplifications. I think they totally gloss over the problem of donor limitations and have recently been getting around this problem with ridiculously high 10-15K donor graft estimates. Of course the young patients they target don't know any better, but they claim the average patient can get the usual 7-8K via strip and FUE the rest out. They'll have no photographic examples to show you of this approach, of course, and the ones promised on other sites have never materialized. If you do your research on one of the other hair loss sites, you'll also discover how dishonest and occasionally vicious their representative there is, blaming unhappy patients' physiology for their own poor results and selectively answering only the questions that suit him. Listen to Feller and Bernstein and keep doing your research. You can still get a great hairline without wasting thousands of grafts the Armani way.

[NYCguy]

Thanks Nikkop23 and everyone else. You all make perfect sense and I agree with all of you. I just want to believe in miracles I guess.

I am curious though. If I was 40 or for any 40 yr old who is only experiencing hair loss at the hairline would any of you reccomend Amrani since it seems like he does pretty good hairline work?

 

I also really wonder about Ken or Keness. He went to Armani and detailed his whole post op experience with pictures and written decriptions. It was a great. Then he went for another session with Armani about a yr after and detailed about a week post op and said he would be posting new pics and give more written descriptions in a month or a couple of months, but now his site or weblog is gone. I think that kind of freaks me out the most. I wonder what happened to him or what might have went wrong. Does anyone know?

[johnyd473]

I wonder what happened to him or what might have went wrong. Does anyone know?

 

Hi NYCguy,

 

I believe Ken had server issues, I remember him sayin he would have it back up again,I hope he does cos i really enjoyed readin it

 

and i do think that Dr Armani is one of the finest surgoens and that he does indeed take into account further hair loss.

 

You will be in the very best of hands if you choose Dr Armani.

[Bill - Seemiller]

If I was 40 or for any 40 yr old who is only experiencing hair loss at the hairline would any of you reccomend Amrani since it seems like he does pretty good hairline work?

 

NYCguy,

 

You ask a good question and I'll try to answer it carefully. I believe Armani is a qualified physician who does ultra refined follicular unit transplantation. The question here is not his ability but his ethics. Because his ethics are questionable, I would have a hard time recommending him to anyone just on that principle. After Seeing work done on 20 year olds knowing very well what this person might look like when he's 40 with no donor hair left. Yikes.

 

Bill

[basic]

folks,

 

I have contacted Dr Armani while doing my research. He suggested a number of grafts that was two times higher than the other doctors recommended. He was saying 'this is to get a perfect result' but I am not really sure about that. So, it looked like a scam to me..

[nikkop23]

NYCguy,

Notice the bland and general character of johnyd's endorsement above. He doesn't have any arguments and avoids all the difficult issues brought up in this thread. That is what I'm talking about when it comes to the level of discourse you can expect, and I would be cautious as a result. As for the estimate that *basic* received, it's unclear who comes up w/ those numbers and reviews each case. Sometimes people with comparable loss get widely discrepant estimates, as anyone who reads one of the other hairloss sites probably already knows.

[johnyd473]

Talkin about bland Nikkop, Have you heard your self lately.

[nikkop23]

Shane, is that you posting under another alias again? LOL. Like I said nycman, judging by this last response, look at the nonsense you might be getting yourself into. There are plenty of other docs who can give you what you're looking, ones who don't need stupid cheerleaders who contribute nothing substantive to this forum and who sign up here merely to heckle posters who disagree with them. Bspot, Bill, all the most prolific and knowledgeable posters here are offering you the same advice.

[GrowPlease]

You know what? We don't even know what Dr. Armani is recommending for NYC guy. If he's shooting for maybe 2000-3000 grafts up front and NYC guy starts taking propecia or dudasteride, we can say for the most part that he'll have at least 2000 or more donor hair to cover the rest of his scalp and crown if the worse case senario occurs and he becomes a NW 5-6. And this isn't really all that bad. It might not be as thick as his hairline, but it should be enough to cover it without it looking completely retarded, and this is the worse case senario right?

 

Dr. Hasson put 1950 grafts to strengthen my hairline and it seemed very ethical. He didn't lower the hairline to a teenagers, but he did the procedure without thinking that I would regret it in the future. And I think I have mentioned that I'm only 1 year older than NYC guy (27 yrs old).

 

This is a totally different story of course if he plans to put 5000 grafts in his hairline.