» It seems that you have made your decision and did some homework as well. I
» just wanted to add my two cents. I was in a similar situation last year
» and went with Armani and it was a great decision for me. Everything that I
» have encountered with Armani and his staff has been excellent. I am
» approaching my three month mark and my expectations with them is beyond
» what I expected. But the one important thing here is that you didnt jump
» right into some local HT doctor office and commit to them for a cheap
» price. It seems you did your research and became very educated on the
» procedure. I wish you the best of luck and hope everything works out.
Thank you Leong,
yes i have recently made up my mind. I have no doubt that this is a win win situation for me, s i am sure that either clinic could give me the results i want. At the end of the day it came down to professionalism. Heres my experience with Armani.
About 3 months ago, after doing some research i decided that i would pursue a procedure with Armani as i loved the results he was providing. FUE is the only option i will consider and i couldnt find any other doctors providing the kind of hairlines on a regular basis that Armani does. Thus i called the clinic and was passed on over to an Armani sales rep. For the sake of this forum i will refer to the rep as Charles. Charles asked me to submit some photos which he would send over to Dr. Armani for a full breakdown on graft recommendation and placement. The next day i received an email from Charles telling me that Dr Armani. has recommended 2500 grafts at a cost of 17,000$. I was blown away. First off, if i were to receive 2500 grafts i wouldnt have a forehead any longer. Second, that price was way out of my financial universe. I wrote charles back explaining that this didnt sit well with me, and asked him if possible to go back to Dr. Armani and have him reevaluate. I tried to clarify exactly what i wanted. The next day Charles wrote back to me explaining Dr. Armani would do my temporal work with 1500 grafts at a cost of 14,000. That comes out to about 9.30$ a graft. This was still way more than i wanted to spend so i went back to the drawing board rather disappointed. With school, etc, i figured i would put my ht plans on hold for bit as it wasnt by any means a priority, just something i wanted. Around a month after my conversation with Charles, he wrote me a random email out of the blue explaining that Dr. Sara Armani had availability and if i was interested he could book me for no less than a 2000 graft procedure in november or december at a cost of 10,500$. That comes to about 5.25 a graft, a very good price for FUE. i told charles that i was interested and that i would get my finances in order and get back to him. A few days later i secured a private loan and tried to contact Charles to book my procedure. He told me he would need a few days to get the process going and get final approval. A few days later i never heard from him so i called back only to be told he was out of town on vacation. I figured no problem, im sure he will call when he gets back. However he never did. I called daily and only got his voicemail, he also did not respond to my emails. At this point i called the beverly hills clinic to see if someone there could give me some insight as i wasnt getting any from Toronto and my frustration was growing. In the Beverly Hills office i spoke with Caleb. I have to say, if it wasnt for Caleb i would have lost my mind. He was very patient with me, told me he wold figure it out, and keep tabs with me. He was a man of his word. A few days later he reached Charles. He told me to try calling Charles again, at which point he finally took my call. He apologized and explained he took an extended vacation. I told him i was ready to book, he said once again no problem i will put in the request and get back to you in day or so. A week later i still had not heard back once again. I called Caleb in LA who was so apologetic, he couldnt understand what the hell was going on either. We finally got a hold of Charles who at this point told me that there was an issue with approval, but it wasnt cost related, just date related. He said nothing to worry about and that he would take care of it. The next day he sent me an email saying that the request wasnt being approved because the pricing structure was rejected. I was extremely upset. I had gone and taken out a loan which i have to pay interest on, based on the figure that was given to me from the clinic. It was a price that relied upon as a good faith estimate. Now i had a procedure that i could not afford, and a loan with interest that needed to be paid. I called Caleb again who at this point couldnt believe what was going on. He empathized, but being in a different clinic there was only so much he could do. However he talked to his supervisors and explained my situation, and he got me approved for the same procedure, but in LA with Armanis new doctor, Dr. Tashini. I was happy to have the option, but truth is that i did not want to have my procedure done by a doctor that i knew nothing about. He explained that Dr. Armani would be there alongside watching, but i told him that if Dr. Armani wasnt performing the procedure himself that i didnt think i could commit. That same day i finally got a call from Charles in the Toronto office. I think at this point he knew he made a mistake and was doing everything in his power to not get in trouble. Anyways he said great news, i got approval for your procedure and that it would be in LA with Dr. Tashini. Ironic. I explained that i only wanted Dr Armani or his sister and he said okay they will honor the procedure with Dr. Sara in Toronto. Finally!!! Once again he said give me a day and ill get back to you to confirm. Sure enough, he never did. I called in a week later only to be informed that Charles was no longer with the company as he had decided to go back to school. This to me was incomprehensible. It was beyond words. The whole thing made no sense. I was getting completely jerked around. They transferred me to another rep who looked at my file an said that the surgery was never approved. In fact it was denied three separate times because of price. He explained that Charles had no power to offer me that price, but the fact is that he did and i relied on it. He apologized and said there was nothing more he could do. At this point i called Caleb once again, who couldnt believe what i was telling him. I guess he had heard enough at this point because he went directly to Dr. Armani, something that he was not supposed to do, and he pled my case. That very day i got approval from Dr. Armani himself. He explained that it is a very busy practice and sometimes things happen that he cannot keep tabs of. He said fact is that he was never aware of the situation and he was very sorry. I believe him…i think Charles got in over his head somehow and kept digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole. I am very thankful to Caleb, the guy is really the best, and i recommend that if you choose Armani, call the LA office and ask for Caleb. I trust him completely, and in an often shady industry he is truly genuine. It is my belief that he is one of the best assets the Armani clinic has, and any clinic would be very lucky to have him. If all representatives had his character it would be a much better industry.
At that point, after well over a month of frustration you would think that i would just go with Armani after being offered resolution, and for a while i figured i would. However when all of this was going on, i submitted an online consultation form to BHR. They really won me over. The one experience with the Armani clinic to the other with BHR was night and day. I have no doubt that my case was very rare and i have no doubt that the Armani clinic does indeed take very good care of their patients and provide great results, but my experience was a not a good one. However, Philip and Dr. Bisanga over at BHR have treated me like gold. When they say they are going to do something, they do it, and they do it exactly when they say they will. Everything is based on my own convenience. They are much more willing to work with what i want and they speak directly to me as opposed to countless representatives. As for their results i think they speak for themselves, and their pricing is amongst the most competitive. That is why i have decided to fly half way around the world to do this as opposed to what might be more convenient on this side of the world. They quoted me at a max of 1500 grafts and if less are needed then that is what i will get, with the price adjusted accordingly.
Colorado, to answer your question, here is how the price breakdowns came back to me from the three clinics i actually heard back from.
Dr Umar quoted me 7 to 9 dollars per graft. I was confused by this because on all the websites it says he charges only 5 dollrs per graft. He explained that the pricing structure has changed and that he would do mine for 7 a graft. He also said that if i allowed him to use my image online he would lower it to 6 dollars per graft, but i would still have to pay 7 and then get the one dollar refund once i submitted my results a year later.
The Armani clinic varies. If you are okay with going to LA and doing the surgery with Dr. Tashini i think you can get in there now at 5 to 6 per graft, but i dont think that price will last. I have no doubt that Dr. Tashini is a very good doctor, i hear he is one of the nicest, i just didnt know enough about him to personally be able to go through with it. For Dr Armani or his sister i think you are looking at a minimum of 7 dollars per graft assuming you need at least 2500, and then around 9 per graft for anything less. I dont believe they will go below 2000 unless you have already done a procedure with them but i do not know this for sure. I know this is a bit steeper in terms of price but i still do believe that they offer top notch results. If others have recently been quoted differently, please chime in.
BHR charges in Euros. They quoted me 4 Euros per graft which is their standard rate for anything above 1000 grafts. Once they gave me the quote, they assured me its set and they will not change it at any time. I have as much time to think about it as i would like. Right now 4 Euros works out to be about 5.20$ a graft. For the quality of fue work that they do i think it is the best deal in the business. In my opinion, they are top 3 in the world, i wouldnt choose them if i felt otherwise. I am optimistic that my results will attest to this. Keep in mind however that your travel expenses may be higher. I have however found a flight for only 700 from the here in the US. If you check a couple months in advance the prices are very reasonable. The clinic has also informed me that for a one day procedure, the trip really only needs to be 2 nights, which means you wont be spending more than a couple hundred bucks on hotel. My travel will be longer, but my expense for travel will actually work out to be about the same.
I am not planning on having my procedure done until march, but i will most certainly keep everyone posted. In the meantime, BHR checks in on me frequently whether through email, phone, or even skype. I am very happy i have made this choice, although it took me a long time to come to my conclusion. I have no doubt that i will be just as happy with the results. Sorry for the ridiculously long post, and i will be happy to respond to any further inquiries about my experiences. Thanks a lot.
Raines
Raines.