Good Morning Fellow Posters & Lurkers…
My name for now is “Man of Mystery” or “MOM” (Blast!!! I really didn’t see that coming !!!), and this is my FULL detailed story about my hair transplant experience with the Alvi Armani organization. it is long, and in many ways epic that if made into a Hollywood film, no one would probably show up, however at least it would be detailed!
I had my procedure done almost 2 years ago and I have waited to accumulate my thoughts, my experiences, real post op and post dealings with Alvi Armani data, and most importantly … RESULTS. The REAL RESULTS…
Frankly I am very exited to begin interacting with the community and here is my story and my intro… thank you very much …
BTW … I have a website that I’m building with tons of before, after, and during photos… I’ll let everyone know when it’s done!!!
August 10, 2007 was the date that changed my life. August 10, 2007 was the date that I had my 2000 grafts in the form of a FUE procedure done in Toronto with Dr. Alvi Armani.
It’s a day that I will NEVER forget for the rest of my life.
I have been a lurker on these forums for a while now because I wanted to have my complete results from the procedure to both report and show you …
So here I am, 2 years later, and here is my story …
I am currently 27 years old (turning 28) and I am an electronic music producer that until recently have been in hiding making only remixes for very well known artists and even producing a vast majority of the electronic hits you all know and love (or hate ) and then selling them to artists whom then consequently own them and promote them as their own.
I also own (it recently completely burned down in a five alarm fire (I’m rebuilding it as we speak)) a very forward thinking recording facility that has given opportunities to beginning bands that couldn’t afford the high end/high priced studios. And within those doors, I have worked on some of the most popular Hollywood films, Videogames and Music projects that you all know and love (or hate )
For the beginning part of my career I was only focused on making music for clients and selling the complete licenses and not releasing these songs that I created and/or remixed (which eventually in many cases became quite popular songs) under my own name because frankly it was easier and I wasn’t completely confident in my appearance. Hence releasing it all under my own name, having to promote the music, tour and essentially be the face of these tracks wasn’t something I was comfortable nor confident with at the time.
I have also modeled for quite some time however in the last little while of my modeling days, all of my shoots that I was called in for were all body shots and underware ads, and yet I couldn’t figure out why? It was like I was almost in complete denial.
At one point in early 2007 I started to accept that I was losing my hair… I was completely destroyed mentally. I have no hair loss in my family whatsoever, live a copmpletely healthy lifestyle, eat well, train 5 days a week in the evening and run/rollerblade 6 days a week in the morning to begin my day and I love life to its absolute fullest.
I surround myself with financially and mentally successful and content human beings that I continually learn more and more from everyday, I have a girlfriend that I love with all my heart and dedicate my entire existence to, I have 3 people whom earn a very decent living as a result of my business (at the studio I don’t like the term “employee”) and who I adore to take care of provide them a vehicle to earn a living doing what they love… So what gives???
I guess for a while I couldn’t even fathom how something like that could happen to me!!! I experienced the same exact feeling when a dear friend and creative partner on a few projects of 40 years old (RIP Keith) died of a heart attack. Perfect health, never smoked, didn’t drink, young daughter and married, but he dies??? I couldn’t understand his death as much as I couldn’t understand what was happening to my hair.
So I started researching online…
I found the usual things people always find first; Rogaine/Minoxodil, the magic combs, creams, shampoos, witch potions, toe nails extracted from real unicorns, you know… the usual…
Then I started researching about hair transplants, because I didn’t like those temporary solutions or products that if ceased, you would lose the results … I wanted something permanent. But the funny thing is all I had as a reference point for transplants was that Russian Mob character in “Be Cool” which looked like braided doll hair and frankly that was a was a frightening thought!
Either way … I typed in something along the lines of best hair transplant and low and behold I came across the Alvi Armani website, and they had a contact in my city!!! JACKPOT!!! (I had no clue as to where clients could possibly exist… LA? New York? … No freakin clue…)
Now comes the good stuff … I was so embaressed to call (as if the people answering the phone DON’T know why you are calling right? :cool so my first call I actually used a very heavy foreign accent and a fake name as to not be potentially recognized (what’s the chances of you knowing someone in a hair transplant clinic :satisfied…
Well… as a first impression on the first number I called I have to say that the representative that I spoke with (Chad) was phenomenal… He made me feel like what I was experiencing was completely ok, that no questions were stupid questions and not to feel embarrassed on any level.
That inspired me to have a meeting with him… So I booked one. And I was still a bit embaressed to go into the clinic (of course in case a hot secretary works there, I mean this is cosmetic no? :Wow So Chad made a in house visit and that was the beginning of the end for me…
I asked a MILLLION QUESTIONS to the point where my first meeting was in excess of 2 hrs and he was nothing short of understanding, helping, patient, quite comforting and VERY CONFIDENT in his answers and completely confident in the Dr whom he worked for.
Now, please don’t be mislead, I did NOT SHOP AROUND. So my time on here will be to learn from your experiences with other doctors and other results, and I cannot in ANY WAY nor will bash any other doctor nor will I say that Dr Armani is the BEST. But what I can so is give you a very detailed example as to the way I was treated, my experience and my results.
Moving on … I met Chad at least a half a dozen times more before I booked and frankly I think I was above average in terms of closing time (over 7 months) for multiple reasons.
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It was pricey; I mean to spend in the double digits of thousands of dollars no matter what your income level is (unless you are Mr and Mrs Gates :hehe is not something you do everyday. I mean, the second largest purchase the average person will make in their lifetime is a car, and this is probably the next in line so I took quite a while to think about it and as well whether to opt for the financing option rather than cash.
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I needed to justify the procedure to myself, I mean the thing that I learned AFTER this procedure is that my girlfriend didn’t even see why I wanted to get it and frankly after my surgery I was involved in many discussions with females that said that have NO PROBLEM AT ALL with balding men as they see it as very manly. It shows that you are a real man, a growing real man (later on this later btw I have some seriously interesting finds on some studies about female and male attraction!!!), but it was mostly an investment in myself, to myself. Could I put a price on my own confidence? Was it necessary? Why do I need hair to be confident? Etc…
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I needed to understand and FULLY EVALUATE the time loss from my work and lifestyle with the post procedure recovery time.
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I would not be able to train which to some may sound silly but it is a HUGE part of my mental and physical strength and well being.
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The pain; I have been kickboxing since I was 8 and I have taken full force blows by 250 lbs monsters, and I have trained myself to absorb it, shake it off and proceed to make him pay… but needles? Blood? Doctors? White coats? Knives? Cutting my head? Inflated eyes and face? I AM TERRIFIED OF THAT !!!
So essentially and to slightly speed up my story, after I evaluated all of those questions, I opted to go for it!!!
In case you are wondering why I didn’t shop around … these are MY PERSONAL REASONS …
I hate shopping around to negotiate for a price, I mean the service to date has been phenomenal and Chad has always been there for me, so what’s the alternative? Thanks for your hours/ months of help, kindness, professionalism, patience and advice but I found another doctor? Sure I guess you can and have the right to do that … but not me. Im Greek, and a firm old school believer in respect/business/family values and relationships, I believe that if business/life was as it was back in the day, the world would be a better place by leaps and bounds. Today, everyone shops every single penny and doesn’t value service nearly as much as we used to.
I already built a relationship with The Armani organization, and I felt based on the service that I had received to date, that they understood my needs and my goals and shopping was completely redundant for me. It’s kind of like when to call Rogers and you have to repeat the same story to 4 different representatives! I hate that!!!
I also factored in my time as well, I mean my time in life and business is very valuable and frankly easily accountable for. I didn’t have any interest to take more of my time to meet different reps, different companies, more meetings, more discussions … it would mean more time lost for me and frankly Dr Armani’s website shows incredible results so why bother… its all 10’s so far… GIDDIUP !!!
And lastly, because I felt a personal relation to Dr Armani’s company. In my personal business whether I earn you as a client in studio or not … the experience is the same all the time. Warm, welcoming, inviting and kind all entrenched in a huge confidence in our work that doesn’t cross into arrogance… and I felt that exact feeling with Dr Armani. Confident enough to give me EAXACTLY WHAT I WANT and deliver what he promises, but not too cocky to give off the type of vibe of … “It’s ok if you don’t chose us, I don’t need your business anyway”
So I called Chad back with my decision and GIDDIUP !!!
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