Hi Everyone,
I wanted to create a thread dedicated to my own personal experiences & basically to cover everything that has happened since I began noticing my hair loss.
With regards to the photos from Procedure 1 - I lost all of the pics I took between day 1 & month 5 when my hard drive crashed a few years ago.
The photo’s I have posted on here have been taken of me in various locations, nightclubs, outside, indoors etc…
For obvious reasons I never specifically asked anyone to take an overhead shot of me & I rarely took any myself because my 1st transplant was to specifically restore my hairline…
Overhead shots will come in the next few months now that I have had zones 2 & 3 worked on after my 2nd procedure this week.
Im apolgize if anyone isnt 100% happy with any of the photo’s at all due to lighting or any other reasons to doubt photos… They are 100% genuine of me, they have been picked out from my collection, I have tried to pick a selection from different angles & please note that none of the shots have any concealers like toppik or anything like that in them… However most of the shots I have hair gel in my hair.
In the Beginning
I first noticed it at 17 years old, seeing the thinning horseshoe pattern in the mirror was just so destroying for my confidence & I really began to worry about my hair.
My dad has always had a full head of hair & he still does to this day - I spoke with my mum about my early findings & she just said ohh no you will be fine because your dad isn’t bald…
Well as time went on, my hair loss gradually got worse & worse & by the age of 21 it took over my life… I was so paranoid about it that I had to wear a baseball cap in public because I hated my hair…
When I didn’t wear the cap due to a funeral or other event which I had to dress smartly for, I had people commenting on how my hair was thinning & that I would need to be wearing a wig soon…
Comments like that just ripped me apart inside…
Shaving my hair & procerin
In the summer of 2003 I went on holiday & shaved my head to see how I looked… I absolutely hated it… Horrible receding hairline & the horse-shoe shape of hair loss so obvious…
I began looking for things which could help with hair loss… to be honest at this point I did not dig deep enough with forums such as this one & basically the first thing I came across was a product called Procerin which I tried for 6 months but it did nothing at all…
Advanced Hair Studio (Mistake No1)
I then noticed an advertisement on TV by a company called The Advanced Hair Studio… They were using a few UK minor celebrities to advertise how their clinic could re-grow hair etc…
I booked myself in for an appointment with the Bristol Clinic & I had a meeting with the manager there… He told me I had hair loss (no kidding) & that his recommendation for me was their advanced laser therapy…
Now this “laser therapy” worked by applying a “special solution” to the scalp area twice per day & then attending the clinic once every 2 weeks to sit under a laser machine which “stimulated the special solution into re-growing hair”
The cost of which was £3,000… I paid a deposit of £1,500 to begin the treatment & get a 6 month supply of the “special solution”
I went to the clinic a few times & sat under the laser, using the solution twice per day as instructed etc.
It was then the summer of 2004 & I decided to go away to Ibiza for 2 months… It was out in Ibiza that I started reading forums & did a bit of research on the Advanced Hair Studio & I realised that I had been absolutely screwed…
The moment I realised I had basically paid £1,500 for 6 months worth of Rogaine, it felt like I had walked into a customs room, where I was met with a rather large male who was applying the rubber gloves to his hands…
So… £1,500 down the drain… I managed to call them up & blag off that I had gone bankrupt & couldn’t afford to pay the rest of the contracted fee & that I would not be returning to them because of lack of funds…
To this day I have not heard from them…
Early hair transplant research
I then began reading the forums; I became aware that currently the only proven way to restore natural hair to the head was to have a hair transplant procedure…
At this point I was still using Rogaine & I had also started propecia in an attempt for my crown area to improve…
My activity looking at the hair transplant doctors was pretty much limited to their own websites… I did not know about any forums at this time… I looked at all of the sites of the big names through Google etc…
Now at this point all I am basing things on were before & after pics advertised on the website…
I looked at Hasson & Wong, Cole, Shapiro & others but the one that stood out for me like a sore thumb was Alvi Armani… His hairline restoration work & density that he was achieving just looked far better than anything else I had ever seen.
The results on his website were just mindblowing… Especially 1 result in particular which just blew my mind & made me decide that Dr Armani was the person to go with without a shadow of a doubt:
http://www.alviarmanihairtransplant.com/p4.html
I later met this guy (Jeff) & became friends with him & to this day his result still blows me away…
The Norton Clinic (Mistake No2)
Now, with all my feelings so strong towards having a procedure with Alvi Armani, I made a HUGE MISTAKE & I look back & put this down to being desperate, young & naive…
I began to think to myself… hold on a minute… surely a hair transplant procedure is the same no matter which doctor performs it…
I then kept thinking this in my mind… why pay all the costs to travel to Canada when I can get one done in the UK…
I contacted a company advertised on Google links called the Norton Clinic who were based in the north of the UK… I spoke with the manager there who asked me to send some photos in… I sent them in as requested & he called me straight back & said “I have seen your pics, our surgeon feels he can do a very good job with you & if you want to get the ball rolling then we have a few dates next month - the price will be £2,000”
Now hearing that & after being quoted almost 4 times that by Alvi Armani at the time - I felt on top of the world & I made arrangements to go to the Norton Clinic & have a procedure there.
I arrived on the day & was so excited… I met the surgeon & his assistant. A husband & wife team who I was told by the manager that they had been in the business for 12 years…
I met the surgeon around lunchtime & he used a pen to show me how much he was going to lower my hairline by… He said 350 grafts would be plenty to cover it… Although I wanted my hairline lowered more, the surgeon sounded genuine in what he was saying with the grafts & placement, that I went ahead with it all.
The surgery began & last for about 5 hours… It was a FUSS procedure & it lasted about 5 hours… I stayed in a hotel that night & then traveled back in the morning to my home…
Now I waited for the growth to occur for a few months & nothing… It looked like about 50 hairs in my hairline & at this point I again started to think to myself… What has gone wrong?
I began reading on forums & stated to see people showing results stating they had 3000+ grafts etc etc…
I then realised that I had wasted another £2,000 for something that was never going to achieve my goals with only 350 grafts…
At this point I felt so stupid… I had steam-rolled myself into almost everything that I was “under the impression” would fix my problems… Advanced Hair Studio had cost me £1,500… Norton Clinic had cost me £2,000… with travel costs & medications etc… I had already invested £5,000 & for no improvement…
Alvi Armani Pre Surgery 1
In January of 2005 the penny finally dropped & I realised that if I wanted the results similar to these guys on the Alvi Armani website - then I would simply just have to travel to Canada & have the procedure done by him.
I called the company & left a message as it was a weekend… within 2 hours of the message, I had Dr Armani personally call me back on my mobile to chat with me about things… We spoke for over 1hr at his costs & he then advised me to send photo’s to him & he would get back to me with his views…
I sent the photos & I also had made contact with Shane at this point& sent, we had e-mail communication going with each other & Dr Armani for my goals etc…
Dr Armani informed me that due to my hair loss I would be committing myself to future procedures if I had the 1st one & that I must maintain using Rogaine & propecia for best results etc…
I was very happy with the pre surgery discussions, it was made very clear to me that the 1st procedure was not just going to be an instant fix for my hair & I did accept that my hair loss was bad at a young age & that future procedures were going to be likely…
Because my hair loss was the only issue in my life which was causing me so much misery & confidence issues, I was prepared from the start to do whatever it took in my life to solve the problem.
Dr Armani said that most patients have donor area of around 10,000 grafts & that it was possible to get a nice coverage of a NW7 with this amount of grafts…
& every time I looked on the website & saw new results on there, it made me much more excited to think that I could finally get the one thing that was massively dragging me down in life fixed…
I paid the deposit to have my procedure in May of 2005…
I found out in March of that year that Dr Armani himself was holding a seminar in London, I made sure that I attended as I wanted to meet with Dr Armani in person a few weeks before my procedure…
We spoke for over 1hr & he again re-iterated with me that he wanted to re-construct my hairline & zone1 with the first procedure, see how things were in a few years & with an aim to working on zones 2 & 3 if my hair loss got worse. Then finally the crown area if I did not respond very well to propecia & Rogaine.
He told me that because I was young & had significant hair loss already, it would be very likely that I would need future procedures & that I needed to know this before committing to the 1st one.
My words to him were “I will use every graft possible to get what I want & I trust in you because your results have been outstanding”
Alvi Armani FUSS 3450 Grafts May 2005
I arrived in Toronto the night before my surgery & was staying in the Westin Harbour hotel which is literally just across the road from the clinic.
I met with Shane & he took my before photos, I then met with Dr Armani again & he told me to have a good breakfast in the morning & then he would begin surgery at 8am.
Here are my before pics:
I arrived for surgery & once I had the anesthetic & local freezing, the procedure was painless… I had paid for 3000 grafts but Dr Armani informed me they managed to harvest 3450 grafts from my strip…
Dr Armani re-created my hairline using approx 2,000 grafts & then remaining 1,450 were placed behind the hairline in zone 2.
I felt very sleepy after surgery & I was walked to my hotel room by Miguel who made sure I had some food for the evening & that I understood to sleep in the chair or at a 45 degree angle etc.
The first night was very uncomfortable… My donor area where the strip was removed from felt very tight & sore & I really struggled to sleep that night -even with the medication I had been given by Dr Armani.
I attended the clinic the next morning & Miguel instructed me how to do the washing & cleaning of the transplanted area & said that if I wanted to come back for a few days he would do it for me being as I was staying so close by.
The next few days the swelling occurred which was weird to look at but completely painless… I still had quite a tight sensation in my donor area tho for a few days.
I did not do anything for 4 days other than play online poker using my laptop & watch DVD’s… I carried out the post operative instructions exactly how they were described to me.
I stayed in Toronto for almost 2 weeks… After the 1st week the swelling had gone down & I wore a very loose fitting baseball cap on my head, always ensuring not to touch the grafts at all etc…
I visited the CN Tower & Niagara Falls… I even had an 18hr poker session at the local casino there lol!!
I had my staples removed on the day I flew home… The removal was painless & I could see my scar for the 1st time.
The scar didn’t bother me that much at that time because the whole idea was to have hair, therefore not to have it shaved down so the scar was visible etc…
I returned home in early June & after following the post op instructions for the first month I began to take a light shower…
The grafts began to fall out but I noticed that not all of them did… I had a few that stayed in…