MY STORY with the Alvi Armani Clinic

Updated Photos & Video

2008-06-26T09:57:00.021-04:00

Hello everyone, pictures are better then words, so I have gone ahead and made a few videos to show how my hair looks now. My before photos are below as well. I had zones 1, 2, 3 and 4, my hairline all the way to my crown with Dr. Armani and Dr. Baubac. I have had a total of over 8,000 grafts transplanted. Click below:

VIDEOS

Here are some new photos of my result, I had a to tal of 6,400 grafts to cover and restore my whole head from front to back. The graft break down is 4,000 for zones 1 and 2 and 2,400 for the crown and zone 3. I Have to say I am loving my hair these days, I have come a long way in 2 years!!!

To navigate thru my page and see many more photos including more before pictures, my post op pictures showing how the grafts were placed and photos showing monthly updates, please scroll down and look over to the right under Blog Archive, click on the links.

Before

After

Hairline after

Crown Before & After so far..........

2008-04-18T10:11:00.002-04:00

I thought I would post a comparison shot as to where my crown was before any surgery, the day I walked into the Armani clinc compared to where I am now, 3 months out from my crown procedure. I can really see a nice difference, this has me very excited for things to come!!

HT#2 3 Month pictures

2008-04-18T09:56:00.013-04:00

My three month pictures are posted for HT #2. I have some pictures close up of the crown, from behind, pics of my hairline from HT#1 and of my donor. When I inspect my crown in the mirror from different angles I see alot of new little hairs growing, I can see and really feel a difference when I move my hands around my crown. I have had several pimples and I have alot of stubble come in over the last month.
In the close up shots (see below) that I got I think you guys can tell what I am talking about, I def see some growth, I think the coverage has already gotten better. The next few months should bring more to come, months 4,5 and 6 are always exciting!!!! Hairline is still excellent from HT#1

2 MONTH PICS HT #2

2008-03-09T16:30:00.011-04:00

Here are my two month pictures, also I am a week away from my 1 year mark from HT# 1. So I have posted up some pics of the hairline, closeups of the crown and some pictures of my doner area. I wanted to show what my doner looked like after having 6,400 grafts taken. I would say I kept 10-15% of the grafts in the crown. Crown took longer to heal this time and normally takes longer to grow out.My hair over all is growing out pretty fast, I look pretty close to pre op conditions 2 months out

Doner Pics

2008-03-09T15:47:00.008-04:00

One of the big questions about FUE is how much Doner do we have? Will Doner thin out if too many grafts are taken. So I have included some pictures of my Doner area 2 months out from HT# 2. These pics are of my Doner after 6,400+ grafts taken, hair still seems to to be growing in as thick as before. This has me excited as I want to keep the possibility open for a 3rd surgery.

HT#2 - 1 Month Pictures

2008-02-13T10:08:00.012-05:00

HT#2 2 WEEK PICTURES

2008-02-09T12:16:00.000-05:00

The healing has gone well I think. There is still a little scabbing in the crown but for 14 days it looks pretty good, a lot better then two weeks ago. The doner looks great and feels really good. Overall things are going well, the shedding will probably be great the next two weeks, really hasn't started yet. I'll be back at the one month timeline with more pics. If any questions please ask.

HT#2 5 DAY PICTURES

2008-02-09T12:09:00.001-05:00

Here are my pictures 5 days out, things are progressing as they should, doner feels pretty good.

2400 Grafts! Hair Transplant #2

2008-01-12T16:32:00.000-05:00

Just got back from my second Hair Transplant. This Transplany was to address the crown and the thinness in zone 3. This was different from the first procedure as it was FUE. I will say the difference between Strip and FUE is night and day. It is only day #2 and my doner area feels fantastic. I virtually have no pain throughout my whole head. We managed to get 2,400 grafts. 2,100 grafts for the crown, 300 grafts were placed into the thinning areas in zone 3 to help out there. I had 400 grafts placed in the crown in HT#1 that had just started growing, combine that with the 2,100 this time around makes a total of 2,500 grafts for zone 4. My estimated break down goes something like this:

Hairline - 2,000 Grafts
Zone 2 - 1,060 Grafts
Zone 3 - 900 Grafts
Crown - 2,500 Grafts.
Total - 6,400 Grafts

This leaves me 3k-5k more for future procedures if need be. I do think this will be the last one for a while though, I will pretty much be back to a full head of hair!!! Check out the coverage and density, I'll finally have a full crown to go with my hairline and front!

Really like this density in these next two!

Here is a picture of my prior strip scar, nice and thin. I went to the gym about a month after the first surgery, looks like it did not affect my scar. This also shows the doner area and where the grafts were taken.... Its much much less painful then strip. I am currently at day#2 and it feels pretty much painless.

Zones 3 and 4

2007-12-28T11:41:00.001-05:00

My second surgery is in less then 2 weeks. Currently I’m making preparations for it. Have my plane tickets, hotel reservations etc… had my doctor’s checkup. The surgery is becoming a reality for me now. I’m both nervous and excited; I have been wanting to get my crown done for a long time now. Included below are pics of the area I am looking to have addressed.

Zone 3 in the Blue I would like thickened up a bit (Dr. Armani told me it would be thin after my initial surgery), and the Crown, Zone 4 in the Red (the main reason I am gong back for round 2). Dr. Armani’s initial estimate was 3 Thousand grafts to address these two areas. What a relief it will be once the crown and zone 3 are as thick as Zone 2 is currently for me now.

I’ll keep everyone posted as to how HT#2 goes.

8.5 MONTH PICTURES

2007-12-28T11:22:00.001-05:00

Here are my 8.5 month pictures. Its winter time so the sun sets around 4:00 so unfortunatly there are no outside shots. Not really too too much to report here. I think the biggest difference is a bit of temple filling, my left and right temple seem to be thicker and easier to style and get how I want. The hairline hairs are slowly maturing, they are still wiry and can take some work to style, but with some gel I can always get it how I want. This wiry effect should improve in the next 6 months or so as the transplanted hairs get thicker and soften up. Over the course of the last few months I have seen it slowly get better, I also thick zone 2 thickens although it’s a very very slow process at this point. I think I am pretty close to my final results from HT#1, and things will very slowly thicken and get softer up until 12-18 months.

Nothing to report on the crown and zone 3.

There is a picture in the back of my donor area and where the scar would be underneath. I have pretty thick wavy hair back there….. Scar is damn near impossible to find!!!!

Next updates will be my post op pictures from HT#2 on January 10th………..

7 month pictures

2007-11-20T19:52:00.001-05:00

I think the biggest difference over the last month has been my top, zones 2 and 3 are really starting to thicken up and I think it is noticeable in my pictures. The front al lthe way back to the crown is really started to look great. These pictures were taken a few days after the 7 month marker.

2ND SURGERY DATE SET

2007-11-20T19:38:00.000-05:00

My 2nd surgery date has been set for Jan 10th, 2008 in the new Armani clinic out in Los Angelos. This surgery will address the crown and some filling in zone 3. Dr. Armani originaly estimated this 2nd pass would be between 2,500 and 3,000 grafts. I am very excited to get the crown filled in, once that has been taken care of I will once again have a full head of hair!!

6 month pictures

2007-11-20T19:34:00.001-05:00

6 month mark! Right around the 50% mark, zone 2 has thickened a bit over the past month. Things have seemed to slow down just a bit from the 4 and 5 month marker but thickening is still occuring.

5 month pictures

2007-11-20T19:27:00.001-05:00

5 months out from surgery,at this point things are improving every week, the hairline has gotten stronger and thicker and now the top is starting to fill in nicely. Temples are filling in and styling is getting easier. I have to say that at this point the results have exceded my expectations! Still alot of thickening to come as people do not reach their ful lresults until the 18 month mark. I am keeping my fingers crossed that my hair continuies to thicken and mature to that point!

4 month pictures

2007-11-20T19:11:00.001-05:00

At the 4 month mark things are starting to thicken up. New grafts have been sprouting up and it seems to me the hairline has thickened. Its a slow process but things are really starting to happen. It amazes me that at the 4 month mark I am already so much better off then I was before my surgery, I have been told that at 4 months only 10-20% of the new grafts have started growing.... so more to come! The first 2 pictures were taken outside.

3 month pictures

2007-11-20T19:01:00.000-05:00

Things are starting to take off a bit, my original hair is just about back to its notrmal length and the grafts hat did not shed have grown out with it. I will say that even though I am only at 10% growth there has already been a huge difference from my pre op pictures. There are some outside pictures mixed in here as well as real close up pictures of my hairline.

2 month pictures

2007-11-20T18:53:00.001-05:00

At two months most have the new grafts planted have all shed, what you see here is pretty much my normal hair growing back. As you can see from the pictures there was alot to cover. Som grafts have stayed in and continue to grow but not many, most have shed. The waiting has definately been the hardest part of this surgery.

1 month pictures

2007-11-20T18:44:00.003-05:00

Here are my one month photos. Some of the grafts have shed, the grafts that have not are growing with my existing hairs. 30 days out there are no signs that I had the surgery at all and I can wear a hat to work etc... until things grow in.

10 day and 14 day pics

2007-11-20T14:31:00.001-05:00

The pictures of me below are at 14 days, I am very surprised at how quickly I am healed already, almost all of the redness and scabbing is gone and just about all of the facial swelling has gone away.

Post OP Pictures

2007-11-20T14:18:00.000-05:00

These are pictures immediately after surgery. I had just over 4 thousand grafts placed from my hairline all the way back to my crown. This is the first part of two surgeries that I will be going through. My hairloss was so advanced that one surgery would not give me coverage all over so Transplant #1 would be done to address my hairline all the way back to my midsection, hairtransplant #2 will be to finish off the crown. The surgery itself took about 6-7 hours and while a bit long was virtualy painless.

BEFORE PICTURES

2007-11-20T14:08:00.001-05:00

As you can see here hairloss hit me pretty hard, The crown spot is huge and while not slick it is very very see through. The midsection is almost as bad and the hairline is virtually unstylable. I tried many things, concealers, shampoos, gesl, ntohign gave me a stylable result that made me happy. I was not a very happy man in these pictures. These pictures were taken hours before my surgery.