As a valued stakeholder of this patient based community, you have a right to know about actions that affect this community. I am writing to inform you that Dr. Alvi Armani has filed a lawsuit against this community.

Yes, here we go again. Yet another doctor does not feel that me or certain other members of this forum community have the right to express our opinions or share our experiences.

Fortunately our forefathers had the good sense to make the first amendment protecting free speech the very first amendment.

Two posters, one of whom claimed to be a patient of Dr. Armani, were banned on Hair Loss Help when they expressed reservations about Dr. Armani and his results. They then came to this forum and exercised their right to share their experiences and concerns. One of Dr. Armani’s online representatives then contacted us. We encouraged them to exercise their right to reply and refute any claims that they felt were not accurate. However, instead of replying they chose to sue this community.

The willingness of this community to allow these posters to exercise their right to free speech on this forum is one of the reasons for this lawsuit.

Perhaps Dr. Armani has the mistaken notion that I will be intimidated by his lawsuit and that I will back down. He’s dead wrong. I’m prepared to go the distance.

The freedom of expression that we all enjoy on this forum is not free. This is not the first lawsuit of this kind and it won’t be the last.

Perhaps with the $14 per graft that Dr. Armani charges he can afford to shovel money at his large law firm. But no matter how much money doctor Armani spends, he will fail to disband the first amendment and our rights to continue expressing our genuine and truthful opinions and experiences.

If any members of this forum community are threatened by a clinic for expressing their genuine and honest opinions and experiences please contact me. This community will stand ready to aid in your legal defense, while continuing to give you a forum for expressing your sincere opinions.

I invite all members of this forum community to reply to this topic to demonstrate that you are not intimidated and that you are prepared to exercise your right to free speech.

I also invite Dr. Armani and his staff of paid online representatives to join this discussion and present their point of view.

This patient based community has fought an uphill battle over the past ten years to make physician accountability and free speech the established norm. No lawsuit is going to take this away.

Onwards and Upwards,

Patrick Hennessey, Publisher of the Hair Transplant Network

Sorry Pat.

Freedom of speech is a zero sum proposition theoretically.

However, every day our righteous, over-bearing lawmakers work to take more of it away.

Good Luck!!!
Jason

These fallacious lawsuits only suggest that business is hurting for these doctors; otherwise, why bother with this exhausting process? If that is the case with the Armani corporation, then they can blame the sudden, suspicious, "FUE only" philosophy towards surgery, the ridiculously high prices, and ultimately the unimpressive results they have been producing since the strip method was abandoned.

The bottom line: if you promote your work online, it is subject to criticism. The Armani people exposed themselves.

You know, I log on for the first time in weeks to continue my research and this is what I find? Holy Sh**!!!!!!!

Excuse my language, but what is with these doctors trying to stop free speech?

I knew Dr. Armani was controversial, but I didn't think he had the audacity to try to take away our first amendment rights!!!! And to think I was actually considering him for surgery! What does Armani hope to gain from this?

Pat, you have my support. Thanks for standing up to the bullies who are trying to silence our right to express ourselves!

I think if I do get an HT, I will end up going with Dr. Shapiro thanks to the advice of members from this and a few other forums. I’ll just have to wait until I get back from Greece in the fall .

~Baldie3000

I'm sorry but I HAD to post again. This an outrage. People need to know about this. What can we do? Let's start a boycott! Any doctor that sues patients should be forced out of business.

Shame on your Dr. Armani

~Baldie3000

This community enables patients the right to share their experiences online while holding physicians accountable for their actions.

That’s why we only recommend those that have been approved by our patient community. See how we recommend hair transplant surgeons.

It amazes me when a medical professional, instead of addressing the concerns of the patient community, takes legal action against it.

Dr. Armani claims he’s been unfairly maligned. But I claim that he hasn’t addressed the legitimate concerns posed by hundreds to thousands of members on this and other forums. I’ve made my concerns clear. But what’s even more obvious is how a multitude of others share the very same concerns. One doesn’t have to dig very far to find them either. I’ve seen Dr. Armani's online representative Shane beat around the bush on hot topic issues on hair loss help more times than I’ve probably even posted on this forum.

I encourage Dr. Armani and associates to stand up and address the legitimate concerns posed by this and other forum communities instead of suing those who question or disagree with your practices.

Regards,

Bill (Falceros)

I was thinking the EXACT same thing as youngsuccess. You took the words right out of my mouth or should I say fingers
There are SO many negative posts especially on the pro Armani hlp site and Ive found a ton on other sites. Ive also talked to 4 doctors about Armani and they had only horrible things to say and that was when he was doing strip. I also know a patient from the clinic with below average results that wont even go for a FREE touchup because he knows the importance of future grafts.
If anyone would say anything negative about Dr Feller for example there would be post after post calling out the poster if he was offbase in even the slightest way. You never really see that from Armani supporters ,they just bombard you with promises,and sneaky pms to potential patients. The new thing on these forums has become everybody works for someone.
Thats there thing just pm a poster and tell them that so and so just works for another clinic thats why hes questioning the clinic in an aggressive manner.
Pictures dont lie, people do and Ive seen nothing but extraordinary claims by them that have never been proven.
They have finally showed a weakness ,a kink in the armor.
Lies and deception will catch up to you in the end. What goes around comes around.

My opinion about this whole thing is Mr Armani thought he was going to revolutionize the hair industry with this megafue using a drill but instead the start of his potential small empire is crumbling fast as he slowing sees the downfall of these impracticable methods.
Who wants to bet he starts offering strip in the next year?
I wanted SOOOO bad for him to be the savior to the strip but he isnt and wont be for plenty of reasons that have been posted by other doctors.
Its a shame and embarrassing how low they have sank.

BALDIE 3000
I saw you on that other site. Those few guys were actually removed off of this site for trying to boycott ngtgb termination.
They are good guys but would rather have Pat fall then Armani held accountable.
If you search their names on here you will see they didnt give Armani positive reviews when they were here so your post over there will not be valid in their eyes as long as they stay bitter.
Its a shame but I feel the same way about Farrel from another site . If I heard he was being sued by Dr Bosley I would be on the hacks side. Let me clarify which hack of the two Im refering to. BOSLEY {By the way please stay away from Bosley}
Its just human nature to hold grudges . I dont blame them but certainly dont agree with it.

Thank you Pat for standing up for us and what you believe in - honest opinion sharing and free speech.

We all have ability to see the results that either they post, or their patients post, and we all have the ability to form our own opinion. Just as I look at H&W patient results, SMG Patient Results, etc., so too do I look at Armani patient results.

And when I am concerned, or have questions, I pose them directly at Shane or Pats205 (Eric), their paid consultants. I'm not trying to dig up dirt, I'm asking honest questions.

As an example:

A 22 year old leaves Armani's office with a visible 'gap' in his forehead between his transplanted hair and his native hair. Dr. McMillian - an Armani doctor - left a gap. I asked how a doctor could have let a patient leave with a gap that anyone in the online community could clearly see. I asked if McMillian is still practicing or if they have other photos of his work. My questions went unanswered.

Eric posted in response to another poster that the average patient has 10,000 grafts. I asked to see some photos. Who wouldn't love to see some results (pre, during, post). Instead, I get posts of patients who got 2500 grafts and another who got 5,000 grafts, but all I see are the 'post' photos. I ask again for pre photos and photos of 10,000 grafts. Again, I get no response.

I have been visiting the other forum as well as this one, so if Armani is concerned about this site, he may as well sue the other one as there is even a topic entitled "The FUE Results aren't up to par", etc.

Thanks again Pat!

Pat-
I think you know how I feel about this nonsense.
But hell, you know what they say; "Give 'em enough rope...."
I fully support the PATIENT FOCUSED website/forum which you started that has had, from day one, THE PATIENT'S BEST INTEREST as it's central goal. THE FREE EXPRESSION OF IDEAS AND OPINIONS IS WHAT HAS BROUGHT TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY TO A SURGICAL PROCEDURE THAT, FOR A LONG TIME, HAD A BAD RAP BECAUSE OF THE RESULTS OF A FEW WHO WERE ABLE TO "CUT AND GO". Well, NO MORE.
KUDOS TO YOU PAT, WE ARE BEHIND YOU 100%!!! (Gee, I haven't used the "all caps" feature in a long time.....there, that feels better...)

I think Dr. Armani has recognized that FUE is a potential goldmine. Now a doctor does not need to surgically remove the strip and a large staff of techs and microscopes are not needed to dissect the tissue.

With the armani FUE, technicians use the special drill tool to remove individual grafts and then implant them in the recipient. The only thing the doctor needs to do is create recipient sites, but I bet techs will be doing that eventually.

This is going to be tricky because Armani does offer free touch ups for grafts that dont grow, and not all of the patients have bad results. It will be difficult to quantify negative value and unethical behavior.

When you are critical of a doctor, in a non slanderous, performance related way pertaining to your own personal experience, and are banned from speaking out against said doctor then the forum loses all legitimacy.

As far as Armani is concerned, it dont matter if his work is great or not if it is performed in an irresponsible fashion and raises questions about his ethics. Trust, responsible judgement and common sense are as valuable as ones skill in placing grafts.

Apparently he thinks its better to silence or sue ones critics than face their accusations? That should tell you all you need to know about Armani, it does me. What a quack

It looks like free speech ("free" unless you count legal bills :-) is alive and well on this community.

Obviously the well informed and caring members of this community are not afraid to speak their minds and call a spade a spade. I trust that the truth will win out and become known in court and in the court of public opinion. Kudos to all of you. It's your voices that keep everyone, including me, accountable.

Dr. Carmen, we need more physicians like you in the hair transplant profession who are as passionate about ethics as great patient results.

I feel empowered in knowing that I will face this lawsuit not alone but with the backing of a true community made up of caring patients and committed and ethical physicians.

We may not have the biggest law firm in the world, but I think we have the first amendment and the truth on our side.

Onwards and Upwards, Pat

I agree, kudos to Dr. Carmen for weighing in on a thread pertaining to a colleague's ethics. Too many physicians, even ones doing great work, pussyfoot around calling out members of the profession for their bullsh*t. I wish more of the good ones would name names, but given Armani's lawsuit, it's easy to understand why they don't.

Must of hit a raw nerve to get him all riled up like that eh?
KICK ASS Pat.

In the coming weeks and months, I will be gathering and presenting information to defend and substaniate the opinions I have expressed about Dr. Armani.

One of my primary and long time concerns about Dr. Armani has been his willingness to pander to young patient's by creating juvinal hairlines by dense packing their hairlines.

As most of you already know, many ethical surgeons and educated patients have long shared my concern that when these young patients get older and their hair loss progresses their depleted and limited supply of bald resistent hair follicles will be insufficient to restore the bald area behind their dense packed juvinille hairline.

Thus this young patient may some day be a middle aged man with a thick teenage hairline and a large bald area behind it. Since such a pattern of hair loss is not natural the patient would look ridiculous. That is why ethical physicians in my opinion create hair restoration plans that will serve the patient now and in the future, rather than pandering to their immediate desire.

In my opinion, Dr. Armani's promotion of his services is deceptive and inaccurate. The below Advertisement for Dr. Armani uses a patient of Dr. Armani's who had a conventional strip excision procedure to promote his FUE procedure.

In addition he markets his Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) surgical procedure as being "non-surgical".

I will be checking with the medical board in California, where Dr. Armani performs his "non-surgical" surgery in Beverly Hills, to find out what the laws are regarding who can legally cut into the scalp to perform the follicle extractions. If it must be performed by a licensed physician, then I will look forward to having my attorney ask Dr. Armani under oath during future depositions about just who has been doing the follicle extractions in his Beverly Hills office.

If any one would like to provide more information about these or other concerns please feel free to post them here or email me privately.



Dr._Armani_Ad.png (296 Kb, 4921 downloads) Dr. Armani Ad

It is obviously a mistake to sue a forum or it's posters for making reasonable statements that they believe are colarably true. The better, easier, and far cheaper thing to do is to simply refute the statement with facts. It's also a great way to get free publicity. A win win situation.

Your EXACTLY right Dr Feller.
They havent been able to refute anything because they have nothing to go on but a couple of decent fue results that were very low norwood guys with up to 6500 grafts in the in the front. 6500 grafts in the front UNBELIEVABLE!!!
A now banned poster from hlp over a year ago tried telling everyone to just wait 6 months to see some results because a bunch of kids were loving the idea of a thick hairline and no scar, but there was only a pic or two floating around.
Armani camp also kept saying just wait . Well the word WAIT still pops up on every Armani thread.
The new thing with them is the 6-7 month period has now become the 3 month time frame to possibly see growth begin.

What Im curious is why is Armani not trying to sue Farrell and hlp . Its that site that has hundreds of negative Armani posts by a host of posters. Makes me think they have a something going on behind closed doors. The only time Armani gets mentioned here is when someone asks a question.

This is just another guy not happy . He had 6500 grafts in the front . Talk about a doc not giving a damn about the patients future.

sux2bme has a voice louder then anyone on here and he should be proud

http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=79509

Physicians should focus on patient care and results.

Over the years many doctors, patients and potential patients have expressed concerns about Dr. Armani's ethics, advertising and the end results of his FUE procedure in particular (on and offline). These concerns have not only been expressed on this forum community but on numerous other hair loss forums. I have included a sampling of just some examples of the many threads/topics where these concerns have been discussed.

Clearly, I'm not alone in having reservations in regards to Dr. Armani. I invite those who want to learn more about these concerns to follow the below links and then reach their own conclusions. To research topics referencing Dr. Armani on this forum, click on the "Find" button and enter "Armani".

------------------------------
1. Issue - Densely packed megasessions in the hairline of an extremely young patient. What about the risk of future hair loss and a finite donor supply?

http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?cati...68&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=
http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?cati...18&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=
http://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/viewtopic.php?f=13...rmani+ethics#p426769
http://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/viewtopic.php?f=13...rmani+ethics#p433416
http://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/viewtopic.php?f=13...rmani+ethics#p416686

2. Based on the evidence to date on various forums, there appears to be a lack of compelling evidence that Dr. Armani's relatively new FUE mega session procedure is living up to its promises.

Im NOT satisfied with my FUE-result with Alvi Armani!

The FUE results aren't up to par

Other similar topics:

http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?cati...DBTABLE=&STARTPAGE=4
http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?cati...DBTABLE=&STARTPAGE=1
http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?cati...695&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE
http://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/viewtopic.php?f=13...ilit=+armani#p438316


3. Issue - Dr. Armani has claimed that the average patient has 15,000 follicular unit grafts available for hair transplant surgery. Yet, nobody seems to have seen any patients with this number of donor grafts removed from the donor area. Dr. Armani's claim has been controversial -

http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?cati...DBTABLE=&STARTPAGE=4
http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?cati...95&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=
http://www.hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?cati...DBTABLE=&STARTPAGE=1
http://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/viewtopic.php?f=13...rmani+ethics#p394171