Hair is so important to people. It seems to be an extension of our identity or personality. It can be changed and styled to fit how we are feeling, or how we want to feel. And it can honestly be alarming if we notice it’s thinning or falling out. Injectable Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) can be used for hair restoration, whether you have small areas that need a boost, or you’re having overall hair loss.
How Does It Work?
The platelets in your blood contain healing growth factors. Those growth factors essentially give instructions to your tissue to regenerate and multiply. This has lead different fields of medicine to use PRP for wound healing, to speed up recovery time, and regrow healthier, stronger tissue.
More recently, new benefits for hair thickening and regrowth have been discovered. With PRP for hair, your growth factors and stem cells work together to reverse the miniaturization of the hair follicle, and jump start dormant hair back into the growth stage (continued PRP injections keep the hair in a sustained growth phase).
PRP is not a cure for baldness. However, regular treatments can significantly slow down the effects of baldness while also increasing hair density.
Benefits:
Increases blood supply to the follicle
Increases hair shaft size (thickness)
Triggers and maintains the growth phase
Controls hair growth cycle
Decreases hair loss
How many treatments are needed?
The initial treatment is three sessions, one month apart. Then approximately two maintenance sessions per year are needed to maintain your results
What to expect during treatment: Your blood is drawn and spun down in a centrifuge. The PRP is taken from that and is injected into your scalp near the regions of hair loss. There must be follicles present or it will not work. This means ideal candidates are those who have started noticing hair loss within the last 1-6 years. Treatments are scheduled one month apart. One month after your third treatment you will come back in to evaluate your progress and determine the timing of your maintenance sessions. Before and after pictures will be taken at each appointment so you can see progress.
What you can expect along the way:
One month after the first injections, you should notice no more hair shedding.
Two months after the first treatment, small new growth should be noticed.
Three months after the first treatment, new growth and better hair density should be noticed.
As mentioned before, 2-3 maintenance sessions per year should follow the primary treatment. Why would you need continued treatment? PRP works by stimulating the hair follicle and keeping it in a continued growth cycle. Without the PRP, the follicles will go dormant again.
Complementary treatments can help as well, such as topical hair loss treatments, biotin supplements, and saw palmetto supplements.