PRP Hair Restoration

PRP therapy for hair restoration is a treatment that involves withdrawing a patient’s own blood, processing it so that only the enriched cells (platelet-rich plasma) remain, and injecting it into the scalp. PRP contains essential proteins that stimulate natural hair growth. Thinning hair scares anyone. New advances in the use of platelet rich plasma (PRP) to help reverse hair loss gives almost anyone the opportunity to turn things around. In this medical treatment of hair loss, PRP is used to stimulate the hair follicles, reversing the hair miniaturization seen in common hair thinning.

What is PRP or a Platelet?

PRP stands for Platelet Rich Plasma. It uses your own cells to stimulate hair growth and for many patients, it is remarkably effective. So what’s a platelet? Platelets are the smallest of our blood cells. Under a microscope, they are colorless and shaped like little plates – thus the name. When we get an injury, a cut, for example, platelets help heal us. They bind together over the wound to form a scab. The platelets do this by secreting three different proteins that act as a kind of glue to bind cells together.

The scab is a lot more than a just a seal for the wound that protects us from infection. It’s actually a cellular framework our body uses like a kind of scaffold for growing new healthy tissue to repair the damage.

How does PRP Hair Restoration work?

PRP restoration treatment involves withdrawing a small amount of your blood, then spinning it in a centrifuge to separate it into layers. The largest layer will be plasma. Plasma is a protein-salt solution that makes up about 54% of our blood volume. It’s the medium that our red cells, white cells, and a number of other types of cells float around in. It also provides the nutrients that our cells need to function. The bottom layer will be comprised of red blood cells. Red cells are the most numerous of our blood cells and will make up another 45%. For those of you doing the math, that leaves 1% left for platelets and white blood cells.

This thin layer is then separated from the other layers and loaded into syringes. The solution consists of a high concentration of your own platelets in a small amount of plasma. The plasma is necessary to act as a carrier for the platelets. This resulting injectable solution is exactly what it’s called: Platelet Rich Plasma, or PRP.

So how does any of this help those of us with thinning hair to stimulate new hair growth?

Platelets do a lot more than just bind together to seal a wound. They contain over 30 proteins that our body uses to heal, and seven protein growth factors that accelerate healing. To discuss the actual process by which PRP facilitates healing and growth would require a book. All we really need to know to answer the question of how PRP treats alopecia is that it amplifies our body’s natural healing processes many times over. Among other things, platelets reduce inflammation, enhance cell growth and activate the healing of both soft tissues and bone.

In addition, while it has not been conclusively proven, some studies show that PRP treatments stimulate stem cells to create new follicles!

Thicker, Healthier Hair for Less Money

Dealing with hair loss can be frustrating and can also severely impact your financial budget. Although hair transplants can be an effective (although invasive) treatment, they cost on average $10,000 and usually require a second surgery. Oral and topical drugs, which are far less effective, become a recurring, monthly expense and hassle.

PRP Hair Restoration at Essential Beauty Med Spa

We’re proud to have effectively helped many of our patients, both men and women, regrow hair lost due to alopecia. While results cannot be guaranteed, most patients experience some regrowth and in some cases the results are dramatic.

A single treatment usually takes less than an hour. We use a local anesthetic and most patients report minimal discomfort from the injections. You may experience minor swelling and tenderness for three to five days following treatment.

Most patients will respond well to only two or three treatments received four weeks apart. You’ll need maintenance treatments every one to two years thereafter to maintain the results.

While new hairs usually begin to grow around two weeks after the first treatment it will, of course, take some time for these hairs to grow long enough to thicken your hair. In addition to new hair, individual hairs will thicken and growth overall may accelerate in some cases. Most patients can see a noticeable difference in hair thickness three to six months after the initial treatment.

Please contact us for a free consultation or to answer any questions you may have. We look forward to creating a treatment plan tailored to suit your goals.