Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP)

Our Approach

Hair restoration is like jig-saw puzzle. There are many potential treatment options that fit together to create the best possible treatment plan. PRP is one element of hair restoration treatment that focuses on using your own growth factors to stabilize and grow your hair.  PRP is a treatment that helps some, but not all patients. Your physician will discuss whether PRP is a fit for you during your consult.

What is PRP for hair loss?

Platelets circulate in your blood and contain powerful growth-factors. We concentrate these growth factors and micro-inject them into hair follicles to stimulate growth.

Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) injections involves our drawing a small amount of blood from the patient and then centrifuging it with specific medicines to concentrate the powerful growth factors and anti-inflammatory components of the blood. This “PRP” is then gently and painlessly injected into the hair loss area of the scalp. This process takes 30 minutes and demands no recovery time. With several PRP treatments and the continued application of our topical treatments, most of our patients notice their hair loss stops. Additionally, over 80% of our treated patient’s hair has grown thicker and denser.

It is this “lunchtime” treatment approach that has the most potential to help women patients with hair loss. However, it is also important to know that treating female hair loss is challenging and frustrating. At times, the responses to treatment can be less than hoped for and some patients grow disappointed with their outcomes. However, all patients coming through our center feel comforted they have done everything possible to improve the health and thickness of their hair. Additionally, many women with hair loss are candidates for hair transplantation, but this does not fall into the “lunchtime” treatment category.

PRP Patient Testimonial

Risks of ACell

ACell is a wound healing substance that may be added to PRP with a goal to improve efficacy. ACell is an ECM (Extra-Cellular Matrix). Without literature confirming its efficacy, the practice of adding Acell to PRP is consider experimental. It should be noted that there are reports of severe shedding when Acell is injected to the scalp, and this may be because the body recognizes the pig-proteins that makeup the Acell as foreign bodies. As such, we do not currently add Acell to PRP at this time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Relative Articles and Videos

Read more about thinning hair treatments in this New York Times Article click here.

To watch the journey of one of Dr. Paul’s patients who received PRP over 6 months – click here (video length 35 seconds).  For this patient, 3 treatments of PRP were given at time 0, 2 months, and 4 months.  Her results at the start, at 2 months, at 4 months, and at 6 months are shown below.

PRP – Platelet Rich Plasma to Improve Hair Loss Video

If you wish to know more about Hair Restoration, please schedule a consultation.

The following female had 3 PRP

The patient had hair loss for over a year following chemotherapy without improvement with minoxidil for many months prior to the initiation of PRP. Interestingly, the patient dyes her hair darker during treatment. Darker hair reveals the scalp and can make hair loss appear more severe; however, this patient shows improvement despite a darker shade of hair.

The following patient is a male who tried topical rogaine for months with little success

The patient noticed shedding and miniturization of the hair follicles. The following photos show the patient before PRP and two months after his first treatment.   The patient noticed his hair diameter increased, his shedding decreased, and he even noticed new hair growth