How effective is PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma) for Hair Loss?
Platelet-rich plasma is very straightforward and easy. The doctor draws your blood. Spin it down and then they extract the platelets in a plasma base. All the growth factors are there and all the bad stuff the pro-inflammatory stuff is taken out. The doctor leaves the PRP or platelet-rich plasma there. In this article, Dr. Shankar Sawant one of the best hair transplant surgeon practicing in Mumbai will tell us about how PRP works and how effective it is to treat hair loss.
Platelet-rich plasma is an intriguing direction that medicine has got in the last five or six years. The doctors harness your skin cells, your growth factors so that you can get the best result. Mumbai has emerged out as a hub of fertility treatments with its cutting-edge medical technologies. So, it has a large number of able doctors and clinics to get your treatment done. To know more details about the doctors that perform the PRP procedure in Mumbai, Click Here.
Dr. Shankar Sawant also mentions that platelet-rich plasma is your body’s own form of regenerative medicine. Plasma is the clear stuff that comes to the surface when you skin your knee clear. That is where your platelets are, your growth factors, your healing mechanism. That is what healed your skin.
When the doctor injects it into the scalp it boosts the hair follicles to stimulate new growth. It is your own body’s healing mechanisms, your stem cells. It has shown dramatic results in hair loss for men and women of almost all ages.
It is a very straightforward procedure. The doctor draws your blood and in a special centrifuge they separate the red cells, pro-inflammatory white cells, and you are left with this beautiful golden layer of platelet-rich plasma and concentrated platelets.
In less than 10 minutes, the doctor injects your scalp with your body’s platelet-rich plasma. The doctor does three of these sessions month apart. Then after three months the doctor reviews your progress and decides how often to continue this maintenance.
It is natural and easy and there is no medicine that you have to take at home to maintain these results. It is your stem cells and it is your hair that grows again.
There are numerous studies that validate platelet-rich plasma for androgenic alopecia in both men and women. One of the nice things about being treated by a board-certified dermatologist is that they are trained in treating all the different kinds of hair loss.
Hair loss is a medical condition that needs to be addressed from a medical side. A dermatologist assesses your hair loss as a biopsy indicated to find out what is going on with your hair loss and is platelet-rich plasma right for you.
FAQ about Platelet Rich Plasma therapy:
Dr. Shankar Sawant mentioned that these are the most common questions that he gets from his patients before and while undergoing the PRP treatment.
What is PRP?
PRP is nothing but platelet-rich plasma. Plasma is the component of your blood which consists of the growth factors and certain proteins that help your body to heal naturally. It is not directly competing with other hair restoration procedures like hair transplant or other hair therapies like minoxidil or finasteride.
Similar to other PRP procedures, small injections of your concentrated plasma gets injected into your scalp around the areas where you are experiencing thinning or hair shedding.
Who are the right candidates for PRP therapy?
It is not going to work out for people who are completely bald or who have kind of gone through a very aggressive form of androgenetic alopecia.
It is going to work for people who are suffering from hair shedding or hair thinning and they have just started losing their hair. So PRP is going to help out those people who are not in the aggressive stage of androgenetic alopecia. You can also get prescribed for the first line of medications like minoxidil and finasteride.
If you go for a hair transplant, PRP would be advised by a hair restoration doctor and it will improvise the hair density and speed up the growth of your hair follicles.
What things you should know before PRP?
First, you should look around for a good hair restoration specialist who has experience or who is board-certified especially for hair restoration procedures like hair transplant or PRP therapy. Make sure to eat healthily as it will make your blood healthier and your concentrated plasma will have a high number of rich growth factors. It is advised to stop consuming alcohol or smoke cigarettes for at least a week before your PRP procedure.
Explain the PRP experience
The doctor advises not to eat spicy or junk food a day before the PRP procedure. During the procedure, they take two vials of blood and spin it to separate the plasma. Then local anesthesia is injected around the perimeter of the head. After that, almost 30 to 40 small injections are injected all across the scalp. Then you are given a massage for almost five minutes with the derma roller.
What are the results?
The day after PRP, the scalp is a little bit sore and tender to touch at and it is advised not to use shampoo for almost 24 hours. Within a few days, you see less hair loss and the hair density improves quite a bit in a month. According to the doctor, it will improve much more after the three-month mark.
