PRP (Platelet-rich plasma) is a treatment that doctors/professionals use to accelerate healing in various areas of the body. It also helps restore hair growth.

Losing hairs is a traumatic experience. The causes are multiple, from genetics to stress, and these days, even due to some cases of COVID.

There are many different treatments to counteracting hair loss, including specially formulated hair serums and topicals (like Rogaine), ingesting multivitamins and supplements (especially those that include biotin/vitamin B7), or, if possible, changing your diet and/or lifestyle to reduce stress. However, none of these options guarantee to prevent hair loss or initiate hair regrowth. What works for one person may not yield the same results for others.

One of these treatments is platelet-rich plasma (PRP) for hair regrowth. PRP involves drawing a substance from your blood and injecting it into your scalp, purportedly aiding in the healing of bodily tissues, including the follicles responsible for hair growth.

What is PRP?

PRP stands for platelet-rich plasma. Plasma and red blood cells primarily constitute blood. A medical professional takes a small tube of the patient’s blood and places it in a centrifuge machine to separate the two. Healthcare professionals commonly refer to the shaken plasma, with its high concentration of growth factors aiding tissue healing and hair growth stimulation, as “liquid gold” before injecting it back into the patient.

Doctors can inject PRP into joints to reduce inflammation, making it a treatment option for osteoarthritis. Other examples include treatment for skin rejuvenation, tendonitis, musculoskeletal injuries, and to decrease downtime with post-surgical healing.

A centrifuge-like mechanism separates PRP from your blood, increasing the concentration of specific healing proteins. And increasingly, it is becoming a popular method for reigniting hair growth and staving off hair loss.

How does PRP therapy work for Hair Restoration?

Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) is like fertilizer for your hair.  When used in the scalp for hair restoration, the PRP stimulates natural hair growth by increasing blood supply to the hair follicle and increasing the thickness of the hair shaft.

PRP therapy is an out-patient procedure, which means there is no surgery involved and downtime is minimal. The innovative treatment produces results are reliable and natural in the least invasive way. The procedure can yield excellent results as a standalone treatment, but doctors may also recommend it in combination with other hair loss techniques. It is important that patients understand that results can be slow and gradual. Generally, results will begin to transpire after the first two or three months, and will be most noticeable around the six-month mark.

Doctors inject plasma into the scalp where hair loss has occurred. They typically administer injections monthly for three months, then spread them out over about three or four months for up to two years. The injection schedule will depend on your genetics, pattern and amount of hair loss, age and hormones.

PRP therapy is a three-step process. Most PRP therapy requires at lease three treatments 4–6 weeks apart. Patients need maintenance treatments every 4–6 months.

PRP for hair loss – Step 1

Your blood is drawn — typically from your arm — and put into a centrifuge (a machine that spins rapidly to separate fluids of different densities).

PRP for hair loss – Step 2

After about 10 minutes in the centrifuge, your blood will have separated into in three layers:

• platelet-poor plasma
• platelet-rich plasma
• red blood cells

PRP for hair loss – Step 3

The medical professional draws the platelet-rich plasma into a syringe and then injects it. This action helps repair blood vessels, promotes cell growth and wound healing, and stimulates collagen production.

Doctors began using PRP in dermatology after researchers found that high concentrations of platelets in plasma cells help promote hair growth by prolonging the growing phase of the hair cycle.

Research also suggests that PRP injections can help treat androgenic alopecia (male pattern baldness).

Here’s an overview of some promising results from research on PRP and hair loss:

• A 2014 study of 11 people with androgenic alopecia found that injecting 2 to 3 cubic centimeters of PRP into the scalp every 2 weeks for 3 months could increase the average number of follicles from 71 to 93 units. This study is too small to be conclusive, but it shows that PRP may be able to help increase the number of hair follicles that can actively support healthy hair.
• A 2015 study of 10 people receiving PRP injections every 2 to 3 weeks for 3 months showed improvements in the number of hairs, the thickness of those hairs, and the strength of the hair roots. This study helps provide extra support to the findings of other PRP and hair loss studies. But 10 people is still too small a sample size to be conclusive.
• A 2019 study compared two groups of people using different hair treatments for 6 months. One group of 20 used minoxidil (Rogaine), and the other group of 20 using PRP injections. Thirty people finished the study and results showed that PRP performed much better for hair loss than Rogaine. But the study also found that your level of platelets can affect how well your own plasma works for hair loss. A lower level of blood platelets may mean that PRP isn’t as effective for you.

Who Can Benefit from PRP for hair restoration?

PRP therapy can benefit a wider range of people than you may have initially thought. These plasma injections are platelet rich and can potentially help the following groups:

• Both men and women. Male balding and hair thinning is talked about extensively, but women do not often get the same benefit of widespread information. The fact is that women can lose hair, too, due to several different factors.
• Those suffering from androgenic alopecia or other forms of alopecia. This is also known as male/female pattern baldness. It is a hereditary condition that affects around 80 million people in the United States alone.
• A sizeable age range of people. Many successful clinical trials have been tested with people ranging from 18 to 72 years of age.
• Those suffering from hair loss due to high stress levels. Since this condition is not chronic, it can be treated rather easily.
• Those who have recently experienced hair loss. The more recent the hair loss occurred, the better your chances are of fixing it before it is too late for PRP injections.
• Those with thinning or balding hair, but not completely bald people. PRP injections are meant to thicken, strengthen, and grow hair from follicles that are still functioning, however weakly this may seem.

Benefits of PRP for hair restoration?

The brilliance of PRP for triggering new hair growth is in its simplicity. You don’t have to go through time-consuming procedures, and since the PRP is an all-natural substance that comes from your own body, there’s virtually no risk of a reaction as your hair follicles are stimulated and nurtured into vigorous new growth stages.

One of the most striking benefits of PRP is that it reverses the shrinking of hair follicles, reducing the process of miniaturization, which is how hair follicles become incapable of producing hair. Both men and women can benefit from PRP, and because the process produces gradual results, the hair growth that occurs will seem more natural and organic.