Platelet Rich Plasma, or PRP for short, is the ‘real deal’ when it comes to regenerative medicine. It can expedite hair growth as well as boost skin rejuvenation through promotion of healing. With today’s modern technology, your own blood can be spun down with the use of a centrifuge. There, the blood is separated into its growth-factor-rich plasma that can be used as an aid for your body’s own hair-growing and collagen-building processes.
Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) for the eyebrows is a great way to help stimulate hair growth in your brows! PRP can also be used for the scalp, facial hair, and virtually anywhere else you would like to stimulate hair growth.
PRP for Hair Loss:
The Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) commonly used in hair restoration is a minimally invasive treatment that has been shown to stimulate hair growth. There is a lot of talk in orthopedics, sports medicine, dentistry, neurology, ophthalmology, and cosmetic surgery about platelet rich plasma. Your platelets are small particles in the blood that when stimulated, adhere to damaged tissue (like blood clot, or traumatized tissue) and release a number of different factors, including growth factors (i.e, vascular endothelial growth factor, platelet derived growth factor, transforming growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, insulin like growth factor, epidermal growth factor, connective tissue growth factor, keratinocyte growth factor, etc). The process includes taking about two vials of whole blood, just like when you get a blood draw. That blood is spun in two stages and the platelet rich portion is purified into about 3 cc of a yellowish material.
That is then injected into the affected areas. The final results can last for 18 months. For hair growth, PRP has been shown to decrease the hair sleep time and stimulate growth (anagen). One study showed that scalps treated with PRP and then implanted with hair grafts had a higher density of hairs compared to the side of the scalp only getting the grafts without PRP pre-treatment. One study followed both men and women with male and female pattern alopecia, and showed that after three treatments of PRP (every 2 months), their hair shedding was reduced. However, more advanced hair-loss was not helped by PRP. Another study found PRP effective for alopecia areata, which is very exciting and opens new ways of treating this difficult condition. I feel this is an exciting tool we have. I feel it can help stimulate collagen in skin, especially around the eyes and lips. For hair, it gives a third option after Rogaine and Propecia.
The Benefits of PRP:
Platelet Rich Plasma is our naturopathic method of restoring health to your cells and reversing the aging process. And yes, PRP has been shown to give some amazing results! PRP that is directed towards the hair follicle growth of the scalp can show visible “baby hair” results in 6 to 8 weeks. Patients can also utilize PRP for thinning hair regions in a problem areas such as the crown at the top of the head or they can use PRP as a supplement to hair transplantation.
We can even use it to thicken eyebrows, which can show visible fullness within 2 to 3 weeks. PRP has also been provided for collagen-boosting properties with injectable filler, which not only adds volume to facial folds but also sustains new, firm collagen for skin elasticity. Even without filler, many of our patients have reported a brightening effect, especially to areas of the skin that lack even pigmentation such as the under eyes and cheeks.
Other Treatments for PRP:
It is commonly used for sports injuries, where it speeds healing of the joint or tendon injury. PRP has been used on professional sports figures with injuries; anything to get them back on the field. A number of physicians are using PRP in cosmetic surgery. The two most common uses have been for stimulating collagen in the skin and stimulating hair growth on the scalp. For wrinkle reduction, animal studies show that sun damaged skin treated with PRP had less wrinkles, thicker dermis, and greater proliferation than controls. In humans, physicians inject PRP, and look for improvement of wrinkles in about one month and it can continue to improve for up to 2 months.
