Hair Restoration PRP Therapy in Metairie
What is PRP Therapy?
PRP therapy, also known as Platelet-Rich Plasma therapy is the same treatment done on the face to help reduce lines, wrinkles and acne scars and also helps build collagen.
The procedure involves drawing out one’s own blood and centrifuging it so that the plasma with platelets collects in the tube. This plasma rich in platelets and growth factors is very useful in tissue regeneration and healing. It is then injected on the scalp or rubbed on the scalp after performing a dermaroller treatment in the areas which suffer from hair loss.
Most people know that the key factor in healing a cut on your skin is your blood platelets. Made in your bone marrow, platelets are a part of your blood. When a blood vessel is cut, platelets rush to the site of the damage and form a plug, or clot, to repair the damage. Due to these repair capabilities, platelet-rich plasma (PRP), a concentrated blood plasma that contains three to five times the normal number of platelets, has been used to facilitate wound healing, skin rejuvenation, orthopedic injury healing, sports medicine rehabilitation, and other medical treatments. We now put platelet-rich plasma to work restoring thinning hair at the Cleft & Facial Cosmetic Surgery Center. We’re excited about the results we’re achieving with this non-surgical hair restoration for our patients.
Who should opt for PRP for Hair Restoration?
People who have thinning hair, and those with androgenetic alopecia (male pattern baldness – hair loss at the top of the scalp and a receding hairline particularly along the temples), women with male pattern alopecia can all benefit from it.
What is platelet-rich plasma?
Human blood is comprised of red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and plasma. Since platelets are the body’s first responders for wound healing, it was theorized that if you could vastly increase the count of platelets and inject them at a surgery site or joint injury, they would initiate an accelerated healing process. This is how PRP therapy originated. To get PRP, blood is drawn similar to a routine blood sample taken at your doctor’s office. Then we take the blood and place it in a centrifuge, where the redand white blood cells are removed, leaving a highly concentrated platelet-rich plasma that can be injected back into the patient for wound healing, or in our case, hair restoration.
How does PRP restore hair?
The science behind why PRP regrows hair is still being researched, but it is thought that the high concentration of platelets stimulates the stem cells and other cells in the hair follicles. Platelets, as mentioned briefly above, promote healing, accelerate tissue regeneration, and initiate new cellular growth. In hair restoration, the primary goal is to stimulate inactive or resting hair follicles to move into the anagen, or active growth phase. This gets those follicles back in the business of growing hair. PRP contains more than simply platelets, too. Once the blood is run through the centrifuge, in addition to platelets, PRP contains various growth factors:
- Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) — Aids in blood vessel growth, cell replication, and skin cell growth.
- Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) — Promotes blood vessel formation
- Transforming Growth Factor Beta (TGF-b) — Promotes bone metabolism
- Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) — Triggers cell growth and differentiation, collagen formation, and blood vessel development
- Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF-2) — Fosters growth of specialized cells and blood vessels All of these growth factors, combined with the high collection of platelets, make for an intensive healing serum.
How we perform PRP therapy hair restoration
After we take your blood sample, we spin it in our centrifuge to separate off the white and red blood cells and concentrate the platelets. This is done in a closed sterile system. The resulting PRP has three to five times the normal amount of platelets as would be found in simple blood. Next we apply local anesthetic to the treatment areas to block the nerves of the scalp. Dr. James then injects the PRP into the scalp in multiple injections with a special micro needle. The target depth is the base of the inactive hair follicles. The PRP can also be rubbed on the scalp after the target area is treated with a dermaroller. A treatment session takes from 45 minutes to one hour.
Would PRP therapy hair restoration work for me?
Generally, we’ve found that two types of hair loss patients are right for PRP therapy. The first of these are patients with thinning, weak quality hair growth. These patients still have functioning hair follicles, but the hair quality is not good. The second group of patients consists of those with small areas of alopecia areata, hair loss due to a person’s immune system attacking the hair follicles. How often would I need PRP treatment? Because this area of hair restoration is new, there is little research yet completed. That makes it hard to know a benchmark for treatment frequency. Dr. James uses the Hair Mass Index (HMI) to make judgments on hair growth. The HMI is a numerical representation of the cross sectional area of a bundle of hair that grows from a 2 cm x 2 cm area of scalp. This measures both the number of hair fibers along with the thickness of the individual hairs. When the HMI starts to decline, we look to schedule the next PRP session.
Is this a costly option for hair restoration?
Because PRP therapy hair restoration is new, it’s up to patients to decide if it works for them. Right now we are averaging around $900/PRP session. If your Hair Mass Index shows improvements in addition to your visual feedback, you may want to think about twice-yearly PRP sessions to keep your hair growing and maintaining. Again, this is entirely on a patient-by-patient basis. In no way should you consider PRP to be a “ cure” for hair loss. Plus, every individual can respond to this treatment differently. But because it uses your own blood as the basis for the PRP, there aren’t any problems with adverse reactions. Still, if you’re losing your hair, or if you notice your hair is not as thick as it oncewas, PRP therapy hair restoration could be a good treatment to try.