It’s 2022. Do something NEW for yourself. Try a new restaurant. Try to learn a new language. Go to the gym? OK, here’s an idea. If you are suffering from thinning hair, as so many people do, try a NEW therapy – PRP for hair loss. PRP uses your own blood cells to reactive your hair cells. It’s relatively new, and worth exploring.
PRP stands for Platelet-Rich Plasma, and it is concentrated blood plasma that contains between three and five times as many platelets as are in the normal blood in your body. Platelets are the part of the blood which commence the process of wound healing when you cut yourself, for example. In fact, PRP is created out of your own blood. A sample is taken and then spun in a centrifuge, and this has the effect of separating out the solid parts of the blood from the liquid. The solid parts contain the platelets.
PRP Itself Is Not New
PRP itself is not new, having been discovered in the 1970’s. It has been used for the treatment of osteoarthritis, to accelerate the healing of tendon injuries, and in jaw surgery. However, it is only recently that we have discovered that it can also be used for speeding up the growth of hairs. It seems to promote miniaturized hairs to grow into thicker terminal hairs. For this reason, it seems to work best on people who have thinning hair rather than on people who have completely bald areas.
PRP for hair loss is certainly an exciting development, although there have been only a few scientific studies to demonstrate how effective it is. We do not yet know the long-term benefits of PRP for hair loss, but it is certainly getting results in patients who have received the treatment at Silicon Valley Hair Institute. We are following each patient closely and monitoring them in order to ascertain just how effective it is.
Certainly, you cannot get this treatment in many other places in the Bay Area to our knowledge. We take the PRP from the centrifuge and then it is injected into the scalp in the thinning areas. The whole procedure only takes about an hour. After the initial session we undertake two further treatments at four-week intervals. Then depending upon your individual response, we carry out further treatments at three-month intervals. Patients are monitored photographically in order to gauge the response, and we will base your ongoing treatment schedule as appropriate.
If PRP for hair loss is something that you feel may benefit you, please make an appointment to see our Dr Miguel Canales. He will assess the condition of your hair and if appropriate can undertake the first therapy at the time of your consultation.